{Tour Stop} The Game by Shane Scollins: Review + Excerpt

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Genre: YA Thriller/Suspense
Published: March 2013 by Limitless Publishing
Length: 297 pages
Source: author (review copy)

“No matter where you are, they’ll find you, and put you in “The GAME”.

Candice Laguna’s life is being systematically dismantled, by an unknown force, for a reason she can’t imagine. But she is about to become the unwilling star of a reality game competition the likes of which has never been broadcast to the world.   Just when things get darkest, a mysterious man snatches her from the grips of doom. He is a man who is not what he seems, and not who he says. He has no name and his motivation to help Candice is not what it seems to be.   But his selfishness has good intentions, he just wants to know who he is and where he came from. And getting to the man orchestrating this reality game is the only way to find the truth.   THE GAME is a mystery/thriller with an unpredictable paranormal twist. It has action and adventure and plays up the everyday exploitation of reality television obsession gone wrong.“ I really enjoyed reading The Game! At first I thought it was about the characters getting put into a maze which is the game, but nope! It was a fresh read because there was a lot of unique things going on especially with Lukas’s character, our protagonist. The beginning was super uber intense and terrifying! It starts out with this person who creepily butts in to Candice’s life. I was just like “who is this creeper!? How did he know Candice’s number? Who the heck is he?” It was just like a movie playing in my head. Even if it’s a young adult book, the characters seems mature. It’s written in 3rd person point of view and it switches perspective between Candice, our 19 year old protagonist, Lukas, and the third perspective is sometimes the antagonist or another character in the book. What I also like about this book was the actual “game” scene. Oh my goodness. I wish I had popcorn with me while I was reading those scenes because they were just suspenseful and scary! I wish the game lasted longer though, and it’s not because I want to see the characters suffer, lol, no! What I was kind of iffy about was when I got to know more about Lukas and his situation. Even though his character was well thought of, I feel like his situation didn’t really fit the whole game thing, especially the ending. The last couple of chapters were kind of leading into a new plot and new type of story. But I think some of you will like it though. While there is the whole game thing going on, we also get to see who Lukas really is. Another thing that I was “so-so” about was the romance. It was alright to me, and kind of cheesy sometimes. It was a bit sudden, but I love how every time an obstacle comes crushing in between them, they still find a way to be together. Overall, I recommend this to everyone especially if you’re in for a thrill! It’s such a fresh read that will leave you hooked on from the first page.

Candice tossed her bag on the wood chair by the door and kicked off her shoes. A part of her expected the phone to ring just before it did. The logical part of her mind screamed at her, just let it ring, or unplug the phone. But some sense of morbid curiosity dug at her spine.

She picked up the phone but didn’t say anything. She expected the voice of the little girl again, but that’s not what she heard. This time it was a man, an old man.

“Hello, Candice. Why didn’t you talk to me at the bar, when I called you earlier?”

She was confused yet again. “Who the hell is this?”

“What do you mean? You don’t remember me? I’m glad you told that loser Eddie to beat it. He’s not good enough for you.”

She hung up the phone.

The phone rang again. She answered. “Leave me alone, dammit! If you call back, I’m going to call the cops.” She hung up the phone.

Her thumb was barely off the receiver when it rang again. Reluctantly, she answered again. “What do you want from me? Why are you doing this?”

“I want you, Candice.” This time the voice was sinister, haunting, that of a deranged, cliché, psychopath out for blood. The call ended.

She went into the living room. The phone rang again. This was maddening. She answered the call, prepared to scream, but on the other end was the tra-la-la of a young girl.

“Candy? Are you there?”

Candice could feel her mind twisting into a knot. This was pure insanity.

“Candy, can you come out to play?”

She disconnected the call, and turned off the ringers on her phones. She then turned off her cell and crawled into her bed to get some sleep.

She turned to face him. “He’s right, I can’t let them die. And you don’t want me to let Alexis die either. I have to do this. I have to see if I can save them. Let me at least hear him out and find out what the hell all this is. If I don’t like it, we can walk away.” She turned to face Angus again. “I’m in.”

He smiled and folded his hands. “Well, let the games begin.”

On the next platform, the steel creaked horribly. Something popped and the entire platform moved forward, pulling away from the building. Candice screamed and nearly tumbled over the railing, but Vince managed to get a hand on the waist of her jeans. He kept her from falling a good thirty feet.

The entire fire escape moved again, pitching them forward and sideways. Alexis ran down the ladder in a panic and leapt the last ten feet to the ground. Candice and Vince froze, neither one wanted to move. They both knew a sudden movement would likely tear the heavy steel from the bricks and send them plunging to the ground.

“C’mon!” Alexis yelled from the alley.

Candice swallowed hard, steadied her breath. “What now?”

“Don’t move.”

“I think we’ve established that.”

The window directly below them exploded, and fire reached out towards their feet. The flames were blackening the red bricks, and licking at their legs through the holes in the fire escape.

Vince took her hand. “We need to go, now.”

She met his eyes, nodded.