The Chain

by Adrian McKinty

• ISBN10: 031653126X
• ISBN13: 9780316531269
• Publish Date: 9 July 2019
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Mulholland Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

I was so excited to read this book. I really, really was! Halfway through the book though I was beginning to lose patience with the way it was presented and could no longer ignore its flaws.

My biggest struggle was the amount of character dialogue which felt way too choppy and artificial for me. It was like I was reading a movie script, with more telling then showing going on. 90% of the plot is told to us through dialogue and the lack of immersive narrative made it impossible for me to connect to any of the characters.

I was losing interest... and that’s never a good thing for a thriller book... or any book for that matter.

The concept of the plot itself kept me reading but it was more out of obligation than suspenseful curiosity. Don’t get me wrong! There is definitely a good story within these pages, but it’s execution could have been much better. Maybe the hype for this book set my standards higher than they should have been, but it’s dialogue ultimately decided my lower star rating.


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[clq]

Thanks to the hype around The Chain I had high expectations of this book. They weren't met.
It's not a bad book, not by any means, but a book like this should be a thrilling page-turner of excitement, and this wasn't.

The basic premise is fine. Not entirely original, but interestingly set up, and with a lot of promise. I was looking forward to seeing what kind of twists would be added to the premise, how this would go from being what I would expect it to be, to something that would thrill and surprise me. Disappointingly the story played out pretty much exactly as I would have expected it to. But then, there was more! A part 2 to the story! This also had an interesting premise, a lot of directions in which it could go, and I was excited at the potential of something really interesting being done with it. But no - it played out in a way which was dramatic, sure, but which also felt like the motions were being gone through for the book to end up where it needed to end up.

That's not to say this is a bad book - it really isn't bad at all. But it's not great. And there are so many thrillers at around this length that excite me, thrill me, make me think, make me sad, make me angry, make me shudder, and make me desperately want to find out what happens next. The Chain didn't. I didn't dislike it, but it's also the first book I've read in a while which didn't make me kind of look forward to my commute, or go our of my way to make extra time for reading. It honestly felt a bit like I was reading the screenplay of a safe, likable, exciting, action-packed movie. And, by all means, something like that has some merit, just not the merit I'd want when reading a thriller. I'm sure many people will like this book - it's easy to like - but I don't see that many people loving it.

[Amber]

I received The Chain as a review copy from NetGalley. Obviously, these are my honest thoughts and feelings about the book. I also posted this review on my book blog if you'd like to check it out!

Honestly, I was expecting The Chain to be better. The Twitter campaign for this book had me absolutely invested, but once I started the book I quickly realised that it wasn’t going to be a hit for me.

My main issue with The Chain comes down to personal taste. I love psychological domestic thrillers, but I don’t like the more action-y thrillers as I tend to be quite detached from the characters. The Chain is one of those action-y thrillers, with the characters wielding guns and running about the place. And then there was the military tie, which kind of sealed the deal for me. None of those things are things that I enjoy in a thriller, and they tend to be my downfall every time.

The concept of the book was very intriguing, with the whole thing about, well, the chain, and parents having to kidnap another child in order to get theirs back. If it had been a quieter domestic thriller then this would have turned out quite well, but that’s not what this was.

The concept is, admittedly, a bit convoluted, but I read fantasy and I can deal with that from time to time, so it really didn’t worry me too much.

The second half was a lot less interesting than the first, with any tension we had completely drying up when the big twist came out of nowhere far too quickly. The author tried to add flashbacks to the second half as well, and these felt out of place and they could have been explained better.

The Chain was definitely a miss for me.

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