The Assassin Game by Kirsty McKay- Book Review

I received this book for free from NetGalley. I am not obligated to review the book positively, but I am obliged to state how I received the book.

I will admit the cover for The Assassin Game by Kirsty McKay got me. Without knowing anything about the book, the cover was such a striking image that I instantly requested it.

As I read through the book, the story grabbed me. On a private island in a private school, 13 students are selected to play a game- Killer aka Assassin (yes, that game). Students are "killed" one by one through the use of a prank of some sort- the bigger the prank the better. There are rules to how one is killed, but the main point is not to hurt anyone, don't get caught, and don't get the teachers angry.

Cate is one of the students picked in the middle of the night. After the initiation, her old friend, Vaughn, from when she was 8 shows up out of nowhere with new ideas for the game- a social network (the school only has an intranet). He is strange, keeps appearing out of no where, and falls for Cate.

As the game progresses, things start getting serious and people really start getting hurt. Is this still or game or has it become something else?

I did not know this was a YA book AND it was already published under a different name- Killer Game with a different cover. Those two things should have warned me about this book. As stated in other reviews about YA books is character development and the high amount of drama from insignificant things. This book is no different- Cate is developed well as is Vaughn her childhood, but everyone else is so lightly developed that when something happens, I had to keep asking myself- "who is that?" It becomes difficult to care about someone in a book if they are not developed.

The other difficulty is nothing major happens until page 200! It isn't a spoiler, since it is the premise of the book, but our first student majorly harmed is 200 pages in of a 300+ page book. I would think that if there was a sense of peril, peril should have happened pretty early in the book. There was a lot more explaining the game rather than playing the game.

It isn't a terrible book at all. There were lots of fun parts to the book and the story moves pretty quickly. I read it in a single day due to the quick pacing of the book. I will say that I guessed the antagonist very, very quickly. I used two verys because I kind of knew at about page 50 or so.

I will say that I also recognized that I wasn't the target audience for the book, as I am an adult and not a pre-teen. That is audience for this book, unlike a Hunger Games or a Maze Runner, two series which can be enjoyed as much as an adult as a teen. This one is Hunger Games for pre-teens and I do mean pre-teens. I think an older teen would enjoy Hunger Games much more than this one.

I rated this one 3 stars for pre-teens or on a YA scale. It would be much lower if it was on an adult rating, as I don't think adults will not get much out of this one.

Amazon Link- The Assassin Game by Kirsty McKay