Title: The Game
Author: Scott Kershaw
Publisher: HQ
synopsis:
To save their life, you have to play.
Across the globe, five strangers receive a horrifying message from an unknown number.
THE PERSON YOU LOVE MOST IS IN DANGER.
To save them, each must play The Game – a sinister unknown entity that has a single rule: there can only be one winner.
IF YOU LOSE, YOUR LOVED ONE WILL DIE.
But what is The Game – and why have they been chosen?
There’s only one thing each of them knows for sure: they’ll do anything to win…
WELCOME TO THE GAME. YOU’VE JUST STARTED PLAYING.
My review:
The Game gives readers a gripping and fast-paced read. In a nutshell: five people from across the world are sent a message – someone has taken one of their loved ones, and they have to enter ‘The Game’ to save them.
We follow each stranger from before the moment they get the message and beyond. We also flick back to the past to see what occurrences led to their current situation, finding out more about their backstory. Naturally, I cared more about some characters than others. Still, each character was intriguing to read about and although they all experience the same thing from the organiser of The Game, the plot ramps up and jumps into gear at just the right time – before it begins to get too repetitive. We see how each of them handles the ‘challenge’. They each have different backgrounds and have travelled from different places, and some parts of the novel I found very difficult to read; for example, Noah’s journey and the way one character who is just trying to help is treated…
It’s a really gripping story because the reader has no idea if the five people are all linked, and if so, how – as well as who is running The Game, why, and how it will end…? It certainly kept me turning the pages, and it had some satisfying surprises along the way too!
Definitely surprised this is a debut and I’ll be eagerly keeping an eye out for future books by Scott Kershaw after this one!
My rating: 4.75/5
Many thanks to the publisher, HQ, for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest review.