Ready Or Not by Andi Porretta. Atheneum, 2024. 9781665907033. 336pp.
Four friends celebrate their high school graduation in the opening pages. Three of them are heading off on educational adventures at the end of the summer, but Cassie is taking at least a year off and planning to work in her parents’ diner. Cassie is stressed out; her friends are leaving, and it feels like they’ll be leaving her behind. To get them all to hang out a bit more, she proposes they play a game from when they were kids: risky slips. Each writes a dare on a piece of paper. Draw a dare and complete it within twenty-four hours. If you don’t complete the dare, you’re out. The penalties are tough, and different for each friend (and decided much later in the book, so I won’t spoil them). Cassie is up first.
This coming-of-age story has a nice combination of sweetness, friendship, awkwardness, and queerness. Each of the friends comes into focus through Cassie’s interactions with them, and love is very central to the whole tale, as is messing up. Porretta’s art is particularly fun during the dares, most of which seem designed to get everyone in trouble.
