Diana Urban does not hold back her punches with her newest mystery/thriller, These Deadly Games.

Crystal Donovan’s life comes to a crashing halt when she receives a video from an unknown person showing her younger sister gagged, bound, and crying. The unknown offender leaves Crystal with the instructions to play a series of games… or her sister dies. Helpless to the whims of the kidnapper, Crystal is forced to play game after game, from eating brownies to stealing a test answer key.

But when the kidnapper begins to target Crystal’s friends and the games grow more and more malicious, Crystal learns that she must quickly uncover who is behind these games before they make her choose between her sister and her friends once and for all.

These Deadly Games starts off innocently enough, with the biggest drama in Crystal’s life being who among her friend group is going to compete in a gaming tournament where there is a large cash prize for the winner.

But after the first chapter concludes, we are almost instantly treated with the horrific start to the true and sinister game of this story. Both Crystal and the reader are left breathless with the terrifying turn of events that happens when she receives the video of her sister gagged and bound. Moreover, once the games begin, the pace becomes brutal with how much suspense and fear is packed into Crystal’s thoughts as she struggles to solve puzzles, play games, and even hurt her friends in her quest to save her sister.

This is especially clear when it’s revealed that Crystal is being watched all the time. The kidnapper sends her messages about her whereabouts, such as knowing when she enters her room, who she is speaking to, and when she deviates from the kidnapper’s instructions.

There are a lot of red herrings that Urban introduces to lead her readers down several wrong paths when it comes to uncovering the kidnapper. It truly does make it so that the reader is forced to keep track of these potential leads, scouring the pages for clues.

I would strongly advise readers to look up potential trigger warnings for this novel, as there are descriptions of child kidnapping, child harm, and domestic abuse depicted in These Deadly Games.

Urban should be praised for her ability to ensnare her audience, keeping us suspended in stasis of terror while we devour the story. She does a great job in leaving behind breadcrumbs of the identity of the kidnapper, making for a second-read that is just as thrilling as the first.

Unfortunately, while the biggest twist of the novel did catch me off guard, I found myself a little peeved that These Deadly Games had a teenager be the antagonist of the story. This is not because I don’t think teenagers cannot be antagonists, but because I find it incredibly hard to believe that a teenager–even an adult eighteen year old –had the ability to do everything that the kidnapper does during the story.

Dylan–or Andrew, as we come to find out–is only eighteen, yet we are to be expected to believe that he could hack into multiple devices and computers in a variety of different locations, all for the sake of tormenting Crystal.

It just seems improbable that he would know exactly what she was doing, unless he managed to hack not only into her phone, but also security systems, camera, tablets, other people’s computers and devices, and more. There is no way one teenage boy would be able to do all of that, even if they were an experienced hacker. Otherwise, anyone with that kind of talent did not belong in a standard high school.

Moreover, his escape from sure death at the end was also incredibly improbable, to the point where I was taken out of the novel because it was so baffling. I am unsure if Urban plans on continuing this story in a sequel, but I felt that this could have been an excellent standalone without this minor twist.

Regardless of both these elements, These Deadly Games was a fun read. Provided that readers take care to look up the trigger warnings, it was a compelling mystery/thriller that will horrify and shock you.

This book definitely had its moments but I figured out the "who" pretty quickly but was still interested to see how it played out. The ending is disappointing. Needs to be done and done. I'd still recommend this to people, it just wasn't my favorite but I did love how fast paced it was.

2/5 stars ⭐⭐
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Thank you to the publishers and Net Galley for giving me a copy of this book! This is my honest review, all views are my own.
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These Deadly Games follows Crystal, a video game enthusiast with a ragtag group of friends who want to win a tournament for their favorite game for the prize money. Right before their big weekend, Crystal's sister gets kidnapped, and the kidnapper--Anonymous1--demands Crystal follow his twisted games. Soon, Crystal realizes that Anonymous1 wants her to hurt and kill her friends, one by one...
This was initially very gripping because of its absurdity: who would ask for Crystal to do these outrageous and deadly tasks? But by the midway point, I realized it was being done more for shock value than anything else, as the games got more and more ridiculous and Crystal got further and further away from reality. The writing was a little confusing at times, and the dialogue was more than a little absurd / cringe (notable terms include "'give us the tea' 'there is no tea,'" "fuckbucket," "asshat," "A mood, honestly," "ridonculous," "snotface," and a whole paragraph explaining Among Us the video game). Some seemed more realistic than others, like the tea thing, but the amount of creative swearing is... unusual, to say the least. The plot was pretty wild to me as a newer reader of mystery/thriller, but I've seen reviews saying how it's not very new to the genre and quite predictable. I myself did predict the ending, but that was a mix of foreshadowing and paranoia/suspicion of everyone, so I can't really say anything to its predictability. What did get me, in the end, was the fact that the reveal happened around 80% or so? So there was a lot of other things left to confront according to the author, while I wanted the story to wind down differently and more quickly. The ending itself was meh--not very satisfying, but not so unsatisfying that I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth. Just meh. The characters were not that great, either: Crystal got a bit unhinged a bit too fast, and she was doing some really crazy things by the end that I felt was probably unrealistic. The connections between her and the other friends in the group felt rather shallow, and the big secret surrounding Brady was not really gripping with the way it was introduced, nor did it feel like it tortured and traumatized the other characters as much as it did Crystal and Zoey. I basically felt like the side characters were not treated like they mattered because Crystal didn't put so much weight on their friendship besides the secret that held them together, really? I don't know, I just didn't feel it like I wanted to.
These Deadly Games is an interesting book for readers looking to break into the genre, but I personally found the references cringey and the character relationships lacking, with a meh open ending where I didn't truly care. I read the whole thing just because the initial concept was intriguing and I wanted to know the result, not because I cared about the characters (which, as a newer reader to the genre, I gather that's *not* the point of mystery/thriller). 2 stars.

I was excited for this one! And happily I was not let down. Twisty, atmospheric and just plain scary, I loved it. I think that Diana has really grown as an author, she got rid of the plot holes that really destroyed her first book for me.

--> 4.5 stars!

This was a lot of fun! I think this is an improvement on Urban's debut (All your twisted secrets). I liked that book, but I felt like it was a little rushed and the ending was a little lacklustre. This book on the other hand made use of it's pages and was much better paced. I liked that the characters were just as unlikeable as Urban's last book, because I think it made the story interesting. I also really liked the vibe of this book. It's got a lot of tension that is really well played-up. I will say that the twist was a little easy to guess, but I forgive mystery books for that a lot of the time because in my opinion, and in the case of this book, that just means the clues make sense and are well-placed. Overall I think this was a really solid YA mystery, and Urban's improvement from her debut to this book makes me excited to read what she puts out next!

I think it was a case of just personal preference. I’m not really a fan of flashback style storytelling. I prefer it to be in alternate timeline.

It wasn’t horrible by any means, it just wasn’t for me. I did appreciate that gaming was the central focus. Something that it so rarely done in books. So I applaud the author for that. Unfortunately, I was just the wrong audience with this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advanced copy for review. All opinions are my own.

I breezed through reading this ARC. I enjoyed it and the author does really well with adding things to throw you off just when you think you've figured something out. It also had many elements that could happen to teens in this day and age. Definitely read it if you enjoy books similar to Karen McManus.

Much as I genuinely enjoyed reading this novel, it also gave me such anxiety!! The premise: Crystal (our protagonist) gets a message on her phone of her little sister gagged, bound, and instructions to play the kidnapper's game or her sister dies. As each task is presented, Crystal realizes that they're not as random or bizarre as they seem - they're meant to hurt her friends and make her feel responsible. But why? The motive is unclear, but Crystal knows that if she doesn't comply, her sister's life is on the line.

Urban has a great technique for writing thriller and suspense. In particular, there's a scene with brownies that made my pulse race and my heart beat. But it never feels forced, never feels heavy-handed. There are moments where you might think you know who did it and who is responsible, but the weaving of the story from past to present and the little distractions that make up a good thriller help to obfuscate the thread and keep you guessing until the very end. And if you DO guess what's going on, the writing is enjoyable and the way the story unfolds is reason enough to keep reading. The ending matters, but the fun is definitely in how you get there, and just how nervous you were. :)

These Deadly Games is a fun, YA novel where Crystal Donovan gets a cryptic message on her phone from someone who kidnapped her sister. She must follow their rules for 24 hours or her sister dies. All the while, her group of six friends are battling it out to see who gets to compete in a gaming competition. Can Crystal keep it together enough to not harm her sister?

This book was a typical YA thriller where quite everything was unrealistic. I did find myself wanting to keep reading, which made the book enjoyable. I was able to guess the twist pretty easily, but that did not take away much from my rating. Overall, the characters were VERY hard to like, especially Crystal. She was whiny and selfish mostly.

Despite this, I would rate this 3.5 stars rounded down for the hard-to-like characters. I would still recommend this to YA's since they might like the cat and mouse aspect and gaming part of the story.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This story felt very similar to new hype that is dark academia, except with a ‘killer’ mystery (pun intended! Lol). I really enjoyed this ya mystery and the story kept me guessing both what was going to happen next and who did it the entire time. The book fell a little flat for me in areas but it is definitely worth the read if you like mysterious, high school age, online mysteries.

I want to start this off by saying that I wasn't quite expecting this after simply reading the synopsis. I really enjoyed the book but did think that video games would play a big role in the book as it didn't really allude to that in the synopsis I read. It doesn't really bother me though because I am an avid gamer when I'm not reading and I really enjoyed reading a book that was about gamers as well. I love a good YA thriller and this book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading. Had I not been taking care of a sick kiddo and then gotten sick myself I probably would have finished this book in two days flat.

For me it started out a little slow with a lot of information to take in because there were so many characters being introduced right off the bat and it made it a little difficult to keep up with who was who in the beginning which is really the only reason I didn't give this book five stars. I loved Crystal as the main character and thought the game she had to play in order to save her sister was quite interesting. Diana Urban did such an impeccable job at keeping you guessing through this entire book that when you thought you had it figured out she would throw in a twist and make you question everything. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants a stress-filled YA thriller that will keep them on the edge of their seat until the very end.

"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?"

On the whole, this book was suspenseful and thrilling. I really enjoyed that the whole novel took place in a 24 hour period. I think the game-like nature made the book twisty and fun to read. This book did end up being a lot darker than I thought it would be and I appreciated that about this book. I think if you read mainly YA thrillers, you will find this entertaining and fast-paced. If you read mostly adult thrillers, the plot might seem a little too far-fetched and trope-y; however, I would still recommend giving it a try.

My main issue overall was the main character. She is highly unlikeable and the lack of empathy that she shows for people around her dying made her seem to be the real villain of the story. Again, this is a personal opinion and others may view her as the perfect protagonist.

Trigger warnings: kidnapping, death, attempted murder

Thank you St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

"𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐲 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭, 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐰𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐭."

I'm not sure if I've confessed this before or not, but I only read the synopsis of a book before adding it to by TBR. And, like most book nerds, I rarely get to the books I add to my seemingly never-ending list quickly. Which means that by the time I 𝘥𝘰 pick up an anticipated read, I'm basically going in blind.

So you can imagine my surprise when this teen-centric thrill ride ended up being much darker than I'd initially anticipated. What I thought was a book about gaming and pranks, turned out to be a story about revenge and murder. And all I can say is that Urban didn't come to play; she went for it -- full force.

At times far fetched and a bit too over-the-top for my current taste level, 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 was still an enjoyable read that I'm certain younger Tay Tay would have loved. Between short chapters, action-packed passages, and a villain that gave off major J.D. vibes from 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴, this YA mystery is certain to amuse its target audience. And then some. Because, let's be honest, even with a full-time job and a newborn I still read this 400+ page psychological drama in one day.

Urban's sophomore novel shows a lot of promise, and I'm intrigued to see where she goes from here.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘞𝘦𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

Trigger Warnings: Murder, death of a child, death of a parent, panic attacks, violence, alcoholism, physical abuse, divorce, eating disorders, kidnapping, bullying, confinement, drunk driving, car accident, suicide, stalking, mention of fetishized romance, racism

This one was rough for me to read. Crystal is a gamer with a few of her friends. She is obsessed with one particular game and they are preparing for a tournament coming up. Problem is, she can't see past this game. Then after dropping her sister at school for a trip, Crystal gets a text. Her sister has been kidnapped and unless Crystal plays this sordid game, her sister dies. And then it goes... asking her to attack in one way or another all the kids on her video game team. This was heavy. I finished so I could review it, but there's so much turmoil and angst and evil deeds that I just didn't want to watch it play out. I needed a cliff notes version to just see how it ended. I did guess it after awhile and then it's the frustration of watching it flesh out, but overall while a clever idea, it was just too dark for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

These Deadly Games is a thriller about Crystal, a gamer who hopes to compete in and win an esports tournament. She’s hoping the prize money can improve her family’s situation, but before she can qualify for the competition, she’s forced to play a game that quickly turns deadly.

As a whole, These Deadly Games is quite suspenseful and a tad bit creepy. It is definitely more of a thriller than a mystery and now that I’m thinking about it, it makes me want to cover all the cameras on my devices and stop sharing so many personal details online. It’s that kind of creepy. The gaming and technologic elements help add much-needed tension to the book but I also feel like it could go over some people’s heads. The more techy elements are explained well, but if I wasn’t already familiar with them, I’m not sure I would fully understand some of their implications. The book is too fast-paced to fully digest the explanations behind all the creepy tech stuff going on.

The plot was intriguing but I meant what I said earlier when I said These Deadly Games is more a thriller than a mystery. It’s more about how the game will end rather than who’s the evil person behind the game. Which is a good thing because I figured out who the mysterious deadly game master is halfway through the book so Crystal’s big “ah ha!” moment fell flat for me. It’s one of those times where not having a prime suspect in mind would lead to a more enjoyable reading experience.

As for Crystal, well, I have mixed feelings for/about her. She spent most of the book making me want to sigh and rub my temples. The sad thing is I was genuinely cheering for her and cannot begin to imagine the amount of stress she was under. However, she makes so many stupid choices and mistakes that annoyed me so much. Those choices/mistakes wouldn’t have been a big deal if she was just supposed to be your average person because she’s still a kid and have I mentioned the extreme pressure These Deadly Games put on her? But Crystal isn’t depicted as your average person - she’s supposed to be smart and reasonable and able to play under pressure. Or at least that was my impression of her before shit started to hit the fan.

To be fair, I didn’t have much time to connect and get to know normal Crystal because the deadly games started pretty quickly, like within the first few chapters. Normally, I’m an advocate for fast starts, but I feel like I needed more time to connect to Crystal before the stress starts getting to her in order to better understand her character (and dumb choices).

In conclusion, These Deadly Games is a fast-paced thriller that's a little too fast-paced.

I really enjoyed this one! It was very fast-paced and kept me turning the pages wanting to know how everything would play out. I also enjoyed the twist and the open ending makes me wanting to read a sequel if there ever is one. Definitely one of the more enjoyable YA mysteries I’ve read.

I actually read this book in one day that is how pulling it was. I thought it was an interesting thriller targeted towards teenagers, but there are some more violent themes than in typical teen thrillers. I liked the use of the cell phone in this thriller because it helped create the thriller aspect and even showcased the danger cell phones can have. If you like video games that are also a huge portion of the read because that is the unifying activity between the main friend group. The book does jump back and forth between the past and the present, which can be confusing at first but really does help the plot form. I could see this book being translated into a movie. The reason I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars is mostly that there were some scenes and characters that I did not find realistic. It felt like there were stereotypes that were used to help create drama that did not fit with the way the character was written.


Content Warnings include but are not limited to: Panic, child death, death, allergic reaction, attempt murder, blood, threats

An E-Sports team bonds teen Crystal and her four best friends, and new student Dylan is fitting in well, though there’s some tension since Dylan is good enough to take the place of one of the existing team in an upcoming tournament. Then Crystal finds a mysterious message app that she didn't download on her phone, and she’s notified that she must participate in a “game” devised by the message sender or her sister Caelyn, who was supposed to be on a school trip, will die. Video evidence shows Caelyn captive and terrified, so Crystal determines to do whatever is necessary to save her sister. While working through the tasks set for her, Crystal realizes that she is being manipulated to harm each of her friends and she experiences flashbacks to a childhood experience that may be connected to Caelyn’s kidnapping.

Tightly plotted and full of surprises and reversals, the author keeps the suspense taut until the final pages. Perfect for those who love thrillers.

Enjoyment (stars): 4
Total rating (stars): 4


"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?"

That's the message Crystal gets on a mysterious app, and of course, the sender included a video of her little sister bound and gagged. Hmmm … I wonder if Crystal accepts the "invitation."

The first tasks are simple enough - make a prank call, bake brownies… but upon reflection, crystal notices that each task hurts - or kills - her friends. Is someone trying to get her gaming team out of a tournament, or do they know what they have done?

Regardless, now Crystal is aware that she chooses between her sister and her closest friends with each task. All people she loves. And the only way to win is to outsmart the kidnapper before her time runs out.

This was a very thrilling YA book. I really loved how fast-paced These Deadly Games was. It takes place 24h period, and I read it in just as much time. The narrative helped me immerse myself in the story and have this added bonus of simultaneity.

If you read primarily adult fiction and don't mind some YA tropes, I feel you will really enjoy this book as well. It is well-plotted, easy to follow and addictive.

I will be seeking more books from Urban.


Disclaimer: In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing a copy of These Deadly Games.

These deadly games is more than expected. Its dark and twisted. Our main Character Crystal has to follow a set of rules and complete games given to her by an anonymous person in order to save her sisters life. However, these aren’t your ordinary kids’ games. These ones have dark and final consequences that cause crystal to choose between two lives. Leaving her responsible for other deaths. And just how far would you go for family?

This was a hard to put down novel. I was wanting to know who would be targeted next and what Crystal might do. The characters were likeable enough and have deeper ties to each other. You get the story from present tense and some flash backs from past tense that help build a puzzle that Crystal must solve to end this.

I highly recommend readers for this one to be atleast fifteen and up due to the death and murder scenes.