Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Rumor Game

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Rumor Game by Dhonielle Clayton, Sona Charaipotra

10 reviews

themoodreader's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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awenya's review

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challenging dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I usually hate multiple points of views, but in this case it works well. Just when one person's life and point of view starts to swallow you whole and drown you, you get a miniature reprieve by jumping to another.

This book was pretty dark, and while comparing it to Gossip Girl is apt in some ways, I would argue it's much heavier and darker. Pay attention to the content warnings.

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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sunsetcity's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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badger5's review

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emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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cozylifewithabby's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The Rumor Game is a YA novel told through the perspectives of three teenage girls at an elite Washington DC high school. Throughout the story each of them is impacted in some way by the rumors, lies, and social media attention until they decide something must be done. Overall, I give this book 3 stars (which I consider to be a good, but not great book) My reasons are as follows:

Pros:

Unfortunately social media has made bullying easier than ever and this book highlights that. All three of our narrators as well as other students are intrenched in rumors and lies. It impacts all areas of their lives and it often causes them and other characters to make decisions that they might otherwise not in response to feeling attacked, shunned, or even worshipped.

I also like that in the end there were consequences (some deserved, some satisfying, some frustrating), but it wasn't like they got out of this mess unscarred. In real life there are consequences ranging from losing friends or your reputation to serious accident, death, or jail time and this did show that reality.

I was nervous about the format, but ended up really liking it. Having the story take place not only through our narrators' perspectives, but also through social media platforms shows their lack of control over the rumors and how much it impacts a whole community.

There is a lot of diversity in this book and I believe kids would find someone who at least looks like them.

This book is entertaining and dramatic like a Pretty Little Liars or Riverdale ( or Tiny Pretty Things: the authors' other book)

so it should draw treens in and keep their attention, but it also deals with very serious topics like: cyber bullying, gaslighting, racism, slut shaming, and sexual assault.

Cons:

I personally think that having all the characters be the sons and daughters of politicians, diplomats, and wealthy business owners lessens the relatability for your average teen as it focuses on the experiences of the upper 20% with their gated communities, country clubs, lavish houses, servants, and unlimited resources. It makes it seem like this is more of a rich kid problem instead of something that faces all teenagers.

I think it tried to take on too much. As stated before, this book covers a lot of issues (more than I even mentioned) so it can't really go in-depth on any of them. I personally found parts of the book so traumatic I wasnt sure I wanted to keep reading, but then we just get a list of different resources in the back instead of serious discussions of these topics. I just feel like the authors could have focused on less issues and gone more in-depth on those.

Pros of the Audiobook:

I always like when audiobooks have different narrators when the book is in different perspectives. This is narrated that way. However, there are 3 characters and two narrators, so that makes it a little confusing.

Listening to the story you get the sounds of text messages, emails, and posts that bring you more fully into the digital part of the story. You also can hear the emotions of our main characters.

Cons of the audiobook:

There is a section of the book called rumor log which is repeated each time a new rumor is added. This is nice at first, but as the rumors pile up it gets repetitive. I could quote the whole list word for word from memory I heard it so many times. (If you were reading the print version, you would just skim the list or look at the last entry)

Overall, I might recommend this to my students (after discussing the content), and I do think it shines a light on the serious issues teenagers face. Definitely check all content warnings before reading.

Thank you to Netgalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide for an audiobook version of this book. This is my honest review.

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sarahmreads's review

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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.

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jaynellewags's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is gossip girl but with diversity, it shows the craziness that is high school in a world with social media.

This book follows three main characters, Bryn, Cora, and Georgie. Cora is the top girl at school. She throws the best parties, is dating the star of the lacrosse team, and is the head cheerleader. Georgie recently got back from fat camp and is finally popular, but is that really what she wants? Bryn's mom is in a psychiatric rehab and she almost killed her classmates in a wreck during the summer. She went from being elected as class president to being the most disliked kid in school.

When school starts back with all that happened during the summer- someone is starting rumors. These rumors are ruining Coras relationship with her boyfriend, Georgie has became the talk of the senior class-and not for a good reason-and the entire study body wants Bryn removed from office.

As the three girls try to navigate their senior year - social media is ruining everything.

In the end everything blows up in all of their faces- students are kicked out of school, charges are filed, and their senior year is ruined.

This book does have triggers for SA, Fat-phobia, drugs, and racism.

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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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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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dark slow-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

3.0

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Netgalley and Disney Hyperion in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Rumor Game tells the story of a elite private high school in Washington DC, in the links that some people will go to protect themselves and hurt others. It’s a dark, dramatic contemporary story that unfortunately has too many ties to potential real life situations. I’ll be honest from the forefront and say that I didn’t enjoy The Rumor Game, but I do believe it is an incredibly well written book and will be real received by the correct audience.

My complaints about this book have nothing to do with its actual quality and everything to do with the types of media I prefer to ingest. The Rumor Game is a book filled with unlikable people, putting each other in the worst situations, and behaving as badly as they possibly can. It is stressful and uncomfortable to read, at least as far as I’m concerned. That said, if you’re the type of person who enjoys reality TV or police procedural‘s, this book will probably be just fine for you. This story follows the children of politicians and the elite of the capitol of the United States, and the characters are written in such a way that their every instinct is to protect themselves and sabotage others. If there was a single nice person in The Rumor Game, it would’ve been Georgie, but rumors and lies take a toll even on the nicest people.

The plot twists and turns, and although some of it is predictable, you get so focused on a single aspect of the story that you don’t expect it to explode quite the way it does. The authors certainly keep you reading, but it’s a bit like a car accident where you can’t look away but you don’t really want to see what’s going on. The Rumor Game is a hard book to read, emotionally, and I’m sure it was an extremely difficult book to write. It also makes an excellent point. This novel isn’t afraid to go into the corruption of selfish hearts, the pains of having emotionally abusive and emotionally absent parents, and the way malicious lies can follow us everywhere we go because of the infusion of social media and our daily lives.

I always find it challenging to recommend books that don’t leave me with that feel good feeling, but I will go as far as to say that TheRumor Game is well written, well thought out, and cover several important topics. There are many, many circumstances of trauma inducing events in this book, so please make sure to look into the trigger warnings (I have them on my blog, and you can also see them on the StoryGraph) before reading this book. Otherwise, if you think it sounds interesting, I recommend you pick it up and support the authors. It’s really well done, and while I didn’t like it, that has nothing to do with the quality of the book and everything to do with the way it left me feeling when I finished it. You’ll have to judge for yourself.

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