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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
“Number one: you are not the first and you will certainly not be the last. Number two: remember, it’s not about the money—it’s about The Chain.”
Although the book made me feel kinda dumb with the author quotes it kept throwing out, it was such a fun read nonetheless, hell has no fury like a woman scorned, especially if said women is trying to get her daughter back. SUCH a page turner!
Although the book made me feel kinda dumb with the author quotes it kept throwing out, it was such a fun read nonetheless, hell has no fury like a woman scorned, especially if said women is trying to get her daughter back. SUCH a page turner!
Perhaps the worst book I’ve ever read. The concept is fine, but who edited this book? Characters were uninteresting, annoying, and made some wild decisions.
Such a compelling read but disturbing as well. Great for fans of Criminal Minds.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I was really into this book throughout - until the end which felt a little unrealistic. I thought the concept was fairly unique and interesting. I have a hunch I partly enjoyed this as much as I did because I listened as an audiobook, so the tense tone really came through the reader’s voice.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Ahhhh yes, yet another thriller where it's very obvious it's written by a man based on how he handles the main female character.
This book started off very promising, with a premise that reminded me of The Kill Club by Wendy Heard, a novel I really enjoyed. But it got old sort of fast, like within the first 40%. A lot of things were repeated, characters are kept at an arms length and we're just told everything that's going on in their brain, and sooo many mentions of "The Chain" that it was a bit much. By the time the first part ended, I thought the book was just about wrapped up, but then it enters the second part, which feels almost like its own book. I think that instead of dividing the story into these very distinct parts (being a part of The Chain and then taking down The Chain), the second part could have just been incorporated into the first for a more integrated experience.
The writing also leaves something to be desired. To set the scene, the author would simply write something like, "Her house, afternoon." And that gets old fast! The way it's written, the novel would make for a good screenplay, and I think the plot in general would lend itself to the screen well, but the beat by beat action would need to be tightened up a bit. Also, the romance was NOT needed! Authors, please stop giving your female main character a love interest when it doesn't feel organic to the story!
It's a quick enough read that, even though I didn't really care to finish reading, I did anyway, but I can't say I was particularly intrigued the whole way through.
This book started off very promising, with a premise that reminded me of The Kill Club by Wendy Heard, a novel I really enjoyed. But it got old sort of fast, like within the first 40%. A lot of things were repeated, characters are kept at an arms length and we're just told everything that's going on in their brain, and sooo many mentions of "The Chain" that it was a bit much. By the time the first part ended, I thought the book was just about wrapped up, but then it enters the second part, which feels almost like its own book. I think that instead of dividing the story into these very distinct parts (being a part of The Chain and then taking down The Chain), the second part could have just been incorporated into the first for a more integrated experience.
The writing also leaves something to be desired. To set the scene, the author would simply write something like, "Her house, afternoon." And that gets old fast! The way it's written, the novel would make for a good screenplay, and I think the plot in general would lend itself to the screen well, but the beat by beat action would need to be tightened up a bit. Also, the romance was NOT needed! Authors, please stop giving your female main character a love interest when it doesn't feel organic to the story!
It's a quick enough read that, even though I didn't really care to finish reading, I did anyway, but I can't say I was particularly intrigued the whole way through.
I didn’t much believe in ‘The Chain’ by Adrian McKinty.
It’s a good thriller with a stinko sicko plot.
Ick ick.
But it’s a fast mindless read.
Maybe that’s why readers love it.
No thinking at all required.
Unless you can’t help it.
It’s definitely a mistake to think about it.
I like kids.
Never had one.
Made do with cats.
I love cats.
If someone took kitty
I’d cry.
Then I’d get another.
But if someone kidnapped my kitty for money?
I’d cry.
Then I’d get another.
Or maybe no more kitties. I’m very poor.
I guess kids are a different kind of relationship.
For one thing, there are laws about kidnapping kids.
Police and FBI like to get involved.
Everyone cares about crimes against kids.
Not so with kitties.
‘The Chain’ is about crimes of kidnapping
kids and coercing parents.
McKinty writes in short sentences.
Dramatic emphasis.
Or maybe to hide how unbelievable the plot is.
Parents must be willing to kill other kids to save their own kids.
I had a think about the plot of ‘The Chain.’
I decided to use cats instead of kids.
To use a perspective suitable for me. Don’t judge me.
What if someone kidnapped my kitty (A) and threatened to leave her head on my doorstep unless I gave the kidnapper lots of money AND I must also kidnap someone else’s cat (B) in turn?
Two demands to get my cat back - money from me, and that I need to kidnap someone else’s cat.
What if part of the deal to get my cat (A) back was to not only to kidnap this other cat (B) and pay a ransom, but I had to ask for a ransom from (B)’s owner?
I must also tell owner of (B) to kidnap a cat (C) for ransom, too.
(B)’s owner has two demands from me - pay up money and kidnap a cat (C).
(B)’s owner had to pay in bitcoins to an account I was told to say by the mysterious person holding my cat (A).
I also had had to pay a ransom in bitcoins to an account told to me to get (A) back.
This mysterious person is someone who is apparently a victim of a cat-napping too, and also a ransom demand in bitcoins.
He is also being threatened with his cat’s gruesome death.
So the owner of cat (C) also has to get bitcoins and kidnap a cat (D) for ransom from (D)’s owner.
When (B)’s owner had completed the kidnapping of (C) and paid a ransom, I get (A) back from the kidnapper of my (A).
I return (B) to (B)’s relieved and poorer owner after (C)’s owner pays his ransom and has kidnapped (D).
(B)’s owner returns (C) to (C)’s owner when (C)’s owner has completed his tasks of paying a ransom and kidnapping (D) and after (D)’s owner paid a ransom too and kidnapped a cat (E) to get (D) back.
And so on ad infinitum.
Cat (B)’s owner could never turn me in for kidnapping his cat for money since he had kidnapped cat (C) for money to get his cat (B) back.
Right? Right?
Besides, a very deadly unknown third person, presumably the recipient of all of the bitcoin payoffs,
also called everyone involved in the Chain of kidnaps and
gave an extremely terrible threat to personally kill everybody who talked.
There you have it, gentle reader.
The Chain, only with kids, not cats.
Innocent people are forced to kidnap a child not their own and pay lots of money into a bitcoin account to get their own kidnapped child back.
The people who kidnapped your child were forced to kidnap your child because their child was kidnapped in turn by another innocent couple whose child had been kidnapped by another innocent couple whose child had been kidnapped...
Sometimes the demand for a payoff and the kidnapping of another kid is turned down by the victimized parent.
The kid is killed by the people who kidnapped that kid because they are desperate to get their own kid back alive.
The mysterious cruel Chain developer then demands the parents with the still missing but alive kid pick another kid to kidnap.
And maybe have to kill that one too.
Personally, would I kill a neighbor’s kitty to get my cat back from its kidnapper unless money and another kitty was kidnapped by my victim?
No. I couldn’t.
Even with the agony of the murder of my cat because I disobeyed.
I couldn’t.
Kill a cat with my own hands.
Kill a cat looking up at me.
Meowing in its little baby voice.
Couldn’t .
Even if it meant the horrific death of my cat.
A [b:Sophie's Choice|228560|Sophie's Choice|William Styron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356714742l/228560._SY75_.jpg|2912834] choice, for those of you who have read that book (great book, btw). Personally, I’d go insane.
I couldn’t make that choice.
I couldn’t live with it, killing a young healthy pet cat with my hands to save my pet cat if things went wrong.
I couldn’t kidnap an innocent pet kitty, either, knowing I might have to kill it if it’s owner didn’t pay up and kidnap another innocent kitty too, who might get killed by that kidnapper.
And I’m talking about cats, not kids.
If I can’t kidnap or kill a cat, do you honestly think I’d be able to play this vicious game with KIDS? Could most people????
So.
I can imagine a parent faced with killing, maybe, someone else’s healthy cute child in order to save their own healthy cute child.
Some probably could do it, I suppose.
But EVERY parent in ‘The Chain’ who is given this Sophie’s Choice for THREE YEARS has never fallen to pieces,
or is unable to do the ‘sensible’ thing -
to borrow money and kidnap another child?
Knowing they maybe will have to kill that child because the mysterious person behind these rules
might force
some other scared parent to kill your child?
Thinking that you might have to ... kill. a. child.
Someone’s innocent child.
Constantly on your mind.
The possibility.
Even if the payoffs and new kidnapping of an innocent young child went ok.
But you hold it together.
Look for a possible easy kidnapping.
Look for a happy family who loves their child
Like you love your child.
And you terrorize their loved child.
By a violent scary kidnapping.
And a terrible imprisonment of weeks.
Food and water, blindfolds, tied up, hiding a beloved child away in a closet/basement/shed.
A violence of a kind you have never done to a child.
Like someone is terrorizing your beloved child.
Really? Really.
It’s not that parents wouldn’t want to save their child.
It’s that not too many people, much less parents, could mentally hold up under this kind of pressure.
That said, the book is a thriller.
The pace is very fast at the end, with a very Hollywood blockbuster ending.
A lot of people love this novel.
Not me. I couldn’t get past the idea of:
A psychopath makes parents kidnap a kid
because their own kid got kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by ....
and not a single parent loses it beyond all self-control.
They all are obedient.
Every coerced parent.
Except two of them.
For three years.
Bah, humbug.
It’s a good thriller with a stinko sicko plot.
Ick ick.
But it’s a fast mindless read.
Maybe that’s why readers love it.
No thinking at all required.
Unless you can’t help it.
It’s definitely a mistake to think about it.
I like kids.
Never had one.
Made do with cats.
I love cats.
If someone took kitty
I’d cry.
Then I’d get another.
But if someone kidnapped my kitty for money?
I’d cry.
Then I’d get another.
Or maybe no more kitties. I’m very poor.
I guess kids are a different kind of relationship.
For one thing, there are laws about kidnapping kids.
Police and FBI like to get involved.
Everyone cares about crimes against kids.
Not so with kitties.
‘The Chain’ is about crimes of kidnapping
kids and coercing parents.
McKinty writes in short sentences.
Dramatic emphasis.
Or maybe to hide how unbelievable the plot is.
Parents must be willing to kill other kids to save their own kids.
I had a think about the plot of ‘The Chain.’
I decided to use cats instead of kids.
To use a perspective suitable for me. Don’t judge me.
What if someone kidnapped my kitty (A) and threatened to leave her head on my doorstep unless I gave the kidnapper lots of money AND I must also kidnap someone else’s cat (B) in turn?
Two demands to get my cat back - money from me, and that I need to kidnap someone else’s cat.
What if part of the deal to get my cat (A) back was to not only to kidnap this other cat (B) and pay a ransom, but I had to ask for a ransom from (B)’s owner?
I must also tell owner of (B) to kidnap a cat (C) for ransom, too.
(B)’s owner has two demands from me - pay up money and kidnap a cat (C).
(B)’s owner had to pay in bitcoins to an account I was told to say by the mysterious person holding my cat (A).
I also had had to pay a ransom in bitcoins to an account told to me to get (A) back.
This mysterious person is someone who is apparently a victim of a cat-napping too, and also a ransom demand in bitcoins.
He is also being threatened with his cat’s gruesome death.
So the owner of cat (C) also has to get bitcoins and kidnap a cat (D) for ransom from (D)’s owner.
When (B)’s owner had completed the kidnapping of (C) and paid a ransom, I get (A) back from the kidnapper of my (A).
I return (B) to (B)’s relieved and poorer owner after (C)’s owner pays his ransom and has kidnapped (D).
(B)’s owner returns (C) to (C)’s owner when (C)’s owner has completed his tasks of paying a ransom and kidnapping (D) and after (D)’s owner paid a ransom too and kidnapped a cat (E) to get (D) back.
And so on ad infinitum.
Cat (B)’s owner could never turn me in for kidnapping his cat for money since he had kidnapped cat (C) for money to get his cat (B) back.
Right? Right?
Besides, a very deadly unknown third person, presumably the recipient of all of the bitcoin payoffs,
also called everyone involved in the Chain of kidnaps and
gave an extremely terrible threat to personally kill everybody who talked.
There you have it, gentle reader.
The Chain, only with kids, not cats.
Innocent people are forced to kidnap a child not their own and pay lots of money into a bitcoin account to get their own kidnapped child back.
The people who kidnapped your child were forced to kidnap your child because their child was kidnapped in turn by another innocent couple whose child had been kidnapped by another innocent couple whose child had been kidnapped...
Sometimes the demand for a payoff and the kidnapping of another kid is turned down by the victimized parent.
The kid is killed by the people who kidnapped that kid because they are desperate to get their own kid back alive.
The mysterious cruel Chain developer then demands the parents with the still missing but alive kid pick another kid to kidnap.
And maybe have to kill that one too.
Personally, would I kill a neighbor’s kitty to get my cat back from its kidnapper unless money and another kitty was kidnapped by my victim?
No. I couldn’t.
Even with the agony of the murder of my cat because I disobeyed.
I couldn’t.
Kill a cat with my own hands.
Kill a cat looking up at me.
Meowing in its little baby voice.
Couldn’t .
Even if it meant the horrific death of my cat.
A [b:Sophie's Choice|228560|Sophie's Choice|William Styron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356714742l/228560._SY75_.jpg|2912834] choice, for those of you who have read that book (great book, btw). Personally, I’d go insane.
I couldn’t make that choice.
I couldn’t live with it, killing a young healthy pet cat with my hands to save my pet cat if things went wrong.
I couldn’t kidnap an innocent pet kitty, either, knowing I might have to kill it if it’s owner didn’t pay up and kidnap another innocent kitty too, who might get killed by that kidnapper.
And I’m talking about cats, not kids.
If I can’t kidnap or kill a cat, do you honestly think I’d be able to play this vicious game with KIDS? Could most people????
So.
I can imagine a parent faced with killing, maybe, someone else’s healthy cute child in order to save their own healthy cute child.
Some probably could do it, I suppose.
But EVERY parent in ‘The Chain’ who is given this Sophie’s Choice for THREE YEARS has never fallen to pieces,
or is unable to do the ‘sensible’ thing -
to borrow money and kidnap another child?
Knowing they maybe will have to kill that child because the mysterious person behind these rules
might force
some other scared parent to kill your child?
Thinking that you might have to ... kill. a. child.
Someone’s innocent child.
Constantly on your mind.
The possibility.
Even if the payoffs and new kidnapping of an innocent young child went ok.
But you hold it together.
Look for a possible easy kidnapping.
Look for a happy family who loves their child
Like you love your child.
And you terrorize their loved child.
By a violent scary kidnapping.
And a terrible imprisonment of weeks.
Food and water, blindfolds, tied up, hiding a beloved child away in a closet/basement/shed.
A violence of a kind you have never done to a child.
Like someone is terrorizing your beloved child.
Really? Really.
It’s not that parents wouldn’t want to save their child.
It’s that not too many people, much less parents, could mentally hold up under this kind of pressure.
That said, the book is a thriller.
The pace is very fast at the end, with a very Hollywood blockbuster ending.
A lot of people love this novel.
Not me. I couldn’t get past the idea of:
A psychopath makes parents kidnap a kid
because their own kid got kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by parents who had their kid kidnapped
by ....
and not a single parent loses it beyond all self-control.
They all are obedient.
Every coerced parent.
Except two of them.
For three years.
Bah, humbug.