The Game - Scott Kershaw

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

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 Thoughts:

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book, so I took the chance on a debut author. I’m a little torn on how I feel about it. On the one hand, I rushed through it, desperate to know why and who was orchestrating The Game. Why were those five players chosen, and how would it end? On the other hand, some parts were hard to read, and I’m not entirely sold on the conclusion.
It is told from the perspective of the five players with an odd chapter thrown in of the Pregame. To begin with, it is fine calling the players by their numbers; however, once you are into the story and know their real names, it is hard to remember who has which number. So, when starting their chapter, it only tells you the player number, so you have to remind yourself every chapter who is who. The timeline could get quite messy, too, as there are past events thrown into the mix. Although, these are quite easily identified as they are set in completely different settings to what you know the players are currently experiencing. Looking back, the timeline was cleverly orchestrated, and it really does help with how the book comes together.
A few scenes were challenging to envisage, such as when they were all running along the motorway. Why did so many of them keep ending up in the middle lane? It was just hard to follow what was happening.
I liked that many nationalities were thrown in the mix of the book and had scenes in America, Paris, and the UK. It made a pleasant change from reading a book based in one of these countries. The author did a great job of appearing knowledgeable about each country.
The conclusion was a little disappointing; I expected the reason behind why this was happening to be more significant. It was all a shock, and I hadn’t worked anything out. So this made for great reading; however, it does peter out a little once it is revealed. The very last couple of pages made no sense. I’m not sure if I was missing something, but it bore no relevance to the rest of the story; it just wasn’t needed.
So, overall, even though I did enjoy reading this, there were many problems with the story as a whole. So, if I did half stars, it would be three and a half. However, I did make for a different read from anything I’ve read recently. For that reason, I am giving it a generous four stars!