at the Humber School for Writers as well as George Brown College. She lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband, son, and daughter. Her debut novel is titled What You Never Knew.
Hamilton applied the Page 69 Test to her new thriller, Don't You Dare, and reported the following:
Page 69 of Don't You Dare begins with these two sentences, "There were some rules. Or at least the guise of rules; who could actually put boundaries on what we'd created." Page 69 is the beginning of a flashback section of the novel. The novel has a dual timeline of present day and past, which is a college setting. The page outlines the dynamic that Hannah, my main protagonist, her best friend, Scarlett and other best friend, Thomas, have developed in their friendship which crosses boundaries between the platonic and the sexual. One main element to the threesome's friendship is the playing of something called The Daring Game, giving one another dares to complete. Another quote from page 69 explains this intense, risk taking dynamic, "We only wanted each other, the Daring Game, and our nights twisted together in Thomas's bed, one body of three."Visit Jessica Hamilton's website.
If browsers were to open my book to page 69, they would get a very good idea of the whole work. What is described on page 69 about the relationship of Hannah, Scarlett and Thomas is essentially what becomes replicated in the present-day timeline—the sexual attraction, the obsession with the Daring Game and having complete disregard for others to get what they want. Page 69 provides a brief glimpse into what was the foundation of their friendship back in college and therefore what Hannah and Thomas would quickly return to when reunited sixteen years later. It also gives the reader the ominous sense that only bad things could come of the risk taking and debauchery of their threesome dynamic which is also the sense that the reader has in the present-day timeline when Hannah and Thomas pick up where they left off even though Hannah is married with two children. Don't You Dare is essentially a novel about making bad choices to escape from the things you don’t like in your life, on page 69 Hannah says, “For the first time in my life, not fitting in with the masses felt like something I’d chosen.” In college the bad choices were made in order for her to feel like she fit in somewhere, in adulthood her bad choices are made to escape a rocky marriage and the boredom of day-to-day adult life—either way, bad choices lead to bad outcomes and therein lies the heart of Don't You Dare.
--Marshal Zeringue
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