Reviews

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

adriannasophiabookss's review

3.0

I actually quite enjoyed this. It was a fun thriller. I can see why people don’t like it, it was very middle of the road for me. I just had fun reading it so it gets 3 stars.

jnmegan's review

4.0

Megan Abbott has received rave reviews for her previous novels, especially You Will Know Me and The Fever. Her knack for creating engrossing plots with complex characters is evident again in her newest work, Give Me Your Hand. Abbott manages to weave a taut, addictive tale while also addressing many timely themes and contemporary issues. In this book, just some of the topics she touches upon: symbiotic/parasitic friendships, the stigma of mental illness, guilt and self-punishment, gender inequality in the STEM fields (both as a focus of research and in workforce representation), lack of NIH funding, class privilege and cronyism, and competition between women. Give Me Your Hand takes place in a medical research lab staffed primarily with male post-docs. Kit, the main character, and their boss Dr. Severin are the only women, even though the focus of the study is PMDD (Premenstrual Dysmorphic Disorder). The staff are vying for spots on Dr. Severin’s special team, an opportunity that could cement their careers. They are all dismayed to see a new female employee entering their fold, especially Kit. It turns out that Diane Fleming is not only fierce competition for the limited slots, she and Kit have a shared history that contains a disturbing and life-altering secret. The novel pivots back and forth in time between the drama in the lab and the background story of how Kit and Diane met and became enmeshed as teens. Abbott cleverly keeps the reader guessing and glued to the pages. She challenges traditional ideas of ethics, especially for women who have been marginalized and forced to fight for advancement and recognition. A page turner that also provokes deep contemplation, Give Me Your Hand is a great pick for the summer. It will certainly reaffirm Megan Abbott’s deserved popularity and create anticipation for her next endeavor.

hollyk_1592's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

emleemay's review against another edition

4.0

The fear all men have that there’s something inside us that shifts, and turns. A living thing, once dormant, stirring now, and filled with rage.

Not quite as good as [b:You Will Know Me|25251757|You Will Know Me|Megan Abbott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1467210264s/25251757.jpg|44972782], in my opinion, but still another great example of why Megan Abbott is one of my favourite authors.

I can't recall any writer this adept at crafting complex, flawed female characters and the relationships between them. Abbott crawls deep inside the female brain - to all its dark places, thoughts and jealousies - and captures it in such a way that I can feel the story getting under my skin. Her novels are novels of atmosphere and a creeping impossible-to-ignore sense of wrongness under the mundanity.

“Haven’t you ever done something in the blink of an eye and then realized it was wrong? That it was all wrong?”

[b:Give Me Your Hand|29569206|Give Me Your Hand|Megan Abbott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1511818302s/29569206.jpg|49894996] is about the friendship and rivalry between two bright and brilliant women - Kit and Diane. As teens, they were inseparable, with Diane fueling Kit's ambition and offering the drive she needed to stay on track for the Severin scholarship. Dr Severin is famous for her studies on female disorders, and particularly PMDD - PMS's nastier and more debilitating sister.

After Diane reveals a dark secret to Kit, their friendship falls apart and the girls go their separate ways, both to successful careers. In the "now", Kit is employed in Dr Severin's lab and working her ass off to get onto the research team for PMDD. Everything seems to be going well until Dr Severin hires an amazing researcher from Harvard. Diane, of course. Then, Kit's life gets turned upside down again.

Abbott combines the difficulties of being a woman with a tense, slow-burn thriller. She gradually lifts the curtain on Diane's secret, piece by piece, until I was dying to know what happened. And Diane herself is allowed to be a bit sinister, a bit villainous, without ever feeling like a caricature.

This book is about the power of secrets, the past's habit of coming back to haunt you, and also the fine line between female friendship and rivalry (as most of Abbott's thrillers are). It's something that fascinates me. Women often have deep, all-encompassing friendships built on loyalty and sharing secrets, but we are also pitted against one another. When two female celebrities wear the same dress, it’s all about who wore it best. There has to be a winner; some kind of hierarchy. It's so easy for friendship to turn sour; for an ally to become a rival.

The raw, ugly, mottled things you fear about yourself in your most private moments—what happens when someone says them aloud to you? The feeling like your skin slipped from your body, showing everything, red and veined.

At the root of this book, there are so many themes of female passion, ambition, and weakness. Everything from the casual misogyny of the male scientists to the PMDD present obstacles for women, and I really liked how every single female character who walks into this book shines with her own distinct personality. Even the female detective - who we should view as an enemy of the protagonists - is likable in her brief scenes.

I can't quite decide if Abbott thinks that women are wonderful, worthy of the utmost admiration, or if she thinks they are as ferocious and terrifying as men have suspected all along. It's probably a bit of both.

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lexistwick's review against another edition

3.5

I didn't review this super soon after finishing it, and much of the story isn't memorable to me. Interestingly, since I recently read another book with a similar theme, the plot circles around one of the central character's

antisocial personality disorder, which they don't name until the end, I believe

. It deals with themes of success, female friendship, cruelty and violence. It felt longer than it needed to be, perhaps.

tiffy137's review against another edition

4.0

I buddy read this book with Sammi over at Onebookishgirl . This was my first Mystery thriller which I have properly read and I got to say I enjoyed it. This book was written both in the past and the present which shows us the back ground of our two main characters and why there is so much tension between the two main characters. I found this book to be very complex and I needed to have my full attention on the book when reading to be able to follow the plot and characters. I liked how the setting was in a science lab as you don’t see that very often in books now a days.
I gave this book 4 stars as it was my first thriller and I did find it confusing at times and had to reread sections to fully understand what was happening but I’m excited to read more books like this.

kat_rowlen's review against another edition

This book just did not grip me and some of the sentence structure was off putting. There were several run on sentences that were going on tangents about things unimportant to the story 

greatexpectations77's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I thought this was fine. I was very curious about if the lab workings seemed accurate. Something didn't quite strike the terror in me. I was pretty creeped out by Diane, but not quite enough. Every time someone said Kit's name, I thought they were calling her Kid. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Infidelity, and Sexual content

mgs3's review against another edition

4.0

Dark and captivating. Really enjoyed the female hero/antihero theme throughout. I don’t know that the characters were like able but definitely relatable. The plot was interesting, dark and twisty.

jeanajen2024's review against another edition

3.0

It grabbed me and held my interest but at times went a bit slow. Overall I enjoyed it!