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A review by lachese
Project Cain by Geoffrey Girard
3.0
An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review. This did not influence my thoughts in any way.
Project Cain is the Young Adult analogue of Cain's Blood. Or maybe Cain's Blood is the adult version of Project Cain. Either way, the two books are identical in almost every aspect, including characters, plot, and facts presented. However, if I didn't know better, I would have thought that two completely different authors wrote these two books. This is a testament to Mr. Girard's ability as a writer. He successfully managed to write the same book, two completely different ways for two different types of audiences.
Where Cain's Blood was written for adults in a typical thriller format (3rd person, several different point of views), Project Cain was written from the sole 1st person perspective of Jeffrey Jacobson, a kid plagued by the misfortune of carrying the DNA of serial killer all-star Jeffrey Dahmer. The way Project Cain was written felt very much like Jeffrey was writing a journal and reminiscing about times past. Late in the novel we find out that this is exactly the case.
Formatting is a bit unusual in this book. At first, I found the use of capitalization to EMPHASIZE any crucial words a bit jarring until I eventually adjusted. The lack of quotation marks is not necessarily confusing, but serves to make conversations feel more abstract, as if the reader is experiencing character interaction through a transcript and not watching it directly. This book was specifically written and formatted for young adult male readers (see the full blog post written by the author), which is especially evident when comparing this book to Project Cain, which is written in a much more traditional style. As a reader who happens to not be a teenaged male, the written style of this book just wasn't my cup of tea. However, I encourage any young adult readers to give this book a try. Don't worry, parents, there's not an overabundance of blood and gore (surprising for a novel about serial killers). All that was saved for this book's counterpart.
I'm not going to analyze the plot in this review, since it was exactly the same as Cain's Blood. For that see my review here.
Overall, I recommend picking one of the two books to read. Although each book provides slightly different viewpoints, the plot is exactly the same, and knowing what will happen stole some of the excitement out of the reading. By the middle of Project Cain, I was ready for it to be over. There wasn't enough new information presented to make the second book worth reading. For adult readers, I recommend Cain's Blood (provided you are mentally stable and have a strong stomach). For young adult readers, I'd recommend Project Cain. I'm not sure Cain's Blood would be a good choice for impressionable minds.
Project Cain is the Young Adult analogue of Cain's Blood. Or maybe Cain's Blood is the adult version of Project Cain. Either way, the two books are identical in almost every aspect, including characters, plot, and facts presented. However, if I didn't know better, I would have thought that two completely different authors wrote these two books. This is a testament to Mr. Girard's ability as a writer. He successfully managed to write the same book, two completely different ways for two different types of audiences.
Where Cain's Blood was written for adults in a typical thriller format (3rd person, several different point of views), Project Cain was written from the sole 1st person perspective of Jeffrey Jacobson, a kid plagued by the misfortune of carrying the DNA of serial killer all-star Jeffrey Dahmer. The way Project Cain was written felt very much like Jeffrey was writing a journal and reminiscing about times past. Late in the novel we find out that this is exactly the case.
Formatting is a bit unusual in this book. At first, I found the use of capitalization to EMPHASIZE any crucial words a bit jarring until I eventually adjusted. The lack of quotation marks is not necessarily confusing, but serves to make conversations feel more abstract, as if the reader is experiencing character interaction through a transcript and not watching it directly. This book was specifically written and formatted for young adult male readers (see the full blog post written by the author), which is especially evident when comparing this book to Project Cain, which is written in a much more traditional style. As a reader who happens to not be a teenaged male, the written style of this book just wasn't my cup of tea. However, I encourage any young adult readers to give this book a try. Don't worry, parents, there's not an overabundance of blood and gore (surprising for a novel about serial killers). All that was saved for this book's counterpart.
I'm not going to analyze the plot in this review, since it was exactly the same as Cain's Blood. For that see my review here.
Overall, I recommend picking one of the two books to read. Although each book provides slightly different viewpoints, the plot is exactly the same, and knowing what will happen stole some of the excitement out of the reading. By the middle of Project Cain, I was ready for it to be over. There wasn't enough new information presented to make the second book worth reading. For adult readers, I recommend Cain's Blood (provided you are mentally stable and have a strong stomach). For young adult readers, I'd recommend Project Cain. I'm not sure Cain's Blood would be a good choice for impressionable minds.