Scan barcode
A review by avalinahsbooks
The Game With No Name (Jitters #2) by L.G. Cunningham
adventurous
fast-paced
3.0
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
Izzy is unhappy with her family's move to a new location. She's had to abandon her friends and her entire life, and for what? For the sake of her genius little brother who got a star scholarship at a gifted kids school. Izzy loves her brother, after all, they're twins - but at the moment, she can't stand the idea of him. That's because the move has made Izzy feel like she's unimportant, 'the dumb twin' and also totally alone. That's a hard thing to handle, when you're twelve.
Izzy's real problem isn't 'being dumb', though. She's smart enough - what gets in the way of her using the smarts is her quick temper and inability to manage her anger. This comes up quite a lot as the story progresses and the kids get into this Jumanji-style board game with real life pirate battleships and whatnot. The story involves the kids getting sucked into the game and facing dangerous tasks, so it's quite a lot like Jumanji. But the story is fun to read, and it supports the drama between the main characters. It was a fun, quick read.
About the characters themselves, I enjoyed the story, but I found the 'smart kid', Izzy's brother Noah a little far-fetched and annoying. He's 12, but he talks like he's some ancient wizard in an RPG game, talking pompously and using antiquated words and whatnot. I could practically see his white beard! It's kind of a silly 'smart kid' stereotype. You can be sciencey without sounding weird an ancient. Kids who are into tech and science aren't like that, they're also often into games and youtubers and funny TikTok dances. They'd be the last people to talk like a 70 year old dude who won a Nobel prize in the 60's. I'd rather read about realistic kids than caricatures.
Izzy, on the other hand, comes off as a quite realistic kid, and her character struck me as believable. There is another important character in the story, but I will not go into detail about him because it is closely related to the plot details, and I don't want to spoil.
There was, however, one thing I was quite uncomfortable with. I wasn't a fan of the kids trying to choke each other way more than I'd like to witness them do that. I mean, sure, kids can punch and kick and do many mean things when they fight, but WHY would you write about kids choking each other? MULTIPLE TIMES? I don't know any normal, functioning person who would seriously choke someone, because that's dangerous. Kids don't seriously do that, do they? (Cause if they do, then my belief in humanity may suffer a serious blow.) Choking is not for a kids book. Choking and strangling is dangerous and absolutely off limits. Have them fight and punch. Keep it soft. Keep your characters' hands off each other's throats!! Or do you want them to read the book and try to choke their little brother..??? (Am I being stupid about this?)
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Visit my book blog for more:
https://avalinahsbooks.space
Bookstagram:
https://www.instagram.com/avalinahsbooks/
Izzy is unhappy with her family's move to a new location. She's had to abandon her friends and her entire life, and for what? For the sake of her genius little brother who got a star scholarship at a gifted kids school. Izzy loves her brother, after all, they're twins - but at the moment, she can't stand the idea of him. That's because the move has made Izzy feel like she's unimportant, 'the dumb twin' and also totally alone. That's a hard thing to handle, when you're twelve.
Izzy's real problem isn't 'being dumb', though. She's smart enough - what gets in the way of her using the smarts is her quick temper and inability to manage her anger. This comes up quite a lot as the story progresses and the kids get into this Jumanji-style board game with real life pirate battleships and whatnot. The story involves the kids getting sucked into the game and facing dangerous tasks, so it's quite a lot like Jumanji. But the story is fun to read, and it supports the drama between the main characters. It was a fun, quick read.
About the characters themselves, I enjoyed the story, but I found the 'smart kid', Izzy's brother Noah a little far-fetched and annoying. He's 12, but he talks like he's some ancient wizard in an RPG game, talking pompously and using antiquated words and whatnot. I could practically see his white beard! It's kind of a silly 'smart kid' stereotype. You can be sciencey without sounding weird an ancient. Kids who are into tech and science aren't like that, they're also often into games and youtubers and funny TikTok dances. They'd be the last people to talk like a 70 year old dude who won a Nobel prize in the 60's. I'd rather read about realistic kids than caricatures.
Izzy, on the other hand, comes off as a quite realistic kid, and her character struck me as believable. There is another important character in the story, but I will not go into detail about him because it is closely related to the plot details, and I don't want to spoil.
There was, however, one thing I was quite uncomfortable with. I wasn't a fan of the kids trying to choke each other way more than I'd like to witness them do that. I mean, sure, kids can punch and kick and do many mean things when they fight, but WHY would you write about kids choking each other? MULTIPLE TIMES? I don't know any normal, functioning person who would seriously choke someone, because that's dangerous. Kids don't seriously do that, do they? (Cause if they do, then my belief in humanity may suffer a serious blow.) Choking is not for a kids book. Choking and strangling is dangerous and absolutely off limits. Have them fight and punch. Keep it soft. Keep your characters' hands off each other's throats!! Or do you want them to read the book and try to choke their little brother..??? (Am I being stupid about this?)
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Visit my book blog for more:
https://avalinahsbooks.space
Bookstagram:
https://www.instagram.com/avalinahsbooks/