We all saw the trailers for the movie NERVE, and some of us might have even seen it in theaters, but not all of us know it is based on a book. September’s book club book was Nerve by Jeanne Ryan, and the premise is especially interesting considering the ever more prominent role of technology in our day to day lives.

Nerve is about an online game where you receive dares and win prizes for completing them. The main protagonist is Vee, a girl who is used to living in the background. She never gets the chance to take center stage, and after being rejected by a boy, she decides to step out of her comfort zone and do a dare for Nerve. Her dare video becomes really popular, and she is selected for the next round of the game where she is paired up with a competitor named Ian. As Vee and Ian advance, the dares become more and more high stakes while the prizes get better and better. But when the dares take a turn for the dangerous and deadly, will Vee back out, and will she even live to do her next dare?

The idea behind NERVE is refreshing, and I was on the edge of my seat for the next dare. However, the ending was lackluster, and I felt that all of the conflicts weren’t truly resolved. Because of the fact that NERVE is a movie as well as a book, the book club stayed after school to watch the movie so we could compare it to the book; as a die hard book lover, I was so upset that I liked the movie more than the book. The book and movie shared the same premise but had completely different plot lines and executions. I felt the movie was shot very artistically, and the ending was completely different and better resolved the conflicts I felt weren’t resolved in the book.

So, I give NERVE the book a score of 4 out of 5 and NERVE the movie a score of 5 out of 5.