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A review by whitneymouse
These Deadly Games by Diana Urban
3.0
**Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday/St. Martin's Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. This in no way changed my rating**
This is my first finished book in 2022 that wasn't a rollover. I was feeling really bummed after finishing China Room (capital D depressing) and thought back to All Your Twisted Secrets and how fun and twisty that book was. I can't say I liked this one nearly as much, but there are elements I liked.
To begin with, I really liked Crystal. I, too, have a younger sister (not as big of a difference between Crystal and Caelyn), so I relate to wanting to do whatever I could to protect her as an older sister when we were younger. She's put between a rock and a hard place as she's forced to play horrific games that will hurt her friends if she goes along with it, but will kill her sister if she doesn't. You really feel her emotions as she's forced to pick sides and is gaslit into thinking maybe she misremembered something or is remembering inaccurately. This makes her an interesting POV character. The friends weren't super fully fleshed out, so I won't really delve into them. I think there are a lot of aspects that could have been explored more thoroughly (Crystal's relationship with her dad, the dynamics between the group, etc.). Just like AYTS, Urban's writing and clues give you pause while you try to parse them out.
That said, I had narrowed it down to two characters early on in the book and had figured out who the person was behind the games by 15% of the way in. Less than 100 pages. So that took some of the fun out and left me wondering how this would be revealed more than it left me wondering "whodunnit". I'm not a super huge Thriller reader, so if I figured it out, it was probably too easy. The twist in AYTS genuinely took me by surprise, so this one was a let down when it was so early on. Figuring that out also lead to some pacing issues in the middle for me, where I was starting to feel like there really was no way it could get any higher stakes and like we should be wrapping up about 50% of the way in. I did enjoy the second half more, but it still left some weird pacing for me.
I would read another of Urban's books as I do enjoy her writing and her debut showed me that she's capable of writing things that surprise me. I just didn't like this one as much. I'm chalking that up to the easy identity of the person behind the games and personal preference. I'm sure there are many readers who will like this and have fun figuring it out.
3.5 stars
This is my first finished book in 2022 that wasn't a rollover. I was feeling really bummed after finishing China Room (capital D depressing) and thought back to All Your Twisted Secrets and how fun and twisty that book was. I can't say I liked this one nearly as much, but there are elements I liked.
To begin with, I really liked Crystal. I, too, have a younger sister (not as big of a difference between Crystal and Caelyn), so I relate to wanting to do whatever I could to protect her as an older sister when we were younger. She's put between a rock and a hard place as she's forced to play horrific games that will hurt her friends if she goes along with it, but will kill her sister if she doesn't. You really feel her emotions as she's forced to pick sides and is gaslit into thinking maybe she misremembered something or is remembering inaccurately. This makes her an interesting POV character. The friends weren't super fully fleshed out, so I won't really delve into them. I think there are a lot of aspects that could have been explored more thoroughly (Crystal's relationship with her dad, the dynamics between the group, etc.). Just like AYTS, Urban's writing and clues give you pause while you try to parse them out.
That said, I had narrowed it down to two characters early on in the book and had figured out who the person was behind the games by 15% of the way in. Less than 100 pages. So that took some of the fun out and left me wondering how this would be revealed more than it left me wondering "whodunnit". I'm not a super huge Thriller reader, so if I figured it out, it was probably too easy. The twist in AYTS genuinely took me by surprise, so this one was a let down when it was so early on. Figuring that out also lead to some pacing issues in the middle for me, where I was starting to feel like there really was no way it could get any higher stakes and like we should be wrapping up about 50% of the way in. I did enjoy the second half more, but it still left some weird pacing for me.
I would read another of Urban's books as I do enjoy her writing and her debut showed me that she's capable of writing things that surprise me. I just didn't like this one as much. I'm chalking that up to the easy identity of the person behind the games and personal preference. I'm sure there are many readers who will like this and have fun figuring it out.
3.5 stars