Exceptional

One of the BEST books I’ve read this year! Story telling was immaculate. Really the whole book had my gobsmacked by the end. I really feel everyone should read this book!

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Brilliant

An all too believable tale of a near-future America where bloodsports are the craze of the nation. Crisply written, a cocktail of Death Race 2000, Rollerball, The Hunger Games and The Running Man told with a POC voice. Loved it.
Excellent performances all around too.

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Needs to be on the screen!

Thoroughly enjoyed this one, if they don’t make it into a film or TV show they are missing a trick!

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If I had my time again….

…. I would probably not bother with this one. I nearly gave up an hour or so in as it starts with some bloodthirsty battle scenes that actually don’t mean anything much because we don’t know the characters yet. Even later on the characters’ backstories are not there to flesh out the personalities. The two main female characters are so similar it was hard to tell them apart.

I like the dystopian genre and this had a good premise. Hunger games meets reality TV meets capitalism. I am sure if this was suggested tomorrow a worrying amount of people (Trump’s America) would love the idea.

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Am ambitious book rarely lacking

This is quite an ambitious book, wanting to link multiple themes, perspectives and realities into one book. Thematically, it's about freedom, incarceration, love, connection, hope, resistance, the excesses of capitalism, about humanity. There's a lot of ground to cover.
Adjeih-Brenyah manages to handle this all with care and subtlety. There are some rare moments, however, where he seems to falter in tone or some awkward dialogue or some obtuse plot point.

The main characters, Thurwar and Stax are overall believably put down. At the end though I still asked myself why they were the way they were. A bit more detail on their back story could have helped me.

Structurally, the book starts out very strong. The midsection is somewhat unfocused. It is more a smorgasbord of different perspectives which takes out some of the hot air. The very end was then being cut down too short to my taste.

The fighting scenes were good, but lacked the impact or flair or tension of for example the books by Fonda Lee. You always knew the outcome beforehand.

I listened to the audiobook. The quality was superb, with different narrators really embodying the multiple voices of the book. Excellent.

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Addictive and disturbing

Although slightly predictable and drawn out this was an addictive listen and very well read

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Excellent

Not my usual type of read (sweary and violent)
However, character development, range of narratives, reflections on the ‘justice’ system all made this an incredible listen.

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Not my usual thing!

Really great story. Gladiators for the reality tv future, horrifying yet believable. Gripped from start to finish.

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Shocking, stunning, sobering, sad

This book is immense. Almost straight after finishing it - I needed 10 mins to process all the emotions after it ended - I downloaded and listened to his first book (Friday Black), then came back and listened to this one again. Not for the faint-hearted, but one that will definitely stay with you.

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Bloody and brilliant

A truly gripping listen that kept me on a rollercoaster ride of emotions! It was read really well, and I really enjoyed the different narrators. They were needed to help break up the jumps to different characters in the book.

Really strong start, the middle was slow and at times I did find it disjointed, the way it jumped to different characters. But the end was powerful and tragic and I’m so glad I stuck with it.

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1 person found this helpful