Give Me Your Hand

GIVE ME YOUR HAND

by Megan Abbott

 

Nomination: LA Times Finalist 2018

 

Date Read: August 20, 2022

 

Kit and Diane have known each other since high school and it seems fate cannot keep them out of each other’s lives. For Kit, this is a nightmare; for Diane, a gift. On a girl’s night their senior year, Diane shared her deepest, darkest secret. But it was more than a secret; it was a confession. Diane killed her father.

 

Diane’s demeanor is stoic and although it’s never mentioned in the book, she is clearly a psychopath, unable to truly feel for others. Kit is burdened by Diane’s confession, having nightmares and carrying the weight of it, dragging her down. She yearns to tell someone, anyone. For all of Kits fear, though, Diane and Kit are highly competitive, pushing each other to their very limits in running and academia. Kit has no choice but to cut off her friendship with Diane as a result.

 

Fast forward to both women becoming PhD candidates until one day, the professor managing Kit’s lab, Dr. Severin, announces they will get another student. Of course, it’s Diane. Kit is flabbergasted and dismayed.

 

On a Saturday, when almost no one is in the lab, Kit finds Alex there and things go horribly wrong. They have words about a drunken night they shared. Distracted, Alex makes a horrible error and his throat is slit by shards of a beaker flying through the air. Diane is there and although it was an accident, insists that they clean up the scene rather than call 911. Kit regrets it from the get-go but it’s too late to turn back.

 

The strange thing is, no one discovers the body. There’s no hysteria, mourning, alerts to his death. It’s like it never happened. As it turns out, Dr. Severin got one of her lab techs to clean up the scene and dispose of the body. Serge didn’t quite complete his task, hiding Alex’s body in the ceiling of the vivarium.

 

In a scene of absolute cray-cray, Alex’s body falls through the ceiling and Diane poisons Serge to keep him from talking. Diane assumes all blame for the deaths, never indicating Kit. As she’s taken into custody, Diane slits her own throat.

 

Now, I ask you – does any of this seem plausible? Absolutely not. Would a doctor running a lab attempt a cover-up? No. With so much research and labs across the U.S., would Kit and Diane end up at the same lab? Maybe. Would an exploding beaker slit someone’s throat? I don’t think so.

 

Give Me Your Hand requires the suspension of disbelief. That being said, this is a highly entertaining novel, well written with vivid, intense characters. I have a feeling this book will haunt me for several days.

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