Hello friends I am very excited to bring you a review of The Players by Darren O’Sullivan. A huge thanks to NetGalley and HQ publishers for the advanced copy of this book. The Players by Darren O’Sullivan is due to be published on 13th May 2021.
Overall rating – 4 out of 5 stars.
The chapter formatting of this book really annoyed me, which is I’ve only given it 4 stars. For me chapter formatting and the overall format of the book are super important and I feel this was overlooked with The Players. There were points where the dialogue was oddly presented on the page and where words were misspelt or the incorrect word was used. It really bugged me 😦
I also felt that the first chapter was incredibly similar to a book I read last year, like practically down to the letter, so I felt like I was off to a bad start.
The Players is a multiple POV book, with one POV in first person (DI Karen Holt) and the remainder in third person. I enjoyed this way of writing because we got that personal feel from reading the first person chapters but there was no confusion then within the other chapters over who’s POV we were reading from.
The characters were a major high point of this book for me. Karen and her wife and their unwavering support of each other, even when things were difficult. Karen and her policing partner, Howard, how beautiful their relationship was. The Host themself and how we didn’t know anything about them until the author was absolutely ready for us to. The characters made the book for me.
Once we got deeper into the book it started to really make me think, and it had a very moral/ethical aspect to it, which I personally loved. And the way the author integrated the idea of technology and how that tech was used in the story really brought the plot to life.
I do wish the author had gone into more details of the crimes and killings, it felt quite tame, which was disappointing.
There were points where I was laughing with the characters, points where I was in shock and even points where I cried. I had no shortage of emotions reading The Players…
And the ending definitely added to that feeling of shock. I don’t want to give anything away so that’s all I’m going to say!
On the whole, The Players was something new and exciting that I hadn’t read before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My only hope is that the author/editor can correct the formatting and wording issues and that the author writes another book to continue the story.
Until next time, Em xxx
What Em's Reading 