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A review by labunnywtf
These Deadly Games by Diana Urban
3.0
Crystal Donavan is a gamer. A major gamer. She and her group of 5 friends are obsessed with the game Mortal Dusk, and are determined to qualify for a tournament with a huge payout. This tournament is all she can think about, and anything distracting is just a nuisance.
Until the ultimate distraction: a message on her cell phone. A video of her little sister Caelyn, bound and gagged. Her kidnapper wants to play the ultimate game. Play, or your sister dies. And each seemingly innocuous task paints a bigger picture. The kidnapper doesn't just want Crystal to suffer. They're going after her entire team.
This is definitely a YA thriller.
That's not to say it's a BAD thriller. But YA has the ignominious stereotype of being "less than" the more adult counter parts. And this one feels like it's on the bottom of the YA half of the spectrum. As in, we're dancing in Christopher Pike territory, not Courtney Summers.
And Christopher Pike clearly has his place in YA thrillers, even if he hasn't been well known since I was in high school back in the dark days, before accessible internet and when mobile phones were the size of a brick.
But I digress.
This book is less stand alone YA, and more gateway YA. The pacing and realism are off quite a bit, and while the story is enjoyable, you do get taken out of the moment regularly. The red herrings are extremely clunky.
Though I will say, while I did figure out whodunnit pretty quickly, the twisty bits were a welcome surprise, and that is always a plus with any thrillers, no matter the genre.
Great for someone just getting into the world of suspense and thrillers, but maybe not for someone who's already dived into the pool.
Until the ultimate distraction: a message on her cell phone. A video of her little sister Caelyn, bound and gagged. Her kidnapper wants to play the ultimate game. Play, or your sister dies. And each seemingly innocuous task paints a bigger picture. The kidnapper doesn't just want Crystal to suffer. They're going after her entire team.
This is definitely a YA thriller.
That's not to say it's a BAD thriller. But YA has the ignominious stereotype of being "less than" the more adult counter parts. And this one feels like it's on the bottom of the YA half of the spectrum. As in, we're dancing in Christopher Pike territory, not Courtney Summers.
And Christopher Pike clearly has his place in YA thrillers, even if he hasn't been well known since I was in high school back in the dark days, before accessible internet and when mobile phones were the size of a brick.
But I digress.
This book is less stand alone YA, and more gateway YA. The pacing and realism are off quite a bit, and while the story is enjoyable, you do get taken out of the moment regularly. The red herrings are extremely clunky.
Though I will say, while I did figure out whodunnit pretty quickly, the twisty bits were a welcome surprise, and that is always a plus with any thrillers, no matter the genre.
Great for someone just getting into the world of suspense and thrillers, but maybe not for someone who's already dived into the pool.