Link to book – The Chain by Adrian McKinty
Rating – 2 out of 5 stars.
I had really high hopes for this book when I brought it (many months ago) and that feeling of excitement continued until I actually got around to reading it. Sadly, it didn’t live up those hopes and expectations. Sadly, The Chain just didn’t hit the spot.
I was more disappointed because the premise sounded incredible, simple yet effective. It didn’t match that premise at all.
In a book like this you need to build an atmosphere, everything relies on the reader feeling on edge, with all senses heightened… This book just didn’t quite hit the spot, it just lacked that little bit of sparkle.
Which was definitely not helped by the writing. For me, the writing really missed the mark. It felt more as though the author was trying to fill too much space with lots of unnecessary and irrelevant stuff – and that’s all it was, stuff. There was no real content to speak of or anything that stood out, it just was.
The same for the plot, it felt as though there wasn’t really one. Again, the premise sounded amazing, but the actual story didn’t live up to expectations. Where the first half was decent enough and had a bit of a story to it, the second half was juts chaotic, all over the place and it jumped around timelines with no clear indiciation of the time/person/family the chapter related to.
It felt as though for the entire book that it was just full of stuff. No clear story or plot or writing, just stuff.
I also found the characters to be annoying and quite irrelevant, which was frustrating given that the story was supposed to be centred around them.
Although, I have to say I did find the book to be quite intriguing. I’m not sure if I was reading too deep into the story or if I had my conspiracy theory brain engaged, but a lot of the ideas when you started to think about the concept actually were quite interesting. Whether that was intended or not, it was one real positive of the book for me.
Other than that, I found The Chain to be highly disappointing and not worth the read.
Until next time, Em xxx
What Em's Reading 