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jennacraig58 's review for:
Black Chalk
by Christopher J. Yates
Ugh took me so long to get through this. And now I’m one book behind schedule.
Super interesting premise too, but like another review said, it lacked world building.
Yates glosses over so much about the game and the consequences. And I know that the narrator is essentially documenting the story, but it’s not an excuse for lazy writing. There was too much telling and not enough showing. I wanted to watch the games and the consequences, and you never get to actually watch the game, and you get details for like 20% of the consequences. At one point I felt like I literally read a paragraph that was like, “And then they made up rules for the game and then they played it and then they did their consequences” (with next to no detail).
I wouldn’t call it a thriller. Takes 250 pages for anything to start getting interesting. I called the twist early so it wasn’t surprising. Pacing felt slow.
Left so much unsaid about Game Soc, just alluded to them being connected to something bigger, but didn’t give us enough stakes or information to care.
Also the game felt so stupid? Like just quit if you don’t want to do something? Why did the final two need a weird 14 year pause? During which they could just decide to stop? Again, without high enough stakes from Game Soc, why am I supposed to be worried for them in this last round of the game?
Oh and surprise, they of course don’t show them playing. And the final consequence just feels silly. Without sharing exactly what the Game Soc consequences are if you leave the game, it just feels so arbitrary. Like you made it up, just stop.
Save yourself time and read something else. Clearly the people with quotes on the back of the book read a different story than me..
Super interesting premise too, but like another review said, it lacked world building.
Yates glosses over so much about the game and the consequences. And I know that the narrator is essentially documenting the story, but it’s not an excuse for lazy writing. There was too much telling and not enough showing. I wanted to watch the games and the consequences, and you never get to actually watch the game, and you get details for like 20% of the consequences. At one point I felt like I literally read a paragraph that was like, “And then they made up rules for the game and then they played it and then they did their consequences” (with next to no detail).
I wouldn’t call it a thriller. Takes 250 pages for anything to start getting interesting. I called the twist early so it wasn’t surprising. Pacing felt slow.
Left so much unsaid about Game Soc, just alluded to them being connected to something bigger, but didn’t give us enough stakes or information to care.
Also the game felt so stupid? Like just quit if you don’t want to do something? Why did the final two need a weird 14 year pause? During which they could just decide to stop? Again, without high enough stakes from Game Soc, why am I supposed to be worried for them in this last round of the game?
Oh and surprise, they of course don’t show them playing. And the final consequence just feels silly. Without sharing exactly what the Game Soc consequences are if you leave the game, it just feels so arbitrary. Like you made it up, just stop.
Save yourself time and read something else. Clearly the people with quotes on the back of the book read a different story than me..