Review: The Assassin Game by Kirsty McKay

Title: The Assassin Game
Author: Kirsty McKay
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release date: August 2nd 2016
Pages: 336
Genre: Young Adult mystery
Source: NetGalley - I received a free eGalley of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
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At Cate's isolated boarding school, Killer is more than a game- it's an elite secret society. Members must avoid being "Killed" during a series of thrilling pranks, and only the Game Master knows who the "Killer" is. When Cate's finally invited to join the Assassins' Guild, she know it's her ticket to finally feeling like she belongs.
But when the game becomes all too real, the school threatens to shut it down. Cate will do anything to keep playing and save the Guild. But can she find the real assassin before she's the next target?

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The Assassin's Game sounded like a great read; with the theme of murder at an elite boarding school, it reminded me a little of the Private series, which I loved. The idea of the Guild and their game is fascinating, too. I was expecting a thrilling mystery. But unfortunately, I was very disappointed by The Assassin's Game; while the book had a ton of potential, I had a number of issues with the execution, and the novel just didn't have the level of thrill and danger that would have made it a worthwhile read for me.

A boarding school of geniuses and misfits on an isolated island has a ton of potential for unique and fascinating characters, but unfortunately, I wasn't all that impressed by any of the. Cate is okay, but I don't feel like we even got to know that much about her; I wish her passion for art had been explored more so that we could have maybe gotten to know her better. Cate also frustrated me with how useless she is in times of danger, never shutting up and listening to what anyone is saying to her. The entire cast of secondary characters is very underdeveloped: not Cate's best friend and roommate Marcia, whom we know basically nothing about, not Vaughn, Cate's childhood friend that suddenly reappears but who, to be honest, we don't really get to know either, and none of the other players in the Game that are really all just described with one or two adjectives each. Because none of the characters (and potential suspects) seemed like real people, I couldn't really get myself to care or try to figure out which one of them might be the killer.

Which leads me to my main problem with this book: the underwhelming-ness of the entire mystery. The novel starts out slow, with a really long introduction to the school and the game, and a ton of info-dumping. I kept waiting for the plot to pick up, and to some extent it does... buy in my opinion, it just doesn't pick up enough. I was expecting things to get completely out of hand, for people to actually be killed and for there to be a real sense of danger. But what happens, at least up until the very end, is actually relatively tame, and I never felt any immediate threat or danger. The plot just wasn't intense enough for me. It doesn't actually become dangerous for Cate until the very end, but I still found the resolution to be underwhelming: the bad guy's motivation is kind of petty and didn't seem strong enough to justify what had happened, And after this one scene of confrontation, the book just kind of ends, with a last chapter that wraps everything up nicely and reads more like an epilogue. I just didn't get out of this book any of the sense of thrill I like to read mysteries for.

To be honest, I don't think I can recommend this book. The writing isn't bad; it flows nicely (except for the info-dumping), making this a quick read, if nothing else. But with underdeveloped characters and a mystery that never really picks up steam or makes you feel any sense of threat or danger, the whole book was just very underwhelming for me. While I love the idea, there are other much better YA mysteries out there.