Friday, March 29, 2013

Review & Guest Post: The Game by Shane Scollins

Author: Shane Scollins
Title: The Game
Publication: March 1, 2013
Publisher: Limitless Publishing LLC
Genre: Young Adult Thriller, Suspense
Source: Author/BlogYout


No matter where you are, they’ll find you, and put you in “The GAME”.

Candice Laguna’s life is being systematically dismantled, by an unknown force, for areason she can’t imagine. But she is about to become the unwilling star of a reality gamecompetition the likes of which has never been broadcast to the world.

Just when things get darkest, a mysterious man snatches her from the grips of doom.He is a man who is not what he seems, and not who he says. He has no name and hismotivation to help Candice is not what it seems to be.

But his selfishness has good intentions, he just wants to know who he is and where hecame from. And getting to the man orchestrating this reality game is the only way to findthe truth.

THE GAME is a mystery/thriller with an unpredictable paranormal twist. It has actionand adventure and plays up the everyday exploitation of reality television obsession gonewrong.

Thoughts: Candice gets drawn into this sick,twisted game that somehow she's been chosen to star in. It all begins when she keeps getting prank calls in the middle of the night from strangers that claim to know personal details about her life. She tries to go to the police but she doesn't have proof to show that the calls happened....thinking she's most mind, Candice tries to get away but no matter what she does they always find her. Candice must prepare to fight for her life at the hands of a foe more sinister than she ever could imagine. He's always watching and waiting to lure her into his game.

The Game will play with your mind and is not what it seems at all. What starts out as a game becomes more of a murder mystery with paranormal threads throughout. The characters are interesting. The bad guy, seriously made my stomach turn with his sadistic and calculating ways. It's truly frightening what people can do with technology and how reality T.V. has become extremely ridiculous and outrageous. The idea of privacy seems to be dwindling but anyway back to the book. The author does a good job of combining the paranormal with the overall story, though when the change in direction occurred, I admit to being a little surprised and puzzled how it would all tie together. Okay, although interesting, this totally went over my head. I don't get it but you might, so check it out.



Author Bio
Shane Scollins is a freelance writer and author. From New Jersey, he now resides inUpstate New York with his wife, Heather. He has worked as an automotive servicemanager, a website developer and a computer network engineer. Primarily ascience fiction and paranormal novelist, Shane enjoys taking readers on surprisingand unexpected journeys that twist reality. He is currently working on his nextbook.


WHY BOOK COVERS ARE TO IMPORTANT

Book covers are a vitally important part of your book. They are the first thing readers will see. They are the first impression of your work. And as much as we want to believe in that old saying that you can’t judge a book by its cover, we simply know from a marketing standpoint, that’s not even close to true.  

The craziest part is that in this new publishing landscape book covers are even more important. The cover has never been more critical than it is right now. There are more books available and a greater need to distinguish yours from the pack.

Self-publishing and eReaders have put more choices in front of readers than there has ever been before. And at the same time readers are devouring books at a rate they never have. Setting your book apart from the pack is not easy, and at this stage, at the very least, you need to have a cover that will get that second look. It needs to be clean and professional.

Unless your name is King, Koontz, Patterson, Stewart or Roberts, your story is going to need a great cover. Those few big names can just put their name on the cover, some swirly sky colors next to a tree, and end up selling the lights out. Unfortunately, that won’t work for most of us.

The rest of us need a great cover that evokes the emotion of the shopper. Because lets face it, no matter how great the writing is, if the cover is horrible, no one is going to know it.

I have seen firsthand the difference a great cover can make. My publisher, Limitless Publishing, is putting out some of the best book covers on the market, period. And the cover is the window into your book. If people don’t want to look thorough the window, it won’t matter how cool the view inside is.


2 comments:

  1. I agree there are so many books on the market now that you need to grasp the reader's attention with a great cover. I do like the cover for this book. I think there was a movie , Gamer that had kind of the same concept. It was pretty dark in the way it did things too. Cutie may enjoy this I know he really loved the movie that had the same gist.

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  2. I agree about a book cover. I remember when Schwarz Book Store was still open and I saw the cover first . It drew my attention and I bought the book. It was The Bright Forever by Lee Martin.

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