I was so excited when I read the premise of Project Cain. It sounded like it would be a cool and interesting read, sadly I was quite disappointed. The book isn't at all what I expected. I thought we'd have this cool main character who was essentially good but struggled with a darker side of himself since he's DNA is the same as Jeffrey Dahmer. I expected a lot more action and mystery and suspense. What I got felt like a huge history lesson. There was a lot of information about different famous serial killers, how they killed their victims, how they got their nicknames, and while some of it was interesting, I felt NONE of it was relevant to the story. There was also a lot of information about clones as well so it was a history lesson and a science lesson. How any of it is important to the plot of the story is beyond me. I also did not like that there was no actual dialogue in the book. The whole time it was he said this, he said that. This book did way too much telling and not nearly enough showing. The ending had quite a bit of action, which makes the book a tiny bit better but overall it was just way too much information and not enough of the actual story. This book had great potential and it's sad that it just wasn't executed well, 2 stars. ( )

Appeals more to guys; very interesting plot, but too much murder for me. Fortunately the gory details are most left to the imagination. ( )

The premise was so promising but the style just didn't do it for me. A number of problems with the book could all have been helped by one simple thing. The Golden Rule of Writing: Show, don't tell.

The book was filled with info dumps. About characters, about real life serial killers, about conspiracies... There are multiple occasions when this actually happens:
"About [character]." followed by a page or so of facts about said character. Don't tell me "[Character] had horrific nightmares that woke him a couple of times each month." before I've even met the character. Show him having a nightmare or two, then say that.

The narration was written in a detached, flat sort of way that left me not particularly caring about the characters or what was happening to them. "So, [this] happened, then [this], oh, and I didn't know it then, but I now know that [character] thought [this]." There was no immediacy. Even when the bad stuff is happening, it's told from such a distance that you just kind of don't care. It doesn't hit home.

Others have already pointed out the lack of proper dialogue. I know the author was going for something here, but for me, it only added to the detachment. The author may have been going for "This kid is clearly traumatized" but I was feeling more like "This kid is kind of boring."

( )

Very mixed feelings about this one and Cain's Blood.

Very mixed feelings about this one and Cain's Blood.