Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing one of my last reads of 2023, The Partisan by Patrick Worrall. I’d had this ARC for a while and decided to pick it up to finish off the year with a genre I don’t often read. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty lackluster end to my reading year. Check out my review below to find out why.

Summer 1961: The brutal Cold War between East and West is becoming ever more perilous. Two young prodigies from either side of the Iron Curtain, Yulia and Michael, meet at a chess tournament in London. They don’t know it, but they’re about to compete in the deadliest game ever played.

Shadowing them is Greta, a ruthless Lithuanian resistance fighter who is hunting down some of the most dangerous men in the world. Men who are also on the radar of Vassily, perhaps the USSR’s greatest spymaster. A man of cunning and influence, Vassily is Yulia’s minder during her visit to the West, but even he could not foresee the consequences of her meeting Michael. When the world is accelerating towards an inevitable and catastrophic conflict, what can just four people do to prevent it?

Epic in scope, The Partisan is a page-turning thrill ride that takes readers from the hallowed halls of Cambridge to the grimy depths of the Moscow underworld, from 1960s London to the Eastern Front during the Second World War. Perfect for fans of Lee Child books and Robert Harris spy novels, and chess novels and series like The Queen’s Gambit.

***Thank you to Union Square & Co. for providing a copy of the book. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

I’d like to preface this review by saying that I don’t read spy thrillers very often. So, my thoughts are coming from someone unfamiliar with the genre and largely based on how I reacted to the story while reading. When the publisher reached out to me about The Partisan, I accepted the opportunity to review it because the story sounded intriguing and mixed espionage and chess. Unfortunately, I just did not love this one, and several reasons come to mind for why it didn’t work for me.

I was intrigued by the plot of The Partisan in the beginning. It had quite a few plot threads and bounced around between different points in time and various points of view. I was curious about how all the different threads would connect, but in the end I just wasn’t satisfied with how it all was resolved. I expected a grand reveal of the different conspiracies involved, and while there were some shocking surprises, it felt a little too much like I’d been strung along. It seemed like the author wanted the reader to read between the lines, which I found annoying in this case.

It didn’t help that the world-building in The Partisan wasn’t very helpful. Much of the story took place in the Soviet Union, and I was scrambling to figure out what so many things meant. I really wanted a bit more context for both the situation and the characters’ actions. I was also really disappointed in how pointless the chess competition turned out to be since it was a major draw for me to pick up the book. Don’t even get me started on the Rhinemaiden nonsense that ultimately added nothing more than unnecessary and unsatisfying mystery to the story.

The biggest letdown for me in The Partisan was the characters. They lacked depth, and I never really felt like I got to know them at all. Greta is the main exception because her motivations and past were explored throughout multiple time periods, but she was still largely just a one-note rage machine hell bent on revenge. Michael and Yulia’s romantic relationship made absolutely no sense, and most of the other characters were so wrapped up in intrigue I don’t know what to think about them. The focus was largely on the plot, and it didn’t do the book any favors given my aforementioned qualms with the story.

Despite everything I’ve mentioned so far, The Partisan wasn’t a terrible reading experience. There were plenty of exciting moments that kept me flipping the page, and I never wanted to DNF despite all the things that didn’t really work for me. The prose was good, and I did enjoy a lot of the mystery even if I didn’t love where it all ended up. Fans of the thriller genre may end up enjoying this one more than I did. Therefore, I rate The Partisan 3 out of 5 stars.

Have you read The Partisan? What were your thoughts? Let me know down in the comments!