A review by mercsydaisy
A Game for All the Family by Sophie Hannah

3.0

An intriguing concept with fun prose and a gothic-mixed-with-modern feel. I liked the first half, as it set up a lot of curious questions and characters - once it was clear where it was going, and once a few resolutions wound up underwhelming (one character's backstory in particular seemed really irrelevant and unimportant), I was let down. I didn't get the ending, which I think was an attempt to be vague and ambiguous for a reason, but it mostly left me feeling as if I'd missed something, or that there should be another chapter where the bomb would truly drop. There's some implication that "all the clues are there" to figuring out what's going on...after a while, I couldn't figure out what I was even supposed to be solving. I also liked the ending I guessed might happen better than what did, so there was some potential here.

Some people are saying they're finding the story, especially the inner story, unrealistic - to that, I don't see a problem, since it's clearly trying to emulate a very gothic novel, larger-than-life story, and it's very in theme. That was quite fun to me, honestly.

Is it worth reading? Eh, maybe? There's some good parts (and a really cute dog), and there are some people who truly seem to believe the ending tied up well, so if you're looking for something British, prosy and strange it's worth a try If you want a well crafted mystery, you will probably not find it here.