Megan Abbott stories are always quite a ride. You think you know how you're supposed to feel, what you're supposed to think. Just when you think you have it all figured out, though, she flips the script.
Kit and Diane bring out the best, and worst, in each other. Unlikely friends since high school, they went their separate ways. But fate throws them back together. Kit knows something about Diane, and that something haunts her every thought. Diane is mysterious and smart, cunning and deceptive. And Kit can't seem to get away from her. This time around the stakes are much higher.
This story has it all. Murder, deceit, coverups, secrets, you name it. A bit rushed at the end to tie up loose ends, but still very good.

This book definitely required a bit of suspension of disbelief, but I did enjoy it a lot. Great character development, identifiable flawed characters, especially the narrator. If you've liked Abbot's other books, you'll enjoy this one too.

I’ve seen Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott on so many of my friends Goodreads lists. This tells me that people are hungry for tightly written thrillers with the ability to make you lose a sense of time. Sometimes I wish I could take a sick day and just clock out for the day and lie around, reading and drinking coffee while lounging on the couch with my dogs. Reading all day? That is a fantasy!

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.

Megan Abbott is one of the authors whose books all book lovers anxiously await! As I’ve mentioned before, there are some writers who turn out amazing books almost every year and she is definitely one of them!

I love a good Megan Abbott thriller and hate that I read this in February instead of during the summer on a beach.
Diane and Kit meet in high school where they both compete in track. They quickly begin competing academically as they race to finish high school and win a prestigious scholarship to the state university. The story is told in alternating fashion - now vs. then. We see that they are brought back together in adulthood, but now competing for a grant in a lab where they both work. Lots of bad things happen that are reminiscent of high school.
This is creepy, in a Single White Female kind of way and for some reason, I kept imaging Diane as looking like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.
Megan Abbott never disappoints and this was a fun read that I finished in a day. Thank you to NetGalley for the Advanced Copy!

Give Me Your Hand was my first Megan Abbott book. I didn’t expect to like Give Me Your Hand as much as I did. I enjoyed the way the story was told – jumping between past and present. Abbott did an amazing job of bringing everything full circle in the last few pages leaving you satisfied.

Pleasantly surprised by Megan Abbott and plan on picking up some of her others soon (and you should, too!)

I’m always excited to read a new Megan Abbott book.....I’ve read them all!!!
This one did not disappoint!
This was a great story, great ending!!!
No surprise it’s on the best of 2018!!!!
Can’t wait for her next book!!!

Inspired by actual events, Megan Abbott's "Give Me Your Hand" is an entertaining and solidly-crafted thriller about friendship, professional ambition, and the cost of keeping a deadly secret.

Kit, a research scientist, worked her way from humble beginnings into a prestigious laboratory appoinment. New team member Diane is not only professional competition, but Kit's former high school lab partner and one-time close friend. Years ago, Diane shared a shocking secret that continues to haunt Kit. In the wake of Diane's reappearance, Kit is faced with new and dangerous consequences.

Nicely paced and engrossing, "Give Me Your Hand" is an enjoyable summer read worth sharing with a friend.

Thank you goes to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book before it releases in July. Megan Abbott is one of my favorite authors.

Kit Owens and Diane Fleming met in high school and ended up pursuing the same career track. Once Diane revealed her biggest secret Kit dropped the friendship. Fast forward to the peak of their career when they wind up working for the same scientist and trying out for the same key position.

I liked the unique setting of the laboratory and that females were the minority, yet the smartest of their colleagues. This captivating psychological thriller turned out to be a little dark for me, hence 4 stars. It really is 4.5 stars though. I almost guarantee you won’t predict any of the twists or turns the plot takes. Definitely put this on your to-read list. It’s a winner.

An in-your-head thriller, never knowing who to trust, especially the narrator. Well written and fast paced with just the right balance between flashbacks and the ongoing action.

The Dark Red Heart of a Killer

Abbott’s latest dark thriller is about two young brilliant female scientists vying for a spot on a prestigious PMDD study.

Kit and Diane are inexplicably bound by a secret that Diane shares with Kit while both girls are still in high school. It’s a secret that threatens both of them and one that follows each girl as they make their way through school and college into the University funded labs in which they choose to work.

Diane and Kit are reunited after their schooling when they both go to work for a regaled female scientist. The connections between certain characters extend back through time and serve to heighten the suspense as we are steered toward an inevitable end.

Abbott probes the underbelly of complex female emotions, the acts that follow them and the misunderstandings of the female-male relationships.

BRB Rating: Read It

I wanted to like this book, I really did. I normally like everything Abbott writes. But this...this was a train wreck to me. I didn't like ANY of the characters. I found myself speed reading so I could get to the end. This just didn't do it for me at all. I wish it had.

If you like a book about deep dark secrets than this is the book for you. For me this book had a very slow start. There were times that I was thinking about bailing on it but I wanted to know what the secret was. When I found out what the secret was I wanted to keep reading and see if there were anymore secrets between the two main characters. In the end I felt like something was missing.
Thank you Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company a chance to review this book!

As teens, Kit and Diane were bonded by ambition; working hard to attain a scholarship offered by a renowned scientist. Just as they’re about to reach the pinnacle of academic success, Diane spills a secret that tears Kit’s life apart.

Years pass and Kit has worked hard to put the past behind her and create the life she’s always dreamed of. But all that changes when Diane weaves herself into Kit’s life once more. Knowing their past, can Kit and Diane co-exist or is the damage of the past truly irreparable?

It’s no secret around these parts that I’m a big fan of Mighty Megan. She truly has some of the more memorable and beautifully tragic prose around – some of the best I’ve read since Chandler, which makes each new release a cause for celebration. Taking nothing away from her prior novels, I think Give Me Your Hand is her best work to date.

What I value the most as a reader above all else is pacing. With Give Me Your Hand, Megan makes it clear from the outset that she’s going to make you wait. By jumping backward and forward in time through alternating chapters, Megan is able to develop her characters both before and after the secret is revealed, which heightened the anticipation. This drove me crazy (in a good way)!. I had a very hard time putting it down through its brisk three hundred and fifty pages.

Megan has shown in the past through her novels Dare Me, You Will Know Me, The End of Everything and The Fever, that she excels by taking the captivating elements of noir and injecting them into an unfamiliar setting – adolescent girls in suburbia. Give Me Your Hand is no exception. While she still lingers around the halls of a high school in the earlier years of Kit & Diane’s friendship, she then shifts the setting to a research lab in the present day giving her ample room to expand Kit & Diane’s world as well as showcasing a unique backdrop for a white-knuckle thriller.

Give Me Your Hand is an absolutely enthralling read that gripped me from beginning to end. If I read a more riveting novel in 2018, I would be shocked. It’s that good.

Kit and Diane are in high school and become fast friends. Because of Diane, Kit's ambitions become higher and higher. Diane shares a secret with her and it changes EVERYTHING. GASP

Fast forward 10+ years, and Kit is working on those higher ambitions. Diane comes along and becomes her competition for a prestigious research position. Will this destroy them both?

One of my annoyances as a reader is when a book is based on one thing. Seriously, every part in this book was Kit thinking about or telling someone that she knew Diane had a DEEP, DARK SECRET in her past. It became a distraction and took away from the rest of the story. I thought the research part was cool, but the author and Kit are so focused on when the secret is going to come out. I wish I would have liked it more because so many great elements were there, but again, DEEP, DARK SECRET.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of Give Me Your Hand in exchange for an honest review. It was the first Megan Abbott book I have read and though YA is not my first choice for reading enjoyment, it is probably best for the level for most of my students.

Kit and Diane meet at camp, are sort of sports rivals, but in a way that makes both of them better than they would be alone. They share an intense interest in science, too, unusual for books about high school level girls/young women. The secrets they share stay with them throughout the book.

This science interest becomes a rivalry as both compete to work with the same mentor, while the secrets eat away at them both in different ways. I liked reading about science as a different background to a story line and was glad to learn about PMDD, something new to me.

Megan Abbott, without fail, writes words that keep readers on the edge of their chair while reading. She is a master at psychological suspense, and just keeps getting better and better. And once again, she proves that secrets are dangerous.

Diane and Kit are bound together beginning in high school - each with a secret - one horrifying and the other detrimental to a relationship. Who has the worst secret and how do they deal with it when they meet up again as professionals working together? This book will keep you guessing til the end.

I was beyond excited when I saw that Megan Abbott's new novel Give Me Your Hand was available on Netgalley. I was in the middle of two other books when I was received this book. I had to show restraint and finish those other books first. Give Me Your Hand kept calling me to read it. I knew it was there waiting for me. I raced through the others so that I could delve into this as soon as possible. Now, I have finished the book and I'm sad it's over. I don't get this feeling very often about a book. This "damn, it's over and I wish I could read it again with the same fever that I did the first time."

I am a big fan of Megan Abbott. Her ability to portray strong, but greatly flawed women is stellar. Her characters are frequently driven perfectionists who won't let anything or anyone stand in their way of success. Nothing. Her female characters are so creepy, yet so believable. She develops women who all of may have known or could encounter in our lives: that coworker that undermines us, that high school friend who we were equally drawn to and a little scared of, that boss who was wound just a little too tight.

Give Me Your Hand is no exception. Kit is drawn to the seemingly flawless Diane at cross country camp. They become friends, or as close as Diane can get to having a friend. Kit does not expect to see Diane again, being that Diane goes to a parochial school and Kit attends public school. As it turns out, Kit will encounter Diane again. And then again. Each time, Diane becomes more difficult to read, more driven, and just out of reach of any true kind of reciprocal female relationship. Kit and Diane become closest as high school lab partners, where their love of chemistry and desire to win a college scholarship to study under a renowned female researcher bonds them together. Secrets are shared.

The two become research scientists in a field dominated by men. They work hard, they isolate themselves from coworkers who might distract them from their goal of becoming even more accomplished; who may compete with all they've done to get to where they are. Cue past secrets shared and cue the competition between the once-friends.

I can already know that this is going to be one of my favorites, if not THE favorite book of mine of 2018. It is that good. It is as compelling a novel as one could be. I completely engrossed myself in it, read it all day when I could. I rolled over in bed, groggy, at 2 a.m. and decided that I was alert enough to pick it up and start reading again. I wanted to know what was going to happen. What would this relationship make these two do? What would be the culmination of these secrets? Who's lives would be affected? Needless to say, I finished the book rather than sleep.

Whew! What a ride. Don't read this book if you want to be productive or have a lot on your agenda. You will not want to set it aside to take care of business. And you can't read and drive. It's very dangerous.

This is a great suspenseful story with a unique setting in the world of laboratory science. I enjoyed that it was so different and thankful for the satisfying ending.

Give Me Your Hand is a fantastically written page turner that will keep readers gripping the pages for hours. I simply could not get enough of this book and I know many readers are going to feel the exact same way as I did. I highly recommend it.

4.5 stars

** Full review to come on release **