DNF - did not finish. I decided not to finish this title. It was not for me. Thank you, publisher and NetGalley for the early copy.

I have been wanting to read this novel, ready to love it as I am a big fan (and occasional player) of RPG. The setup of a murder mystery among the group of estranged friends who try the game for the last time for the sake of their friendship sounds great! But in the reality - the mystery is very weak, the fantasy RPG environment is scarcely used and the main content of the book is a self-help guide for young adults. And it is clichey at that, full of nicely sounding phrases.

The author uses "inclusive" characters (out of the 5 teenage characters there is one non-binary, one trans and one autistic character), but their individual characteristics play no real role within the story. Why use an autistic character and then do not go deep with this? And while I probably would not read a novel with trans and non-binary characters being a central love couple (there is no sexual undertone here, to be honest), as this is not my area of interest (and I do find the teenage sex change operations being a concerning issue due to some of teenagers lacking the knowledge of the impact of this change to their whole life), I would probably like to know more of their honest troubles.

I simply find this novel being a missed opportunity, trying to tackle many issues and do not fulfilling any of its aims.

A lot of people didn't like that book, and honestly, I don't know why.

Maybe it's because when I was a teen, I LOVED scary movies like Final Destination and Scream, where the characters were killed one after another. I LOVED books that were set in a similar setting (like the Frissons series, in French, I don't know how it's called in English). So for me, it was like a return to my teen years.... 20 years later.

I loved the twist that I did see coming but I was surprised anyway. I couldn't read the book before going to sleep because I was SO SCARED.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Fire for the copy of this book through the Early Reads program and for the complimentary e-copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

It’s unusual to find a book with such a diverse range of characters so I really enjoyed that aspect of the book. The storyline was powerful but also quite upsetting. I would be wary of recommending in case it was too upsetting. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an egalley.

I enjoyed how this story was told from several different character POV's as it makes for a great book and adds to the story. There is a lot going on and it is great to read from different perspectives. I enjoyed the mystery of the book and trying to figure out what was going on and who is responsible. An enjoyable read to the very end, I recommend this novel.

Marieke really doesn't shy away from tough topics when she outlines her novels, does she?

Previously, her most memorable book was probably This is Where It Ends, which is a novel about a school shooting told through multiple points of view.

This book too is a story told through multiple points of view. It's also very queer, and includes my favourite characters Ever--a nonbinary RPG storyteller who pulls the whole group together--and transgender Finn. These are just elements of their characters, by the way. I don't believe I saw any transphobia from any of the main characters, though there was a transphobic beating in Finn's recent backstory.

I don't know how much I can say about the other characters without giving large parts of the plot away, but it involves a cabin in the woods, a teen getaway to one of a rich character's family home and some sentimental concluding of the role playing game that has brought these five characters together before some of them go off to college. However, being that it is in a cabin in the woods, there are some typical Bad Things that come to happen in the cabin-in-the-woods trope.

The novel goes by really fast and is fantastically paced, with introductions of all five characters at the start and an amazing twist that I did not at all see coming at the end. Loved it.

This was a book that I Really enjoyed this read and I would recommend to others easily, I will be looking out for other titles by this author.

I initially started to read an eARC of this book before its release date. I stopped reading it because I just couldn’t get into it.
Fast forward 6 months later and I decided to give it a try again regardless of the bad reviews.

Let’s just say I should’ve listened.

What a waste of time this book was.
I almost DNF it like 3x but I really wanted to know the big mystery.

I didn’t like that all the characters basically sounded the same. And they were all boring.
The big mystery though was the worst part of this book. So not only is it easy to figure out who the bad guy is but there was literally no point to the plot. The murderer didn’t actually have a reason.

I really don’t recommend this book as it was mostly boring.

Not quite right for my patrons.. Superb character development, elegant world building, and compelling plotting.

Suzanne and I talk all the time about how we should be doing an *OK, But* podcast — where we take something that seems like a perfectly reasonable idea and then explain why it’s actually completely weird. (The first episode would be about the guy who got arrested for wearing a top hat because it’s SO SHINY it’s dangerous.) And I feel like Even If We Break would be a contender for that imaginary podcast: Five friends meet up at a cabin for one last session of their favorite role-playing game before they move on to the next stage of their lives, but there are DARK SECRETS and DANGER lurking.

OK, BUT the dark secrets and danger are ill-defined, and the fast-paced first half piles up a body count before segueing into a weirdly introspective second half — it feels like they’ve paid for a therapy session, so they’ve got to get through it, even though they’re in deadly peril and should probably be focused more on not getting murdered. I did think the trans character, Finn, was really well written, and (spoiler?) did not exist merely in order to be murdered as quickly as possible, but the other characters were less engaging. Not unlikable — just not particularly memorable. Even with all the talking and explaining and internal monologues, it was hard to puzzle out what was going on — and the “big reveal” at the end feels unearned and kind of tacked on. I really appreciated that friendship and romance carried the same relationship weight in the story — I feel like that’s something some YA books tend to forget. Ultimately, though, this book isn’t character-driven, it isn’t suspenseful, it isn’t surprising, and it isn’t satisfying. A nope for me.

This book has great representation (trans, genderqueer, disabled, and autistic characters), and a solid hook (old friends who have grown apart come back together to play one last murder mystery game, on a notoriously haunted mansion). That said, I felt like it took too long to get going and had too much exposition and internal monologuing to keep me engrossed.

Even if We Break by Marieke Niijkamp was confusing, the diversity felt forced (how have #ownvoices authors felt about the representation), and the conclusion was unrealistic. The drama throughout the book was ridiculous. Normally, I recommend Niijkmap books to my students, but this one will not be on my shelves.

This book starts in media res, so you better hold on tight and figure out what's going on. Blending RPG with a murder mystery, and adding some queer and disability representation, this book unpacks a lot in a short amount of time. The thriller aspect wasn't as solidly done as other books, but we get plenty of suspense to make sense of characters and their actions.

I received this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I seem to really enjoy Marieke’s writing, and when I learned this had queer and autistic rep, this book shot up my TBR! And I’m glad I did, this was another one I marathoned through in one go, I couldn’t put it down.

Firstly, it’s set as a D&D murder mystery style game and I am SO jealous that I can’t play that with my D&D crew, it sounded so fun. Secondly, I really enjoyed how the role play element blended into the real lives, and how the writing gave us enough to see both along side the thriller. We also really get to know the characters in a short time.

The thriller element, while not the best I’ve even seen, was pretty well done. It concentrates more on the “why” and “what next” than the who - I figured it out pretty early on, and I think you’re supposed to. I have seen a couple of people who didn’t enjoy this part, but it worked pretty well for me. The tension and suspense is well built, and we know enough about the characters for their actions to make sense.

Out of the five main characters, we also have some frankly amazing rep. There is a trans guy, a non binary character and an autistic character. Plus some great disability rep. It was really great to see so much, without it pulling the focus of the book I loved our main characters. Plus the romance element between Finn and Ever is super cute.

I definitely recommend this. 4 stars.

This book was the second book I have read by this author. The first book I read by this author was This Is Where it Ends. I feel like this book definitely didn’t live up to the expectations I had for it after reading the other book. I feel like the story was missing so much to make it an amazing and interesting book. While I was reading the book I couldn’t connect to any characters and the storyline to me just wasn’t fully developed or it was rushed. I will still try the next book this author publishes but, this was definitely not my favorite by far.

I enjoyed this thriller and will definitely be reading more books by this author. I thought it was neat that each chapter is about one character. Each has experienced something that has changed heir friendships. It’s a good read for the fall or Halloween. Thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to give my honest opinion

A solid outing from Nijkamp. Will appeal to teen reading who enjoy thrillers. I felt like it dragged a bit but ended up being satisfying at the end.

I tried hard to get into "Even if we Break", but it just was not for me. I could not connect with the characters and struggled to finish the novel. It was a DNF for me

I thought this was a good book with a nice variety of characters. Kids will relate with the role playing game. I will add this title to my high school library.

I wanted to give another novel by Nijkamp another go, but unfortunately I found no growth the author's writing, character development, or plot from her debut novel.

EVEN IF WE BREAK gave me some Until Dawn vibes as we follow five teenagers up to a cabin in the woods for a weekend of D&D style role-play, but everything starts to go wrong when music boxes begin to play and bodies start to surface. The murder-mystery is lackluster and fairly obvious while motives are not well drawn-out. The character development is poor, with limited backstory or failure to truly expand upon backstory. There wasn't much divulged as to why this group of friends was breaking at the seams, only that bad things happened in the past, some people were involved but others weren't yet everyone was implicated in the receding friendship.

Unfortunately, I did not find a wow-factor for the plot of this book nor did I enjoy reading about any of these characters. I found most of their issues very trivial, and a lot of their traumatic backstory told rather than shown/exposed, which made it more of a passive experience when trying to relate, which made it difficult to relate at all.