The Chain by Adrian McKinty- A book review

Disappointment. That is all I can think of to say. It is truly disappointing how much of a major let-down this book is. The premise is outstanding: a woman, Rachel, learns her daughter, Kylie, has been snatched at the school bus stop that morning after she dropped her off by strangers who stalked her and inform her the only way she can get Kylie back home safely is by paying a ransom, stalking and kidnapping another child whose family will have to do the same things in order to get their child back safely and so on. No police involvement, only one other person can know or help Rachel complete the tasks, and if she doesn't pay the ransom, kidnap another child, and continue the chain satisfactorily in a matter of days, or if she tells an unauthorized person about the chain, Kylie will be murdered on the spot, Rachel's entire family killed, and the people who kidnapped Kylie will have to start all over again with another child and family or be at risk of the same fate. Breaking the chain is not an option by any means if you want your family to survive, and if you pick a family that doesn't comply, then your family is at risk of meeting its demise. 

You never know who is a part of the chain because the chain is always watching and anyone can approach you at the drop of a hat by order of the puppetmaster (not an actual name or characterization of the character in the book, that's just how I like to describe them).

Doesn't it sound phenomenal? You would think so, but for whatever reason, as heavy a dramatic beginning as this book has, it does not carry throughout. It took me months to finish it, and adulthood and ADHD aside, it's simply because it does not hold its weight. I've considered rereading it in order to offer more insight on what and where exactly it goes wrong, but who wants to torture themselves in such a way? I mean, I absolutely hated the 50 Shades series, but I still managed to read and complete the entire series in a matter of days per book. I swore I'd never go back to those even though I own copies of the original trilogy, but I'd rather read them again than reread this book--although I never once rolled my eyes at the dialogue in The Chain. 

Unlike The Hunger Games series, I don't necessarily have anything against Rachel, the protagonist. She makes sense. She's a cancer survivor who learns the very day Kylie is kidnapped that her cancer has returned--she even refuses to set an appointment to restart chemotherapy in order to attempt to save her. Her moral dilemma is more than obvious. The range of emotions she experienced and the consequences of the actions she takes due to making the best choices she can to return Kylie home safely are entirely understandable. She's a suburban divorcee who hates her ex-husband and can't depend on him for anything because he's suffering a midlife crisis and about as considerate as hemorrhoids. But then she falls in love with his drug-addicted, war-torn brother who continuously jeopardizes their plans by doing bird-brain things that are quite obviously stupid, avoidable, and reckless mistakes, and I couldn't possibly understand wanting to sleep with him after all that because why is the bar so damn low?

There are ill-placed flashbacks that kind of give the plot away before it needs to be revealed, and that is cause for more disappointment because the art of a good story is letting it unfold in front of you on its own. By the time you find out who is behind The Chain, the story doesn't even truly make sense anymore because for someone to have allegedly orchestrated this super-secret, yet long-term operation, you'd think they'd have their shit together and it would be a well-oiled machine by the time Rachel and her family is involved. You don't even really learn why the chain was started. It's kind of just thrown together and explained like this person is just a sadistic narcissist who likes making seemingly innocent people torture other seemingly innocent people out of desperation. Oh, yeah, and money.

The center of the story drags on quite a bit, and I lost interest quickly, but once I did get back into it, the book was almost over and the fight between the protagonist and criminal mastermind is extremely underwhelming--I mean, the child who had to be rescued pretty much saved her mother and her entire family. The only thing that kind of made sense was the fact the father was completely useless, the drug addict brother/uncle/boyfriend lost his shit when he needed to have it together the most, and the secondary mastermind of the operation was completely over the abject sloppiness and carelessness of his comrade. Tying up the loose ends in the aftermath made sense and was very well explained, but it just wasn't enough to rectify the torture it took to get there.

My favorite character was Rachel's daughter, Kylie. Although only a child and a victim of an extremely traumatic ordeal, Kylie was smart, courageous, extremely resourceful, kept her cool in situations that would probably bring any seemingly well-adjusted adult to their knees, and a damn good problem-solver. Like I said, the adults in the story could have taken notes and learned a thing or three from her. I honestly would have liked to spend more time seeing things from Kylie's perspective than her mother's, but you have to be with Rachel mainly because she is the one who figures things out and makes a plan for retribution. It's very obvious that Kylie is Rachel's moral compass, and she is driven by her desire to re-earn her daughter's trust and reverence once she tells Kylie what she had to do to get her back home safely. For someone who I feel McKinty wants the reader to see as a take no prisoners badass, Rachel just doesn't sell it for me. While she is extremely smart and capable of achieving what she's setting out to do, I just don't understand why she continues to sell herself short by trauma bonding and fucking her drug addict brother-in-law. Like, I know this isn't any sort of rom-com, but girl, after all that you still ain't learned to love yourself a little bit more? The man--while he did help in some ways--basically jeopardized all of your lives numerous times, but you can still get tingly for him? Are you sure? 

Overall I rate The Chain about a two-point-five to three out of five stars because again, the premise, the introduction, and Kylie are just that good. It starts with quite a bang, but it's more than obvious this book was written by a man who doesn't understand how little bullshit an educated, divorced mother on her last leg trying to raise a teenage girl is willing to put up with when it comes to incompetent people in her life. Or maybe that's just me. I don't know if I'd be completely unwilling to read anything else by McKinty, but I am going to need a bit of a break from him before I take that chance again.

There are a couple secondary characters I feel are really good at bringing the story along and making things a little more interesting. The themes and creative references made up for some of the disappointment, but overall I feel like The Chain is something you should read if you don't mind being let down. Maybe good for a beach read so you don't get completely caught up in the story and catch a sunburn because you got so lost in it you couldn't put the book down. You will definitely put the book down a few times before you finish it if you're anything like me.