Rate this book

O Jogo (2014)

by Anders de la Motte(Favorite Author)

3.52 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Bertrand

series

The Game Trilogy

review 1: About 3.5 stars. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.It has taken me a really long time to finish this book. I received it a while ago, and I set it down, and finally picked it up again. There are a few reasons it took me so long to read. First of all, my eReader copy was corrupt and the format was so off kilter that it made it difficult to read, but I finally made it through. The buggy format did not effect my rating, it is just to explain why it has taken me so long to review this title for Netgalley. The second reason it was difficult to read I will describe in further detail in this review.Henrik Pettersson is a Swedish ne'er-do-well that has a record of petty crimes and an indolent style. When he... more gets in enough debt, his sister typically bails him out. Rebecca Normen is a cop that is trying to be the best she can be at personal protection detail (bodyguard). The book is written such that we are toggled between their two worlds, and eventually these two stories come together. There are times where it's purposely confusing and misleading, but clears up pretty quickly. I did enjoy that aspect of the book.The book started with a great pace. Henrik finds a cell phone that prompts him, by name, to play a game. Bored and a bit of an attention and adrenaline junkie, Henrik quickly immerses himself into the Game. As the Game and the stakes escalate, Henrik quickly finds himself going to greater lengths to achieve the kudos he gets from the Game viewers. I really enjoyed the book to this point. It is very similar to a movie I just watched called 13 Sins, and if it kept to this pace I would have probably given it 5 stars. Unfortunately, the storyline became severely bogged down with conspiracy theories. While they may or may not be true, it just became a bit farfetched that every great event in history can be tied to the Game. I don't want to say any more than that at risk of spoiling the story, but it just became a bit over the top and cumbersome. I ended up skimming over every portion where Henrik began theorizing ad nauseum about the global effects of the Game.I also found that the author did not write the characters to be very appealing. I tend to like someone you can root for in a book. HP was not that person. His lazy lifestyle didn't really endear me to him, and his willingness to do anything to move ahead in the game, just highlighted how morally deficient he was. I think that the only reason his character made a positive turn by the end of the book, was not out of a moral change of heart, but just due to him falling out of favor with the Game Master. Rebecca was an okay character. Yes, she was dealing with some trauma in her past and a load of guilt, but she wasn't really likable either. She didn't have any friends on the force, she didn't have any personal relationships - just a bed buddy, and she was estranged from her brother who is her only living family member. Again, I wanted to like her, but there really wasn't much to hold on to.So the second reason I had trouble finishing this book is because it really bogged down in the middle. However, I did feel that it picked up in the last couple of chapters or so. I received the second book from Netgalley as well, so I will continue reading the series and hope that it moves at a pace more similar to the start of this book.
review 2: There was a dilemma; one or two stars.I had so many problems with it. First, characters are not like-able at all. I did not like HP, he was a little shit and chapters with his sister were boring as hell. I wanted to skip because I still see no point in them.I feel jealous of people who read this in English. You guys were lucky because the way he talks originally is super annoying. He talks in his native language and almost every third word is in English or he throws English phrases in. Sometimes I talk like that too and I apologize to everyone who had to listen to it. I now realize how annoying that actually is :/I liked the idea but the execution was pretty poor. I was debating reading the others and I read the little summaries here on goodreads and they sound like a never-ending nightmare. Also, surprise porn. That is a thing. I was so embarrassed because it was so vulgar :/ Oh, and HP getting hard and horny doing shit and watching videos of himself destroying stuff. Yeah, no... less

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