Dare to Know, James Kennedy: A Review

From the striking cover to the even more intriguing premise, I was looking forward to reading Dare to Know. A Matrix comparison is always going to be a read for me, so I quickly dove in.

When a salesman for a company that can accurately predict your time of death decides to break the cardinal rule and look at his own information, he's not prepared for what he finds. According to the system, he should be dead already, and the only way to find out for sure what happened is to go to Julia.

I liked this book.

I really enjoyed the set-up, and the opening chapters screamed of a modern-day Death of a Salesman. It had that same tragic downfall, the same atmosphere of doubt and depression, and you want to root for our narrator. The overarching themes, too, of self-examination and determining self-worth worked well within the confines of his character.

I had some difficulty completely being immersed in the events, however. The flashbacks were well structured and the prose is well-written, but the timeline was a bit too meandering to completely hold my attention. Is this a book that makes you think? Absolutely. Would I read more of Kennedy's work? Without a doubt. And this might be an instance where a translation to film works better in order to create a cohesive spark.

Thank you to Quirk Books and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.