Book Review: GIVE ME YOUR HAND by Megan Abbott

GIVE ME YOUR HAND by Megan Abbott  (Little, Brown and Company, July 2018)  Hardcover, 343 pages.  ISBN #0316547182

 

Summary from the Goodreads website . . . . .

 

A life-changing secret destroys an unlikely friendship in this "magnetic" psychological thriller from the Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me (Meg Wolitzer).

 

Kit Owens harbored only modest ambitions for herself when the mysterious Diane Fleming appeared in her high school chemistry class. But Diane's academic brilliance lit a fire in Kit, and the two developed an unlikely friendship. Until Diane shared a secret that changed everything between them. 

 

More than a decade later, Kit thinks she's put Diane behind her forever and she's begun to fulfill the scientific dreams Diane awakened in her. But the past comes roaring back when she discovers that Diane is her competition for a position both women covet, taking part in groundbreaking new research led by their idol. Soon enough, the two former friends find themselves locked in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse that threatens to destroy them both.

 

Named one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2018 by Cosmopolitan, Book Riot, and Entertainment Weekly.

 

 My review from the Goodreads website . . . . .

 

     Everything I’ve read by Megan Abbott leaves me with an uneasy feeling after I finish it -- this book is no exception. Rather than returning to the teenage angst of You Will Know My Name and The Fever, the central characters in this novel are adults (although they are teenagers in the flashback sequences, where the troubles begin). Abbott always goes deep into the psyches of her characters, to the point that readers may feel extreme empathy for them. 

 

     Like You Will Know My Name, this one deals with career ambitions/obsessions and the limits to which individuals may reach to obtain them. I left this with the creepy feeling that main character Kit was as flawed as Diane (her counterpart in ambition) but I'll never know for sure since Kit is the narrator of the story (and not likely to make such a confession). 

 

     The story also delves into the wielding (and sometimes abuse) of power by driven individuals in the workforce (experimental biochemistry), manipulation, trust, and guilt. Recommended.