How the writer creates suspense

Your exam question asks you to focus on how the writer, Eileen Merriman, creates suspense in “I Dare You”.

A typical technique for creating suspense is indicating the key tension of the story from the beginning of the narrative. The writer first tells us that Jane is jealous of Carrie’s looks and popularity (ll. 10-11). Because of this, Jane already feels competitive: she wants to be “higher, faster, more daring than Carrie” (l. 4), so she jumps off the swing to prove that she is brave.

When the Porsche appears, the stakes are explicitly stated by Jane herself - she must accept Carrie’s dare to ask for a ride. Otherwise, she believes she will never stand out: “Because if I said no, then I was always doomed to be a moon, a colourless moon orbiting Planet Carrie.” (ll. 19-20). However, Jane also sees in this the perfect opportunity to test Carrie, so she suggests a dare-for-a-dare game (l. 21). This creates suspense by raising the reader’s curiosity about who will win the game and how.

Merriman also uses suspenseful character development by introducing an inner confl...