Monday 11 November 2013

Book Review: Game by Anders De La Motte


Play or be played in book one of the Game Trilogy , the Swedish thriller series taking the world by storm.

It began by spray-painting a door. Then detonating a hand grenade. Each task is secretly filmed and uploaded for other ‘Players’ to comment on. The more daring the mission, the greater the thrill and reward – and the acclaim.

But how far will loser Henrik “HP” Pettersson go before the seemingly innocent game he was invited to play on a ‘lost’ mobile phone begins to play him? With his police protection officer sister dragged into the action, and the game looking more and more like a trap, HP’s excitement is turning to fear.

Game was a really interesting thriller that I really enjoyed. There were twists and turns at every corner and the concept was original but the characters could have been easier to relate to.

Plot wise Game is genius. It was original and different and I have never read anything like it before. It could have been unbelievable, it could have gone too far but Anders De La Motte gets his delivery just right and turns something that you shouldn’t believe into something that could potentially be possible. The thought of something like this being real is nothing short of terrifying and I spent far too long between pages questioning if this could happen or even if it was happening already. I loved how this kept me guessing, I was never really
sure what was going on or how things were going to end. There were moments when this book truly managed to surprise me which is rare. The writing was rich and entertaining. Time wasn’t wasted on flowery prose, this wasn’t that kind of novel. Instead it was cold, detached almost which gave Game an instant and powerful atmosphere.

The characters were the only problem I had with this book. I don’t need nice characters, I don’t even need characters I like but in some way, shape or form I have to relate to them and that was a struggle for me in this book. HP is one of the most self-centred, annoyingly delusional, waste of space characters I have come across in a while, yet I preferred him to the other characters in this book. He had some substance and despite how annoying I found him I got to like him in the end. The problem was that it took such a long time. I had to grit my teeth to get through some of his sections way past the half-way point of this book and by the time I finally began to change my mind about him I was nearly finished. Becca was a lot more settled and a lot nicer than HP but I struggled to relate to her at all. All I really got from her was coldness, she wanted to be strong but I found her quite weak. The part she played in this book was interesting and I still have so many questions about her storyline and the other people in her life that I hope will be answered in the next book.

The ending was awesome and it went somewhere that I never saw coming. I have so many unanswered questions and I cannot wait to see where this series goes from here. 

 Game is a smart and entertaining thriller with buckets or originality that I recommend to thriller fans. 

3 stars

Published December 5th by Blue Door.  A free copy of this book was provided for review.  All images taken from Goodreads

Review by Kate Phillips 


  

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for commenting!