Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Rumor Game

Bryn knows about rumors all too well, since she's the subject of most of them. After a car accident she caused that almost killed her ex-boyfriend, Bryn has learned to monitor the rumors and how to attempt to cope with them. When the rumors start to finally ease off her and onto her friends, if she can even call them that, they have to work together to navigate them, and figure out who started it all.

I'll start this off by saying that this is a VERY heavy story, full of a lot of difficult topics, as demonstrated by the trigger warnings above. I highly recommend waiting to start this book until you are emotionally and mentally sound for it.

That being said, I think the whole aspect of cyberbullying and rumors was definitely taken to the extreme for this, obviously for plot reasons. It very much was a lot of petty drama and an overemphasis on online drama. I know it's meant to show the impact of rumors and what it does to the lives of people who the rumors are about, but very early on it gets very stale, and the rumors at least don't have much impact until the one major one at the very end of the story. Even then, it was hard to read because of the graphic and foul nature of what occurred.

Because of all of this, there weren't many characters I did like. I only liked maybe one minor character but that's about it. Bryn has good reasoning but she comes off like a pity case. Cora is cruel except for the few times she isn't. Georgie I kind of liked because of her whole body image arc, which I related to a lot, but I can't really speak to the accuracy of which the "weight camps" hold true for this story. I also can't really speak to the representation of the marginalized communities in this story as I myself am not a part of those communities.

The nature of the book itself leads to the fact that it doesn't really have a linear plot. It's just a bunch of smaller events smashed together in an attempt of a plot. As a result, I just couldn't really get into the book until over halfway through. The formatting of the story on my Kindle as well was extremely wonky due to a lot of multimedia things within the story itself. That ended up taking me out of the story slightly.

Overall, the Rumor Game is reminiscent of Riverdale and other high school dramas, with a wide variety of difficult topics that can make it hard to read.

I received a copy of this story as an e-ARC from NetGalley. Any and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Content Warnings

katiemack's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This feels like Gossip Girl with a touch of Ace of Spades. It's not particularly original, and it's cruel in the trauma it brings up; I also guessed the twist about 60% of the way through the book. Nevertheless, YA readers who are looking for a dark thriller set in the realm of the wealthy will enjoy the pacing and the dramatic reveals.

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