Title: The Pact
Author: Sharon Bolton
Publisher: Orion
Synopsis:
A golden summer, and six talented friends are looking forward to the brightest of futures – until a daredevil game goes horribly wrong, and a woman and two children are killed.
18-year-old Megan takes the blame, leaving the others free to get on with their lives. In return, they each agree to a ‘favour’, payable on her release from prison.
Twenty years later Megan is free.
Let the games begin…
My review:
The Pact is one of those books that, once you start, you find yourself struggling to put down because it’s just so readable.
As is clear from the synopsis, the story follows a group of teenagers who accidentally kill a mother and her children as part of a stupid dare. Megan, one of the group, offers to take the blame if they all promise to ‘owe’ her a favour – any favour that Megan chooses – in the future. Fast forward many years later, and Megan is out of prison and seemingly after revenge…
I really enjoyed this novel because it’s easy to read but has plenty of atmosphere. Now don’t get me wrong: the characters are, on the whole, pretty vile, so they’re certainly not likeable! They make some very stupid decisions as teenagers which I suppose you can’t blame them completely as adults for, but they all seem pretty horrible people. And this just makes what happens in the ensuing pages even more entertaining. You never quite know who to trust, and the narrative swaps between the main characters so you get an insight into their minds.
The Pact is really unputdownable. I raced through it in a day and, although there are twists and surprises along the way, it didn’t feel over the top of ridiculous. I really enjoyed this thrilling read, and am excited to read more from Sharon Bolton!
Rating: 4/5
Many thanks to the publisher, Orion, for providing a copy of this novel on which I chose to write an honest review.