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3.11 AVERAGE
3.11 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
I had high hopes for this book, but unfortunately, it didn't quite hit for me. A competition that reminded me of a combination of all the Nickelodeon game shows I loved, like Guts and Legends of the Hidden Temple. The multiple POVs were a bit chaotic, and it made it difficult to connect with any of the characters to care about their story. But it was interesting about how it pulled in unique POVs, like the Live Streams from one character or the podcast interviews from another. Vivienne Leheny was an incredible narrator and was able to bring a different vibe for each character that it was easy to tell the difference between the characters.
Read if you love:
🫣Multi-POV Thrillers
⛰️Challenge Games
💻YouTube Shows/Reality TV
🗿 Legends
🤫 Secrets upon secrets
Read if you love:
🫣Multi-POV Thrillers
⛰️Challenge Games
💻YouTube Shows/Reality TV
🗿 Legends
🤫 Secrets upon secrets
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A wild ride, indeed. This may be oddly specific, but I thoroughly enjoyed that the story was told with such relevance to today's social media craze, the virality of raging narcissists masquerading as "do-gooders" and how every-day folks get caught up in the hype. We all know a Mav, right? The building tension throughout the plotline and various subplots was exciting because I didn't know at what point there would be a sinister turn. AND TURNS, THERE WERE! The narrator was great in their undulating tones; it's important for listeners to feel their hearts racing as the story cranks up. I did, however, find that the subplots and involved character conflicts overshadowed the actual game. I was looking forward to getting the twists and turns of the game, but it fell short in that regard. I was expecting a kind of Squid Game shock value and action, but I got more drama and suspense than anything. But overall, listening to the story was entertaining and kept me on my toes. I thank Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for the book!
adventurous
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
The set-up of this book was so good. I was really hooked in the beginning. However, this ended up being just one big mess.
First of all, why make a book about a survival game when the story itself ends up being barely about that? I was so hyped for the survival game! However, once the contestens landed on the island, the story just went into an entirely different direction, and the game was merely happening in the background, if at all. (The game was somehow barely a part of the book to a point where I started to question if there even was a came to begin with.)
Furthermore, the time skips were a total mess. We jumped around pointlessly, and suddenly, a chapter would be set in the past without us being informed of it. It was so bad at times that I felt like my chapters somehow ended up out of order. The unnecessary huge cast of characters made this just more confusing and messy. It didn't add any depth or complexity. 90% of the characters were pointless and did nothing but add confusion.
How do you even write a thriller with an abandoned island nature survival setting and manage to make it boring? Where was the tension? Where were the stakes? What even happened? And why did it just end abruptly the second we had some live threatening tension? I HATE how we just jumped to the future. Lisa Unger clearly didn't know how to get her characters out of that situation so she decided to just end the book there with a skip to the future were they talked in a podcast abiut how they're back to a normal life now. Lazy. Boring. Horrible written.
I'm convinced Lisa Unger was so confused by her own written mess that she just forgot to add a plottwist. There were so many threads and so many missing people, dead people. You could have done so much with the setup of this and she just didn't? There was no plot, no twist, no point. Missing people just randomly returned. Bad people simply admitted their crimes and that's it?!
I refuse to believe any editor ever looked over this.
First of all, why make a book about a survival game when the story itself ends up being barely about that? I was so hyped for the survival game! However, once the contestens landed on the island, the story just went into an entirely different direction, and the game was merely happening in the background, if at all. (The game was somehow barely a part of the book to a point where I started to question if there even was a came to begin with.)
Furthermore, the time skips were a total mess. We jumped around pointlessly, and suddenly, a chapter would be set in the past without us being informed of it. It was so bad at times that I felt like my chapters somehow ended up out of order. The unnecessary huge cast of characters made this just more confusing and messy. It didn't add any depth or complexity. 90% of the characters were pointless and did nothing but add confusion.
How do you even write a thriller with an abandoned island nature survival setting and manage to make it boring? Where was the tension? Where were the stakes? What even happened? And why did it just end abruptly the second we had some live threatening tension? I HATE how we just jumped to the future. Lisa Unger clearly didn't know how to get her characters out of that situation so she decided to just end the book there with a skip to the future were they talked in a podcast abiut how they're back to a normal life now. Lazy. Boring. Horrible written.
I'm convinced Lisa Unger was so confused by her own written mess that she just forgot to add a plottwist. There were so many threads and so many missing people, dead people. You could have done so much with the setup of this and she just didn't? There was no plot, no twist, no point. Missing people just randomly returned. Bad people simply admitted their crimes and that's it?!
I refuse to believe any editor ever looked over this.
medium-paced
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I feel like I may need to reread this vs listening to it. I had a hard time following the story. It felt like there were a lot of characters and unnecessary subplots.
A few months ago, I read my first story by Lisa Unger and I was pleasantly surprised! I think this author has a lot of talent in crafting a twisty story and characters to root for. But unfortunately, I think this book wasn't right for me. I had a hard time keeping track of what was going on because it felt like so many tropes were thrown into this book to make it a more interesting story. It all felt like too much and really brought down my enjoyment of this book. I don't think the writing was bad, but I had read a short story recently and I liked how clear and thought out everything was in that much more than this full length novel. The game aspect of this game also brought down my enjoyment. I think something like that could be well done but in this case, it felt like we were supposed to care about the main character and hope for her to win but it felt like there weren't super high stakes despite the situation that made her sign up for this game in the first place. It all felt kind of out of left field. This didn't make me less interested in this author's books, but I should probably read deeper into the synopsis before I decide to pick something up from her.
In terms of the audiobook, I think this narrator did a good job. I'm not familiar with Vivienne Leheny's narration but it was a pleasant listening experience. I had a hard time keeping track of who's POV we were following sometimes, but that happens to me sometimes so it might just be a me thing.
Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and Park Row for providing me with an eBook copy and Harlequin Audio for providing me with an Audiobook copy, both for review on NetGalley.
In terms of the audiobook, I think this narrator did a good job. I'm not familiar with Vivienne Leheny's narration but it was a pleasant listening experience. I had a hard time keeping track of who's POV we were following sometimes, but that happens to me sometimes so it might just be a me thing.
Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and Park Row for providing me with an eBook copy and Harlequin Audio for providing me with an Audiobook copy, both for review on NetGalley.