Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The Rumor Game

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.

Content Warnings

plumpaperbacks's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

[Early copy from Netgalley. This doesn’t affect my opinions/review.]

My feelings on this book are complicated. On one hand, I think it was an (unfortunately) accurate portrayal of how vicious high school can be, of flawed teens making questionable choices when under social and mental duress. On the other hand, though, I found most of the characters extremely frustrating, which hindered my reading experience.

I will say that the final third of the book revealed one very unexpected plot twist that single-handedly saved the book for me. Up until that point, nothing had shocked me except how horrible some of the characters were being. It was all very cleverly done on the authors’ part.

One aspect I have mixed feelings on is Georgie’s character. While she did end up being one of my favorites—alongside Riley and Baez—I question the authors’ choice to make her narrative what it was. Prior to the start of the story, she was a fat girl sent to a summer weight loss camp, which already isn’t my favorite thing. Then the new school year starts, and suddenly, despite being ignored when she was fat, now that she’s lost weight and started dressing differently, she becomes more popular. I realize it was in part a commentary on fatphobia in society, and one of the most significant parts of Georgie’s journey was her realization that she’s beautiful and worthwhile no matter what she weighs or how she looks. But I ask: why was any of it necessary? Why, in 2022, are we still giving this rather offensive cliché any attention? Why couldn’t Georgie realize those things without losing any weight? Alternatively, instead of any sort of self-image character arc, she could’ve been a transfer student, new to the area, and that was why she was attracting attention. I don’t know—maybe I’m over-analyzing this, but I just didn’t really like it regardless.

Also, I would’ve liked to see a bit more about Cora’s queerness. I am completely aware that it’s not meant to be a focal point in this story, and I accept that. However, it’s briefly mentioned a couple of times that she previously, secretly dated a girl, and that’s it. I think it would’ve been interesting to see more of that part of her.

Ultimately, I did like the ending. I liked where each of the characters ended up, and even liked most of the major players by the time I was done, which was a huge improvement from the first half of the book.

As for the book as a whole, I’m not sure. My criticisms of the first half combined with my unexpected investment in and the surprise improvement of the second half equal an overall neutral rating. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. I would recommend it if you’re a fan of prep school mysteries and contemporaries with social commentary, but it’s not my first choice recommendation either. So yeah—50/50, basically.

Representation

Indian protagonist
Black queer protagonist
side characters of color (includes Indian, Nigerian, Black and Chinese rep)
sapphic side characters

Content Warnings

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.

Content Warnings

epilieaspiechick's review

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

My full review can be found on the Epilie Aspie Chick blog!

Thank you to Hyperion for providing the ARC for an honest review.

This book is well over 400 pages, which would usually make me uninterested in reading it. I'm not a big fan of long books. However, this is the exception to the rule with this story about the toxicity of rumors and bullying. It may take it's time to build up the plot and get to the punchline, but it is well worth the wait. The authors do such a phenomenal job writing a story that doesn't pull it's punches and feels quite true to life. It is both heartbreaking and exciting at the same time. Important trigger alert: this story can get dark and discusses bullying, sexual assault, drinking, and drugs.

Content Warnings

janaikam's review

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challenging emotional reflective 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

2.75

Received as an e-arc from NetGalley

This book had a lot of themes surrounding racism, sexual assault, and fatphobia. It also talked heavily about the rumors especially in high school.

For me, a lot of things felt very forced like they wanted to bring up all these issues in one book instead of focusing on a few issue to where it feels like these issues that are brought up don’t get their full development, which really takes away from the story.

I found it hard to like a lot of the characters because most of them just weren’t like able and it was a very weird disconnect from this story.

All in all the story read like it was written by adults who don’t really know what teens are like, but have a general understanding

Content Warnings

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