The Assassin Game by Kirsty McKay: ARC Book Review #ARCAugusts

Title: The Assassin Game
Author: Kirsty McKay
Publisher: SourceBooks Fire
Published Date: August 1,2016
Genre: YA, Mystery, Thriller, Boarding School
Page Count:336
Format: Kindle

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★.5

Amazon Summary: 

T.A.G. You're It...
"It is 4 a.m. when they come for me. I am already awake, strung out on the fear that they will come, and fear that they won't. When I finally hear the click of the latch on the dormitory door, I have only a second to brace myself before-"
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 Guild of Assassins, she knows 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?

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 My Review:

"This is killer, and you have all been invited to play. And you should play like your life depends on it."

That is the whole premise of the book, playing a game and trying to stay alive. We don’t at first realize how true that statement will be until the game has been underway and the first person had been taken out and things would take a very real turn. Once people do start actually getting hurt everything starts getting a bit too real for the players of the game, but they feel like they must continue on in order to find out who is doing it and why.

Things for me got a little confusing when Cate’s childhood friend who she hadn’t seen in years suddenly shows up and tries to join the game by bribing them with something no one can usually get access to or have. This brings a new element to the game which makes them all be connected at once and able to talk about it without any of the teachers knowing. Because of this we not only get to see everyone’s feelings about the others in the game, but also to see how some people use it to antagonize their future victims.

"Nobody wants to be dead, because then it's back to life, back to reality-the reality of school days at Umfraville Hall, Skola Island."

While the “game” is going on the players still have to do regular school things as well as trying to have a social life when they are almost completely cut off from the outside world. Except for the few times they get to go to the main land when the tide is just right.

"No need to go looking for trouble, it usually finds me soon enough."

Overall I really did enjoy this book, I kept trying to figure out who the killer was and why they were doing it and wasn’t able to figure it out until right before it was revealed. Alongside the game we also had friendships that were enjoyable and the main characters having love life drama that just ended up making everything worse for her.  I do think certain things could have been handled better pertaining to a certain characters issues, but it was also dealt with in a very real teenager way where they don’t want to tell what happened because of what might happen to said person, but they also don’t want anyone else to get hurt.

I liked how friendship was a strong point in this book and how it kept going even when they were arguing and things were just going horribly wrong. This book also really deals with an important part of how society is and why we play the games that we do.

"What really interests me is the social game. It's not about brains or algorithms or studying so hard you think your mind is calcifying. Social acceptance. That's everything, isn't it? It shouldn't matter, but it does.”

Thank you to Netgalley and SourceBooks Fire for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.