Well hello to you my reader chums! Today's book review is one that I am completely obsessed with. As many of you may know, I love a good thriller and this one topped everything. If you're looking for a new thriller to read, here is my review of The Pact by Shannon Bolton.

The plot follows a group of teenagers who one summer play a daredevil game that goes horribly wrong, resulting in a woman and two children being killed. Megan, one of the group makes a pact with her friends. She decides to take the blame, leaving the others to be free and get on with their lives. In return, each one of them agrees to a ‘favour’, which they can give on her release to prison. After twenty years, Megan is free and ready for payback.

This was one of those books that the characters and their bonds were incredibly interesting and evolved over time in a way I didn’t expect. Megan is the character that intrigued me the most. Imagine taking the blame for a crime that your friends were guilty of? That was an admiral thing and because of that through a lot of the novel, I did feel sorry for her as she went away and her friends essentially abandoned her for two decades. When Megan was released, her actions towards the others were questionable and it made me doubt that empathy for her, of her friends leaving her. She acted peculiar and kind of like a stalker. It was strange. Her bond with Xav was the most interesting as she had loved him since her school days and you can tell that never really went away.

Amber, I really liked as a character. Even in beginning, she was the kind and caring one who wanted the best for all of her friends, and that trait prevailed through the novel as she stood by her friends and was the only one to stand in Megan’s corner in release at first. Felix, I also warmed to as you could tell his heart was in the right place but the guilt of the crime had eaten away at him all these years (like the others) and he couldn’t be okay with that. The two characters I didn’t really like was Talitha and Dan. Tal to me came across as selfish and heartless through a lot of the plot even towards her friends and had no care for Megan whatsoever. Dan, was just an oddball if I’m honest and it’s no surprise to me why he was really close to Tal and took the most isolated life of them all.

Overall, I’m still not over how incredible and addictive this thriller was. It’s one of those books where I thought the storyline was going one way and that flipped over and over again. I loved how fast-paced it was, how the plot always left me questioning after each page, and the character development. It was written in such a clever and well-thought-out way - and was so unexpected after every chapter. I was completely gripped and obsessed with the sheer intelligence of the writing. I would 100% recommend any thriller lovers to check it out!

The ending wasn’t what I expected at all. The book took a complete 360 in the last few chapters and my mouth dropped at what happened. I'm not going to give it away but what I can say is that it was intense and shocking. A must-read!

I hope you enjoyed this review! Are you into thrillers?

Thank you for reading <3