3.5 stars rounded up.

Thirteen year old Kylie is sitting at her bus stop when a man in a ski mask abducts her. She is told that she won’t be hurt and will be released in a few days if her mother just follows the rules. Meanwhile, Rachel, her mother, had just received a phone call letting her know her daughter has been kidnapped. If she follows the rules, pays the ransom, and kidnaps another child, her daughter will be returned to her. Is there any way she can get break The Chain though?

What a crazy concept! The kidnappers have to tell the parent of the child they took to kidnap another child to get their child back. If I was one of these parents I don’t know what I’d do. Could I kidnap another child to save my own? I know they’re scared into thinking if they go to the cops they’ll be killed as well as their child, but why didn’t one parent just try to stop the chain? Since I’m not a parent, it’s hard for me to say what I’d do though.

I haven’t read a book like this before, and it has a lot of potential because it is such an original premise. I thought part 1 moved so quickly. The chapters were short which I prefer. Once Kylie is returned and we get to part 2, I felt the book dragged a bit. In my opinion, it was a little longer than it needed to be. I was able to figure somethings out, but overall I did enjoy the read.

One note, one of the parents, Erik mentioned that books never end at chapter 77 so I thought it was clever that the author ended the book at chapter 77.