The Game

July 15, 2020
High schooler Lia is thoroughly prepared to try to win Assassins, the secretive game the senior class plays every year. Small teams receive email messages from the mysterious Council identifying their targets, whom they must "execute" with water pistols while avoiding their own stalkers. Lia, unlike her older brother and friends, has never been a star. Winning this highly competitive game will finally be her turn to shine, so she's been keeping tabs on many of her classmates' schedules. Her BFF, Gem, is amused when Devon, the guy Lia wishes were her boyfriend, ends up on their team along with Ben, whose sister Gem crushes on. But then students start dying, beginning with Lia's first target. It looks like an accident, but Lia heard something suspicious and she's not sure. Other deaths follow, and even as Lia's relationship with Devon deepens, evidence starts to point to her as the culprit. With Lia's parents unsupportive and the police suspicious of her, it falls to her and her surviving friends to identify and stop the killer. A brisk pace and short chapters keep the plot moving relentlessly forward, sustaining suspense, and if the details and lack of character development don't quite bear up under close examination, it's easy to overlook those shortcomings. Lia seems to be White; brown-skinned Gem uses they/them pronouns, and Devon is cued as Latinx. A fine vacation read--quick, deadly, and surprisingly entertaining. (Mystery. 12-18)

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August 1, 2020

Gr 6-8-Lia Prince is average in every way: middling grades, no notable extracurriculars, acquaintances but only one good friend, and even an unrequited crush. Lia's mediocrity is even more glaring in comparison to her older brother, the clear favorite of her parents, who is now away at college. Games are the one thing at which Lia excels so she is determined to win Assassins, a not-so-secret game in which participating seniors of Lincoln High are assigned targets to dispatch with water guns by a mysterious council. But Lia may not be as invisible as she thinks-her classmates begin to die around her and someone is clearly trying to frame her for murder. Unfortunately, much like the main character Lia, the novel is underwhelming. A tinge of Agatha Christie's The A.B.C. Murders isn't enough to make up for flat characters, a lagging pace, choppy dialogue and descriptions, and an easily solvable mystery. There are some moments of humor and romance that shine and murder mystery enthusiasts may be impressed with the varied methods of slaying, but the highlight of the story is an LGBTQ+ character who never feels pressed to explain their they/them pronouns. VERDICT A whodunnit that doesn't reach its full potential.-Maggie Mason Smith, Clemson Univ., SC

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