Thank you Hachette Australia for this book in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis:

In a world full of checkpoints and controls, can love and hope defy the borders? A searing, timely story, as arresting as it is beautiful.
Mhairi Anne Bain owns only two things: a gun with no bullets and her identity papers.
The world is a shell of what it once was. Now, you must prove yourself worthy of existence at every turn, at every border checkpoint. And if you are going to survive, your instincts will become your most valuable weapon.
Mhairi has learnt the importance of living her own story, of speaking to no one. But then she meets a young boy with no voice at all, and finds herself risking everything to take him to safety.
And so Mhairi and the silent boy travel the road north. But there are rumours that things in Scotland have changed since she has been away. What Mhairi finds there is shocking and heart-breaking, but might finally re-connect her to her sense of self and to the possibility of love.
An extraordinary story about survival and what it costs, about the power of small kindnesses to change everything.

Review:

What would you do if you were forced into a situation where your life depended on how desperate you are to survive?

Straight up I am going to say this isn’t as action packed as one would have thought after reading the synopsis. And yes there were times were it did drag and get a little tedious but overall this book showed the mentality of one determined to survive, which generally gets left until the character has a breakdown in other books. The Survival Game, however carried the mental strength and worry of our main character Mhairi from the start through to the finish and it was consistently enjoyable.

Mhairi, a young female, is setting her will and determination to journey home and along the way meets a five year old mute who could either hinder her on her travels or could they form an unbreakable bond? Our opening chapter introduces these two characters under dire circumstances, where life and self-preservation takes hold.

To be far, I am a little dark minded and wanted more of a physical challenge from our characters where they truly face life and death together on their journey but over the course of the book you find Mhairi’s memories more horrific than what lays ahead of them. Don’t get me wrong I knew where they were heading with Mharir’s memories and when the truth was revealed I wasn’t surprised. What did surprise me what Mhairi’s grandmother’s reaction to their arrival – can you punch a granny??? Is that frowned upon? Asking for a friend, of course. Though the grandmother was rude and couldn’t quite grasp the wonder that arrived on her doorstop, she was still an interesting and complex character, which is another tick from me.

Grandmother aside, the story was truly heart wrenching and I found myself questioning what I would do in that predicament and how I would strive to overcome it. And kudos to Singer, that ending was pretty damn epic! And extremely well written!

Earlier I said that the story dragged, and like I said that was on me, I pictured this story to be more hard hitting on the physical struggle. In saying it, it wasn’t overly slow were you start looking around the room for things to draw your attention. It was more slow paced due to Mhairi’s memories and thoughts on what happened to her, and those harsh memories are captivating, they just happened to often in my opinion. However it might be the pace that is right up your ally.

What I also loved about The Survival Game is the government issues and climate change that are glittered on the pages, there is enough information about both to set up the situation in your mind, however it isn’t overbearing that you want to put the book down. I cannot stress this enough with writers, if you put too much politics in a book not based around politics, the readers will dislike and sleep on the job. Singer only provides the necessary details about the government and the climate change to aid the story and not stray from our characters nor their struggle, which is epic.

I personally haven’t read any of Singer’s work before but after getting drawn into his captivating writing style I know I will be on the lookout for any future work. There are a few points in the book that leave you actually questioning what would you do and how would you survive past this point? And most importantly, can you trust others to save you or must you try and continue to save yourself? I loveeeee when books leave me with questions along the way, it’s almost as exciting as picking your own ending in a Goosebumps book!

Overall, The Survival Game is the mental struggle of survival and was an interesting read. If you are after more of a lighter doomsday kinda book than this is the one you will need to pick and read.

Rating: 4/5

Publisher: Hachette Australia

ISBN: 9781444944525