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Review: The Rig by Joe Ducie

The Rig by Joe Ducie
Published by Hot Key

Goodreads synopsis
Fifteen-year-old Will Drake has made a career of breaking out from high-security prisons. His talents have landed him at The Rig, a specialist juvenile holding facility in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. No one can escape from The Rig. No one except for Drake...

After making some escape plans and meeting the first real friends of his life, Drake quickly realises that all is not as it seems on The Rig. The Warden is obsessed with the mysterious Crystal-X - a blue, glowing substance that appears to give superpowers to the teens exposed to it. Drake, Tristan and Irene are banking on a bid for freedom - but can they survive long enough to make it? 


My thoughts 

I must admit I started this book not really knowing what I was letting myself into and worrying that it might be a bit too much of a boy book (note there is no such thing as a 'boy' book you naughty book blogger) but I must say from the first page I was utterly hooked.

Firstly this book is so fast paced you barely get a moment to draw breathe let alone anything else. I needed to keep reading to find out what happened next and found that I flew through it in a matter of hours.

I loved that it was a little bit different to everything else I have read for a long while in its setting and feel yet in saying that I did feel that it almost had a boarding school school feel. I don't mean this in a bad way at all but in that there was this camaraderie between the main characters as they snuck round the building not always doing what they should be doing. There's even a competitive sport the inmates play Think Harry Potter but set in a prison and you are half way there. I don't think it is just me who made that observation but I'd be interested to know.

For me this book was about unravelling both the mysteries of the rig which were cascading but also the stories behind the teenage characters who have been judged to be so dangerous they are sent to a high security prison in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. I loved getting to the bottom of the story about each of them.

The only thing that bugged me about it as a story was that it seems to finish and wrap up a bit too quickly. Granted I'd take them over a drawn out series any day but I did feel it maybe needed a little more.

All in all a book I didn't expect to enjoy but really did and one I'd certainly recommend.

You'll love this is you love
Prison Break
Insignia by SJ Kincaid


Comments

Jesse Owen said…
This sounds right up street and is going on my new wishlist :)