WOW--what an exceptional story this is! It is definitely appealing for the YA audience, but I am thrilled to say that I believe it will appeal to a more broad and diverse group of readers as well. The writing lends itself to the reader not only being engaged but also guessing as to the various plot twists and turns along the way. The plot is interesting and fresh and I believe that most people will be intrigued by even the events at the beginning and read continually until they can get through the book! Definitely recommend!

An interesting premise sets up Diana Urban's These Deadly Games, though it rests heavily on the "terrible past secret" trope: Crystal Donovan receives an anonymous message through a shady app that her sister has been kidnapped. She can't tell a soul about this, including the police or the sister will be killed. Instead, Crystal has to play a series of games, all of which end up putting her circle of friends in mortal danger.

I'll say that I'm not the target audience for this book (though I have read some excellent YA books in the recent past), but I'm trying to review this objectively.

There are times when the pacing of this book flies. In particular, when Crystal learns of the kidnapping, there are moments of heart-in-your-chest excitement. Unfortunately, much of the story feels like it drags on for far too long for this type of book in this age category. And as the plot/person behind the anonymous account is a bit overly predictable, this slowness feels even more drawn out.

As for the characters themselves, no one is really that likeable. I had a hard time connecting to anyone or their actions (and not because they were teenagers and I am not), especially Crystal. I know that she's a teenager going through a lot, but it's really strange that she has such emotional detachment. Yes, she's desperate to save her sister, but she doesn't act all that broken up about...things (I don't want to add spoilers as to what happens, so it's impossible to say what she should be upset about) most of the time. The dialogue also added to a sense of unbelievability as well. This is a part that's make-or-break for me in a book and it felt a little awkward at times.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for making a copy of this ARC available to review here on NetGalley.

I see so much for this book. I love that it isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. It has amazing predecessors but still to me it feels refreshed and as original as a story can get. The first paragraph of the first chapter will have you thinking “what am I reading?” in the best way possible, but the backdrop of the main character(s) are gamers is what sets this story apart. I’ll encourage anyone to read this story. One thing for sure just like the book Two Can Keep a Secret, you won’t be able to figure out how the story ends until your seconds from finishing this story.

This was a fast-moving YA thriller about a group of friends whose past is coming back to haunt them.

I rolled my eyes a few times during the reading of this book, and in the end, I found the premise to be a little too implausible. I didn't particularly find the MC likeable and had trouble understanding her actions at times -- actions which literally had deadly consequences.

The early reviews on Goodreads are quite good, and it's possible that I'm just not the right audience for this book, even though I'm a huge fan of other YA mystery/thrillers like A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, Truly Devious, and One of Us Is Lying. This one just missed the mark for me.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of These Deadly Games in exchange for an honest review!

Crystal and her friends have a secret. That’s one of the first things we learn. That five years ago, something awful happened, and they’re all hiding from it in the form of an interactive game, MortalDusk. I really liked the idea of the inspiration here, and I was also impressed by how much of it I understood game-logic wise; I’ve obviously been exposed to too much Fortnite thanks to my child. Sigh.

Crystal drops her sister off at school for a school trip with advice to laugh off her bullies, and hurries back to her house, desperate to squeeze in some extra time on her game. When she gets to school however, the ‘fun’ really begins…

As predicted with a Diana Urban novel, this had me on the edge of my seat and wanting to rush through the pages as quickly as I could. Crystal reaches a point where she is suspicious of everyone, being forced to make horrible choices, and eventually having to look back over everything she’s done, wondering just what concequences she’s brought into play without even meaning to. The game is afoot indeed, and Crystal is a player with a big motivation to want to win.

It was creative, unique and captivating, keeping my attention fully on the book even when it wasn’t in my hands. I needed to know how! I needed to know who! I needed to know why.

It’s one of those books where you get so excited about reading it, you’re immediately sad it’s finished as you know it’ll be a while before the author produces another book; the only downside to ever reading anything so far in advance. It’s a clever book, and I’ll be waiting with baited breath to see what Diana Urban comes up with next.

Y'all. I really had to take a few days after finishing this before I sat down to write this review. I had to let my mind wrap around that ending enough that I wouldn't accidently put spoilers in my review because TRUST ME, you will want to experience these twists for yourself!

Crystal and her friends are ready to rock the upcoming MortalDusk tourney. But there's someone standing in the way. When an anonymous individual sends Crystal a video of her little sister gagged and bound, she must play their game to keep her sister alive. If she tells anyone, including her friends, what's going on her sister dies. As the 24 hour game continues, the tasks start to get more dangerous...they start to turn deadly. She must choose between her friends and her sister. If she refuses to play, her sister dies. Is someone so desperate to take their team out of the running of the tourney? Or is a secret past finally catching up to her? Let's play a game.

This has got to be one of the best thrillers I have read in a very long time. The writing is done so well and the flow of the entire story just feels perfect. It has a great pace, exceptional character development (even for the smaller, side character), and don't even get me started on the MANY jaw dropping twist.

One of my favorite things about the way this book was written is the different timeline chapters. It was something that I was a fan of with Diana's first novel. ("All Your Twisted Secrets" if you have not read that yet, I also HIGHLY recommend that book as well!)

As I neared the end of the book I had figured it all out. I was a good read and picked up on all the little clues sprinkled throughout the book....but then the rug was pulled out from under me. The twist started and they didn't stop. All the little things I thought I had right were cleared from my brain and my jaw was left on the floor. Ten out of five stars just for the twist alone.

If you are a fan of Karen M McManus, "I Know What You Did Last Summer", or the Pretty Little Liars books, then you will want to put this at the very top of your TBR list!

Thank you to Diana, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an eArc in exchange for my honest review!

Loved the premise of this surprisingly gritty little YA gem.

Terrific cat and mouse story with some fun surprises, I couldn't put it down and read it one sitting.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy. It was my pleasure to write an honest review.

Holy hell, this was a blast from start to finish! It was such a twisted, wild read and I loved every single moment of it! This is an amazing author and I can’t wait to read more from her! Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc in exchange for my honest opinion. It was amazing!!

“These Deadly Games” had me at the edge of my seat, and I could not put this book down!

The author did a great job in setting up the suspense with the twists and turns. While the story starts harmlessly, Crystal’s world turns upside down when Zoey goes missing. As the plot progresses, we see how dire the situation is, as Crystal has to unscramble clues and complete a set of tasks to save her sister’s life. The author takes the story in a twisted direction which you don’t see coming. It was like reading a young adult version of “Speed” where Crystal is Keanu Reeves. The author had me unnerved, even in the small moments like when Crystal hides the answer keys. Even the supporting characters like Akira, Matty, Randall, and Brady add nicely to the plot, where you feel each of them is hiding something.

Moreover, I liked how the author toggled the story between the past and the present. We get to see the incidents that happened five years earlier, which could be why Crystal is in a dilemma now. There are many suspenseful moments in the story that made it memorable, like when Crystal sees the disturbing video of Caelyn when she sees someone standing outside her window or when the SWAT team arrives. Moreover, there are quick a few shocking deaths that I did not expect the story to have, and that just made it more thrilling to read. The author also ends the story nicely, which has the potential for a possible sequel.

Overall, “These Deadly Games” is a gripping young adult mystery thriller to pick up and read, and I highly recommend it.

While the plot of the book was intriguing I felt it was a little predictable. I figured out very early on who was messaging Crystal and why. I have read other reviews saying they didn't believe that Crystal wouldn't go to police or tell her mother regardless of what Anonymous said but this part I find completely believable, teenagers are irrational and if she thought she could save her sister it made sense to me.

I would recommend this book for a quick, easy read for those who enjoy YA thrillers.

"These Deadly Games" is a masterful tale of gaslighting and revenge. Crystal and her friends are preparing for the statewide MortalDusk tournament on Sunday. The team competition only allows five members, and there are six of them in the group, so they are having a contest. The first five to earn 20,000 MortalBucks get a spot on the team. Crystal is desperate to earn her spot, as the team has a good chance of winning, and she needs the prize money. Crystal is also excessively focused on the game, and gaming in general. Her efforts to obtain the necessary kills and earn MortalBucks are temporarily delayed when her mother gets called in to assist with an emergency surgery and Crystal has to drop off her little sister, Caelyn, at school for a school field trip. Later in the day, while in class, Crystal receives a message from an unknown person (An0nym0us1) using an unfamiliar app, and the message contains a video of her sister gagged and bound to a chair. She soon learns that An0nym0us1 wants her to play a life or death game. If she breaks the rules, her sister dies. If she tells anyone, her sister dies. If she does not respond to the messages in time, her sister dies. If she loses or forfeits, her sister dies.

The first task seems like a juvenile prank -- once she figures out the clues, she has to steal the answer key to an upcoming math test. However, the locker where she is instructed to hide the answer key belongs to the newest friend in their group, Dylan, and it is quickly discovered there by the school principal. The required tasks escalate from there and becoming rather harmful, if not outright deadly. As Crystal seeks to complete the required tasks, while keeping her activities secret, she also tries to figure out who the mystery person is and what the motive is for this deadly game. She suspects a fellow gamer (Fishman) who is the biggest rival for their group, a fellow student who did not make the cut to join the team and engaged in some hardcore trolling as a result (Lucia), and even her good friend and neighbor Zoey, who has a rather big secret that Crystal has discovered but is so far keeping from the rest of their friends. Crystal also wonders if the game might be related to events of five years earlier, where another game they played resulted in a tragic accident, the truth of which the group of friends had kept to themselves, afraid of what would happen if they told at that time, but creating a burden that has weighed on them for years.

As events unfold, Crystal appears more paranoid and unhinged, making choices that make it that much easier for An0nym0us1 to get his/her revenge and make it appear that Crystal is to blame for what happens to her friends and/or their families. The likely identity of An0nym0us1 is not too hard for the reader to figure out, but how the likely culprit is able to pull off the elaborate scheme remains a mystery until near the end when Crystal finally figures out the identity of the mastermind. However, even then, there are still some rather significant surprises awaiting the reader. The story is full of suspense, surprises, and psychological mind games. Once you start reading, you will not want to stop, needing to find out what is going to happen next.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

I read this book in three hours and oh my god, this is probably the best thriller I've read in a while.

The protagonist, Crystal, was actually really likable, even though she was you know, basically running around town killing her friends!! (jk. or not. ig we won't know until February). I think that Diana Urban writes in a way that's so easily addicting, and that once you start reading, you can't stop until you've figured out everything that's gone wrong.

While I ended up guessing many of the plot twists, I think that's what made it so enjoyable - that the seeds had been so carefully planted throughout the book that readers couldn't help but slowly piece them together. It's definitely what makes for a good thriller.

And while I found the amount of "diverse characters" to be lacking, I don't think that the book needs to have them to be a good book. I would have appreciated more representation (there was one bi character and one japanese character in the main cast), but I understand that as a white author, sometimes it is better not to overstep.

AND THEN WE GET ACCURATE ALLERGY REP. Apologies, but as someone who also has life-threatening allergies to tree nuts, I was very happy to see a character who had to struggle the same with checking food ingredients a minimum of twice before eating it. I was so happy when they talked about APPLYING EPIPENS TO YOUR THIGH because holy shit the amount of times I've seen media just jab an Epipen into someone's throat. It's infuriating. But yes, I'm ridiculously happy about this very small thing.

Overall, the book was fantastic. The pacing was brilliant, I was hooked throughout and I definitely encourage people to preorder this before its release in February of 2022 because it has successfully gotten me out of my reading slump. :))

This was a very quick and fast paced book to read. If you are looking for something to read in a night and keep you entertained this is a good one. I didn’t connect with any of the characters until about halfway through the book though, and even then I never really connected wholly. The plot was entertaining enough to keep me interested though. It was a bit predictable and wasn’t exactly what I was expecting it to be when I read the synopsis, but it was still an interesting read.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was good. I did find myself wondering what would happen throughout, none of it was ever super clear, which is always good in a Mystery! I thought this mystery was written well.

I really enjoyed this book. The author does an excellent job of making the reader feel all the emotions displayed by the main character. The main character is getting ready to compete in a video game tournament with her close friends when her younger sister is kidnapped. In order to save her sister, she must complete different "games" which become more and more sinister. I think this book will appeal to a wife range of ages. My 12 year old will be able to read this fast paced thriller since the author did not include any steamy sex scenes or any drug use.

It took me awhile to get into this book, I am not a gamer so that part wasn't interesting to me. When she started dealing with her sister's kidnapping it got more interesting. I guess a main part of the twist, the other part was interesting. Overall it was a tense but unrealistic thrilller

Let’s play a game.

You have 24 hours to win. If you break my rules, she dies. If you call the police, she dies. If you tell your parents or anyone else, she dies.

Are you ready?

And this sets the stage for a YA thriller/gamer story.

Crystal is not just a gamer. She is obsessed with the game Mortal Dusk and is gearing up for the biggest game of her life. With millions in prize money, she and her friends will compete against each other for spots. Getting in game time is the only thing that matters to these kids.

When a message comes across her phone telling her that her sister is tied up and will die if she doesn’t agree to play a game. Some of it was just daring. Steal a test, bake some brownies, things that seem random and a bit bizarre. But the video of her sister is so real, she can’t stop.

When she realizes her actions are killing her friends, she has to question why this is happening. Is it another gamer trying to eliminate her team? Or is something much worse at play?

This was a YA book and I do not normally read that genre. There were twists and turns and even I wasn’t ready for that ending!

Well Done!

NetGalley/ February 1st, 2022 by Wednesday Books

Unfortunately, when a story copies a well know premise, it's impossible for me not to compare them. Don't get me wrong, it's impossible for formats not to get reused, I'm just saying they need to be prepared to stand up to the comparison.
These Deadly Games follows the format of Black Mirror's Shut Up and Dance. Everything Black Mirror did well, These Deadly Games did not.
Every turn in this story I read as a plot hole, every single one, I was making a list then stopped because it was just the entire plot in point form.

We are introduced to Crystal who we are led to believe is part of a video game team that has a real shot at winning a $3 million competition, but this seems to be an in an alternate world where just any group of highschool buddies can enter million dollar competitions since sponsorships, twitch (which was mentioned but not income related to it), Patreon, and monetized YouTube do not exist for players of this level....so Crystal needs the money. This financial burden plot point ends up being irrelevant anyway.
Crystals sister gets kidnapped, Crystal doesn't go to the police for a reason I don't understand and follows the obviously ill intentioned instructions. The plot then falls apart into a series of actions that would not equal the result in the book (here's where I got very picky on my list but this is spoiler free) before coming back around to a good mystery who done it.

Where Shut Up and Dance worked was that the main characters motivation for completing the tasks made sense to the audience at the end. It is logical he would not have gone to the police, that he would be willing the break the law. Crystal not going to the police was a quick one liner for the story to play out - going to the police won't change what happens to your sister. The kidnapper clearly need something from you and the police being involved won't change that. This was a plot hole I couldn't get past.

I continued to the 65% marker, couldn't take it, and skimmed ahead until the last two chapters and read those. If you're familiar with the Scooby Doo format, you know who did it.

This book follows Crystal, who enjoys playing videogames with her friends but gets caught in a much more dangerous game.

Such a fantastic mystery book. So many twists and intrigue. I enjoyed all the characters. If you like puzzles, videogames, and/or murder mysteries, I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Diana Urban and netgalley for letting me read the e-ARC. Already preordered the hardcover copy so I can read it again and make sure to share with my friends

I really loved the fast pace and the plot. I thought I knew what twist we were going to get but oh boy, I was so wrong, I'm still amazed.
Great final twist, I finished the book in one afternoon because I couldn't stop reading!