Reviews - The Inheritance Games

48.2k reviews for:

The Inheritance Games

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

4.06 AVERAGE

megmar17's review against another edition

3.5

mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

niakayjones's review against another edition

3.25

i don’t like to compare to separate stories against one another but with this one, i really couldn’t not compare it to succession and even more so knives out which follows an eerily similar thread to this book—though in reverse in a way.

knives out is one of my absolute favorite movies, so especially with that one, i couldn’t look at this and not draw all these connections between the two. knives out is a whodunnit, a mystery, but what i love about it is that it’s more than just that. it’s a story about the intricacies of class dynamics and racial dynamics. a story about the psychology between families and just individual people in general. whiteness in the 2010s political landscape. what it means to be a working class immigrant individual. i mean i could go on. you can shove that movie in a mystery genre, but what’s captivating about it is that it’s so much more than that.

the inheritance games has a lot of those features, minus the discussions of race, but to me, it doesn’t nearly capture that same level of complexity that knives out does. it’s all there, but everything feels so surface level. and just when we could go deeper, we stop. or things are over explained that don’t need to be. and i get it, this is YA, but just because it’s YA does not mean its readers can’t figure stuff out. it’s a mystery, let me breathe in all the questions, feel all the tension, the curiosity. the characters are smart, but let me be! it feels like. on that note, i wish the characters came alive more. the knives out characters feel lively, their own crazy bunch, this bunch feels so chiseled—almost written for a novel rather than human, if that makes sense.

so i will admit! it is a page turner and don’t be surprised if i continue the series! but its just.. the pieces are there kinda, but i wanna dig more. i want things to be more messy! i want more rawness! we readers, ya readers included, can handle it!