While the title of the book, 'The Dark Game', already hints at some ominous dark story, the pages behind the cover lead us into the deepest human abysses, presenting something even more scary than expected.

Ten authors follow famous author Roderick Wells' invitation to a competition, where only one of them will survive (unknowingly, but literally) to win fame and fortune. As it turns out, each author has a skeleton in the closet, which was part of the reason they had been chosen. Now they are haunted by their dark secrets and soon, the body count starts to rise.

While at first I had trouble to keep all the characters apart, their different voices and mannerisms made it easy to draw a clear picture of each of them. While I didn't sympathize with any of the characters that well, I can easily name a few I absolutely loathed from the beginning.

Reading this book felt like reading both a novel and a collection of short stories. There are flashbacks into each author's past and glimpses into their works written for the competition. Enveloping this collection of all kinds of horror scenarios is the intricately woven main plot, which adds just another layer of creepiness. I loved the mix of subtle and more explicit horror and the twisted happy ending.

(Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book, all opinions are my own)