A review by stiricide
The Game by Shane Scollins

1.0

In a year full of me reading stupid, awful books on my Kindle, partially because I'm a glutton for punishment but mostly because they were free, this is one of the stupidest. The actual plot ends about halfway through the book (There's a madman! With a plan! He'll host it in a can! Everyone will be a fan!), then veers right and busts out some preposterous supernatural nonsense, which is, unsurprisingly, tied up with a not even pretending to be subtle deus ex machina at the end. There's a love story, kind of, in the way "hey! two people are in the same room at the same time! Now they're in love!" is a tenable love story. You know the heroine is the heroine because the author has to stop every few sentences to remind you how effortlessly amazing the heroine is - which is true, but only because everything the heroine does is literally without effort.

Ok. Here. It's my favourite line of the book:

"This cherry sat atop the insanity-cake she didn't order and didn't want to eat. But someone had already smashed it into her face and dared her to lick her lips."

I've been working on unraveling that one for a few days, now. Have at it.