Review: The Chain

The Chain by Adrian McKinty
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Sigh...

Looks like I fell in the trap of popular hype once again.

Bad Javelyn, bad. *Hits head*

Well I have to cry to someone as to why I disliked this book so much.

So let me start.

First of all the premise. I mean the premise was really interesting. A woman's child getting kidnapped by another mother and this poor mother has to do the same thing as well, as such to continue "The CHAIN" cycle.

I've honestly never read a book with that kind of a summary. What I mostly read are murders and full on police procedurals in mystery novels.

So this was something I'd never had read. And boy was I excited!

So points to that.

The cover, wow I really love it. It gives you thrills and I mean the dangerous kind, the creeps and the shivers, basically what a mystery novel is known for!

Unfortunately I got a different library copy so the cover I got was just not giving me the right feelings.

BUT THIS. Made me fall in love hard. So points!

The third voice/narrator: Okay, as a kid of 14 I used to love the third voice, as it usually explained everything that a normal main or second character couldn't explain.

The third voice was kinda like Fate. It explained everything without sounding biased. And I loved that, I loved the whole view. Of everything.

But the author of this novel either needs to learn how to write a third voice properly. Or needs to learn how to not mix everything together, such as sounding like a first person and an overall view.
It confused me to no limit. So really that's why I took out most of the ratings.

The characters: Okay, the kidnappers were more smart than the main heroes of this novel. Sorry but whenever they think of something smart, the next thing they do is:

"Who needs to go with a smart plan? I'm going to go with all the dumb choices this author threw at me and save the day anyway, yeah it's so darn foolproof that it will instantaneously work, we won't get hurt, this author made us invincible."

Oh for crying out loud. Now this is what we call off-script dramatic acting.

But let's move on. There's plenty more on the runthrough.

The mystery itself: I felt the mystery lacking a bit. I mean in the beginning it was all suspense and action but then at page 40, it felt less as a threatening and dangerous situation and more like a pretend kidnapping, they're all so mellow (and I dont mean nice), but the hungering in me for dangerous and some serious cruelty shown in mystery novels was utterly disappointed.

So overall, it's a shambles.

Which in casual and understandable english means, this novel neither this author is worth reading.

What a letdown.

PS: Someone said in their review that the author had criticised a one-star review and was literally cursing the hell out of that poor reviewer.

Two things: 1. Should I be worried, haha? 2. How is this author still able to sell?

Until the next read,

-J.B

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