Book Review - The Game by Scott Kershaw

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Title: The Game

Author: Scott Kershaw

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: HQ

Publication Date: 12th May 2022

Rating: 5 Stars

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.

What a sick and twisted mind Scott Kershaw must have to come up with this completely soul destroying game.  But how glad I am he did, because it makes for a ridiculously impressive debut novel. 

This is fast paced, and 5 seemingly unconnected people are made to become players in this game and its a race against time to see if you can save your loved one. 

Five people abducted between three different countries, five inadvertent players in this sick and twisted game.  Well it certainly makes for compelling and addictive reading.  I was hooked from the start, and if I wasn't reading, the book wasn't far from my mind. 

I raced through this within a day, and couldn't get enough of it.  I felt for the first characters who we hear from in player order, and I would only put the book down at intervals if I had finished a set of updates on each of the five players in the game.  This is compulsive reading at its very best, and it blows my mind that this is a debut. 

Some of the descriptions are rather graphic, and at times it can be uncomfortable reading, especially things like the whole of Noah's route to England.  But it keeps you going, kept me drawn in, and I can't believe just how fabulous this book is. 

I am already insanely keen to discover what this talented author pens next. 

Thank you to HQ and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.