Give Me Your Hand

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Megan Abbott writes the kind of books I always want to read: noirish explorations of girlhood and femininity, ferocious tales full of blood and teeth. Give Me Your Hand follows two brilliant girls, friends and competitors, whose tangled intimacy blurs the line between love and hate. Abbott draws their story out slowly, incrementally dialing up the intensity, until the suspense is almost unbearable. A swallowed scream of a read! Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com

A life-changing secret destroys an unlikely friendship in this “magnetic” (Meg Wolitzer) psychological thriller from the Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me.

Kit Owens harbored only modest ambitions for herself when the mysterious Diane Fleming appeared in her high school chemistry class. But Diane’s academic brilliance lit a fire in Kit, and the two developed an unlikely friendship. Until Diane shared a secret that changed everything between them.

More than a decade later, Kit thinks she’s put Diane behind her forever and she’s begun to fulfill the scientific dreams Diane awakened in her. But the past comes roaring back when she discovers that Diane is her competition for a position both women covet, taking part in groundbreaking new research led by their idol. Soon enough, the two former friends find themselves locked in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse that threatens to destroy them both.

Named one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2018 by Cosmopolitan, Book Riot, and Entertainment Weekly

"[A] nuanced tale of soured friendships, blood-soaked ambition, and desperate murders from Thriller Award-winner Abbott...No writer can touch Abbott in the realm of twisted desire and relationships between women, both intimate and feral." Publishers Weekly, starred review

"While Megan Abbott's magnetic new novel mines themes of ambition, competition, excellence, and friendship, what perhaps struck me the most was its exploration of the long, undeterrable reach of memory. Give Me Your Hand is darkly effective, uneasy-making, and beautifully, absorbingly written." Meg Wolitzer, bestselling author of The Interestings and The Female Persuasion

"This is Megan Abbott at her very best. Cool, crisp, chilling." Paula Hawkins, author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Girl on the Train

A life-changing secret destroys an unlikely friendship in this "magnetic" psychological thriller from the Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me (Meg Wolitzer).

You told each other everything. Then she told you too much.

Kit has risen to the top of her profession and is on the brink of achieving everything she wanted. She hasn't let anything stop her.

But now someone else is standing in her way: Diane. Best friends at seventeen, their shared ambition made them inseparable. Until the day Diane told Kit her secret -- the worst thing she'd ever done, the worst thing Kit could imagine -- and it blew their friendship apart.

Kit is still the only person who knows what Diane did. And now Diane knows something about Kit that could destroy everything she's worked so hard for.

How far would Kit go to make the hard work, the sacrifice, worth it in the end? What wouldn't she give up? Diane thinks Kit is just like her. Maybe she's right. Ambition: it's in the blood . . .

Shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award

Shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award A life-changing secret destroys an unlikely friendship in this "magnetic" (Meg Wolitzer) psychological thriller from the Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me.
You told each other everything. Then she told you too much.
Kit has risen to the top of her profession and is on the brink of achieving everything she wanted. She hasn't let anything stop her.
But now someone else is standing in her way - Diane. Best friends at seventeen, their shared ambition made them inseparable. Until the day Diane told Kit her secret - the worst thing she'd ever done, the worst thing Kit could imagine - and it blew their friendship apart.
Kit is still the only person who knows what Diane did. And now Diane knows something about Kit that could destroy everything she's worked so hard for.
How far would Kit go, to make the hard work, the sacrifice, worth it in the end? What wouldn't she give up? Diane thinks Kit is just like her. Maybe she's right. Ambition: it's in the blood . . .

Megan Abbott is the award-winning author of seven novels. She received her Ph.D. in English and American literature from New York University and her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, Los Angeles Review of Books, New Statesman, Los Angeles Times Magazine, the Guardian and the Believer. She lives in New York City.