No Pain, No Game by Lucie Ataya review: A book I couldn’t put down

No Pain, No Game by Lucie Ataya is one of those thrillers for fans of Death Race and Battle Royale. It’s a book I couldn’t put down.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book via Voracious Readers Only in return for an honest review.

There haven’t been many books that I felt I couldn’t put down recently. That changed with No Pain, No Game by Lucie Ataya. From the first chapter I was hooked, wanting to figure out what Terrence had done, where his daughter was, and what was going to happen throughout the televised game.

No Pain, No Game is set in the UK in a world where crime has overrun everything. Businesses have failed, jobs have disappeared, and people live in fear. They also live in hate for the people imprisoned, blaming them for the dark and desolate times.

With the high crime rates, television magnate Sean Cravanaugh comes up with a plan. What if he could make a television program out of inmates being tortured? This is similar to the worlds of Death Race and Squid Game. Inmates battle it out between them through a series of games televised to the country. The losers will all be executed, and there can only be one winner, who will get to walk free.

No Pain, No Game by Lucie Ataya tells the story from different angles

We get to see different viewpoints throughout the book. Of course, there is Cravanaugh who creates the game. He has no care in the world. It’s clear that he’s a narcissist, only out for his own financial gain.

He rigs the entire system. You see, there is one person he wants to see win, and he will make sure that happens.

Then there is Tyler, the host. He doesn’t like the show at all, but he’s forced into the world by signing a contract that would be costly if he quits. How can he do something that goes against everything he believes, though? Cravanaugh has the way to do it.

We also get to see the story from Terrence Blake’s viewpoint. He’s a contestant who has spent 15 years behind bars for the murder of his wife and abuse of his daughter. However, there’s clearly far more to this story, and it all slowly comes out but not through him at first. You see, he deeply believes that he should be in prison for everything he did.

There’s also the viewpoint of a young blogger, who was adopted at a young age. She doesn’t know anything about her life as a child, but she’s going to find out.

With all these parts working their way together, there’s no doubt that we’re left with a lot of questions and intrigue. I love how each of the characters work together, and because of that I just couldn’t put the book down. I needed to know whether my suspicions about certain characters were true, and I needed to know if it was going to end up with a happy ending for any of them.

I would have liked to get to know some of the other inmates. There was one mentioned a few times, Mad Spencer, but there were more than 100 contestants to start with. The show very quickly narrowed 100 to 10, and we never really got to know who the others were. I think of Squid Game where you get to know some of the other stories and you root for them even though you know they can’t survive. That’s what I wanted to see in No Pain, No Game by Lucie Ataya.

However, it’s such a small problem. The focus on the characters we do get is fulfilling. The details that are there are necessary. There’s no fluff to pad out the story, and I do appreciate that.

It is disturbing, but at the same time, there’s emotion. We get to feel for some of the individuals, and there’s no doubt you’ll be left to hate others. You’ll certainly find yourself wondering whether you’d watch a TV show like this if you found yourself in this world.

Overall, I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5.

What did you think of No Pain, No Game by Lucie Ataya? What would you have liked to see to make it better? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

No Pain, No Game by Lucie Ataya is available to buy on Amazon.