The Odds - Jeff Strand

 

This thriller/horror follows gambling addict Ethan after he falls off the wagon.  After losing just under ten thousand dollars in Vegas, Ethan is dreading calling home to his wife.  But when a mysterious man offers Ethan the chance to win it all back, Ethan thinks it must be a scam but decides the opportunity is too good to pass up. Afterward, he thinks the game is over and he can return to his regular life only the game is just beginning. 

TW/CW: gambling addiction, child endangerment, gore

I thought this was a pretty solid read, but overall not what I was expecting.  While, from an overview perspective, this book was exactly what I was expecting based on the premise, I wanted more of everything.  I wanted more character development, more gore, more stakes, more drama, more details on the behind the scenes, etc.  

This was very much a max-plot/min-character type of read. The main plot of the game starts just a few pages in and doesn't let up.  We do get some details about Ethan and his family, but they felt very surface level.  I was expecting the challenges Ethan faces to be based around his character or specific character traits but really the only character trait that seems to matter is his gambling addiction. Plotwise, this book starts early and keeps going.  We get a good mix of different challenges and it was interesting to get more details on the structure of this game.  I thought the challenges had a nice escalation pattern to them so the tension doesn't stagnate at any point. 

Because of these constant new plot points but very little down time, the pacing is fast which makes this a really fun potato chip type of read.  At 256 pages, it was already a bit on the shorter side, and the quick pacing makes it absolutely fly by.  This fast pacing does help the reader glaze over some of the more fantastical parts of the plot.  I didn't have enough downtime while reading to wonder "why doesn't Ethan just do X to get out of this" type of questions.  I've seen on a few other reviews that this sort of pacing/writing style comes up in other of Strand's books. 

As much as the challenges do escalate, they never quite get as gory as I was expecting.  The final challenge is set up to be the level of messed up that I was expecting, but due to plot reasons, we never get to see it play out on page.  There are still moments of violence and death, but not the Saw-type gore challenges that I was expecting. Despite the lack of on-page gore, Strand does a decent job of still amping up the tension in this read with aspects such as time limits for Ethan to complete certain challenges.  When we find out more of the reason for this game and how the behind the scenes works, that also adds to the tension as well.  

Overall, this was a fun read but lacked the character development I would prefer.  I really wanted to know more about the characters and the game but I really liked the details we did get. 

I read this for the Midnight Society Book Club - hosted by ReadingWryly.  Bookclub live show linked here.