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A review by brittishliterature
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
This book wasn't really what I was expecting and was a bit too YA for me (I don't particularly enjoy YA as much these days, who knows I might have really liked this book when I was in high school). So in a way, I think the ending and book overall left me feeling a little disappointed? I get that it's a series so I wasn't expecting everything to be tied up by the end of this one, but the answers we did get and the twists in the book fell a bit flat for me as a reader.
After spending most of the book in the dark about what was going on, I felt that when the truth was revealed, the buildup/anticipation was very anticlimactic. I wished there would have been more clues/seeds planted throughout the book so that then I could have felt like "Whoa it was there all along and now we're piecing it together!" but instead the answers and twists were surprises simply because the author never mentioned anything previously for the reader. And a lot of information being withheld from Avery and the reader was simply due to the fact that the characters just wouldn't communicate what they knew, so by the end of the book when they do talk it's like, "Really? You could have said that like ages ago" and then it wasn't even as mysterious or shocking as we were led to believe.
And I just didn't find Avery interesting as a main character. She often repeated lines of text verbatim in her thoughts and explained things in her internal dialogue that were already obvious to the reader, which I found annoying. The brothers also weren't as interesting as I hoped, although I did like Xander and Jameson the most. Also maybe I'm not really into love triangles, but the fact that Avery was drooling over whichever Hawthorne brother happened to be in front of her at the moment was weird. The characters weren’t really fleshed out or developed, and the romance aspect seemed a bit shallow and unrealistic.
I personally wanted more of the focus to be on the mystery and the puzzles and the game rather than teenage drama. But I guess it is a YA book, after all.
The ending left me slightly curious about a couple of things, but not enough to actually jump into the rest of the series right away. I will say that this book was fast-paced and easy to read, so it does have that going for it, and that's probably why I gave it two stars instead of one. The chapters are short and kept me propelling along; plus I really liked the cover and the feel of the book in my hands (trivial I know, but there it is).
I read this as a buddy read so that part was fun because there are plenty of moments to share reactions.
Glad I could check this one off my list, but now I’m off to other things ✨
After spending most of the book in the dark about what was going on, I felt that when the truth was revealed, the buildup/anticipation was very anticlimactic. I wished there would have been more clues/seeds planted throughout the book so that then I could have felt like "Whoa it was there all along and now we're piecing it together!" but instead the answers and twists were surprises simply because the author never mentioned anything previously for the reader. And a lot of information being withheld from Avery and the reader was simply due to the fact that the characters just wouldn't communicate what they knew, so by the end of the book when they do talk it's like, "Really? You could have said that like ages ago" and then it wasn't even as mysterious or shocking as we were led to believe.
And I just didn't find Avery interesting as a main character. She often repeated lines of text verbatim in her thoughts and explained things in her internal dialogue that were already obvious to the reader, which I found annoying. The brothers also weren't as interesting as I hoped, although I did like Xander and Jameson the most. Also maybe I'm not really into love triangles, but the fact that Avery was drooling over whichever Hawthorne brother happened to be in front of her at the moment was weird. The characters weren’t really fleshed out or developed, and the romance aspect seemed a bit shallow and unrealistic.
I personally wanted more of the focus to be on the mystery and the puzzles and the game rather than teenage drama. But I guess it is a YA book, after all.
The ending left me slightly curious about a couple of things, but not enough to actually jump into the rest of the series right away. I will say that this book was fast-paced and easy to read, so it does have that going for it, and that's probably why I gave it two stars instead of one. The chapters are short and kept me propelling along; plus I really liked the cover and the feel of the book in my hands (trivial I know, but there it is).
I read this as a buddy read so that part was fun because there are plenty of moments to share reactions.
Glad I could check this one off my list, but now I’m off to other things ✨
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Homophobia