The Dark Game by Jonathan Janz

The premise hooked me for this one. A bunch of aspiring writers are invited to the world’s most lauded author’s secluded home for a writers’ retreat. There’s a prize of a wad of cash and instant fame for the winner, a return to obscurity for the rest. As one could imagine, tensions are high and the competition is fierce, but the game changes when the contestants start to disappear. Then things start to get weird. And I mean really weird. Not the most original of concepts, but certainly not without its charm, and I’ve read a lot of good spins on common tropes, so that’s not a reason to pass on a book.

Sound good? I thought so. Sadly though, I didn’t really care for this one. The monster is revealed way too early for my liking, and the authors are an unlikable bunch, not just for their history, but in general, making it hard to root for any one of them to survive. The death scenes were a bit lame, and they lacked consistency. Sometimes, they were rather fast, while for others it took a conveniently long time so people could escape or be rescued. In addition, it was pretty obvious about halfway in who was getting out alive, eradicating any real tension. There was also a “Big Brother” (the crappy show, not 1984) vibe going on too. Early on, the writing seems disjointed, and for most of the first 50% of the book, I strongly contemplated not finishing, something I do not like to do.

However, it picked up over the latter half of the book. The idea of “being the author of your own adventure” was done pretty well, and the (real) author showed some skill by writing in different styles for each writer. The stories they were writing at the retreat were just snapshots (WIPs), but I’d have read a couple of them. In addition, there are some set pieces dotted throughout the second half that showed some real style, and at times I couldn’t put the book down. I also liked the ending a lot. So to sum up, the book wasn’t terrible, but it certainly wasn’t amazing either.

I can’t honestly give it more than 2.5 out of 5 stars.