My first introduction to Diana Urban was All Your Twisted Secrets, which I loved so I jumped at the chance to read These Deadly Games. This is a YA mystery that is engaging and will keep you guessing and turning the pages to find out more.

These Deadly Games centers around Crystal who is part of a group of gamers who are aiming to compete in an e-sports tournament worth millions. She receives a mysterious message featuring a video of her younger sister tied up - from this point she must follow the instructions and play the game in front of her in order to save her sister, otherwise she may die. The game starts out simply, but the tasks become more sinister as the story progresses.

These Deadly Games had me immersed and guessing right along with the main character throughout the story. There are some obvious suspects, but you won't know until Crystal figures it out. This was such a fast-paced story and definitely perfect for those who enjoy YA mystery/thrillers.

Convoluted, twisting, creepy, delightful read! I thoroughly enjoyed this YA thriller featuring a group of high schoolers and an event in the past that comes back to bite them. No spoilers here, go read #thesedeadlygames and enjoy the thrill! Thanks to #netgalley and the publisher for this advance copy to read and review.

This is my first exposure to this author and it definitely did not disappoint! This is a well-written, suspenseful, complex, edge-of-your-seat thriller that will leave you breathless at times in anticipation of the next twist in the plot of which there are many. Her characters are well-developed though not necessarily likeable. None of them are whom they appear to be. This provocative, somewhat dark and twisted story grabs you from the first page and keeps you guessing until the very end where the author inserts a deliciously wicked twist.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press who provided me with a copy of this book. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

Play the game, or she dies...

Crystal and her friends have been close since they were kids. They are always together, especially as they prepare for an upcoming gaming tournament. When Crystal's phone buzzes in class, she is horrified to see a photo of her younger sister gagged and tied to a chair. She is instructed to play the kidnapper's game, keep her mouth shut, and follow every rule if she wants her sister to live. The games are tame to begin with, but soon they escalate from mundane things like baking brownies to life-altering "pranks." By the time Crystal realizes that the games are intended to pick her friends off, one by one, irreversible damage has been done. How can she choose between her friends and her sister? And who is behind these deadly games?
I spent every free moment I had reading These Deadly Games, even if I only had a minute or two to spare. I just could not get enough of this story. I was suspicious of many characters throughout the story, but I was never entirely sure who the anonymous tormentor was. I read the eARC for this novel and listened to the audiobook. I liked how the narrator used easily identifiable voices for each character. I also liked how Crystal's "speaking voice" and "thinking voice" were easy to distinguish, which I often don't find to be the case in audiobooks. I recommend this YA thriller to anyone who enjoys a quick-paced read full of twists, turns, and gut punches.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Yikes, this was bad. I went in thinking this would be over the top like a CW teen drama, but I don’t even think the Archieverse would do something this ridiculous. First, it was very easy to guess the anonymous person was related to Brady. Second, Crystal is clearly a psychopath and the real villain of the story. I was hoping the whole book that she’d go to jail for literally killing multiple people. She showed zero remorse for her friends dying. Like these are red flags that she’s not a good person.

I really don’t know if even teens would like this book. It’s hard to feel empathy for a character who has no remorse.

This book quickly captured and kept me hooked all throughout. I couldn't put it down! I think this perfectly captures how far we are willing to go for the people we love.

I definitely enjoyed this one but it didn't stand out for me. I wasn't immediately captured and didn't feel like I could connect with the plot in general. I think I may need to give this a re-read later.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of These Deadly Games by Diana Urban in exchange for an honest review. This book made me think of books like Chain letter by Christopher Pike and movies like Truth or Dare. What starts off as simple, seemingly harmless pranks to protect her sister, turns deadly. I actually enjoy these type of books or movies, they are dark and twisty without being too deep and heavy.

Wow!! What a page-turner! This was gripping from start to finish. It reminded me of the show 'Clickbait' on Netflix. The characters were interesting and three dimensional, and the plot was well written and paced. I will definitely be checking out Urban's other works now that I've read this.

Crystal and her friends are preparing for an esports tournament that might result in life-changing award money when her sister is kidnapped. The kidnapper engages Crystal in a “game,” which Crystal quickly realizes that everything she’s been asked to do is designed to hurt or kill her friends. Crystal is faced with a difficult choice: save her friends and risk her sister’s life, or lose everything to save her sister?

Urban’s sophomore novel is fast-paced, twisty, and dark. Though I often struggle with a premise where the villain threatens harm if the victim involves the police or seeks help otherwise, the way technology was used here helped me to suspend my disbelief here. And then I was along for the ride for sure.

Without giving anything away, I enjoyed the factors that influenced Crystal’s decision making, the impact of the past, and the involvement of esports. The pacing made this hard to put down, and though I predicted some of the twists, it didn't impact my enjoyment of the novel.

Though I do think that this sometimes veered into less-than-believable territory, likely won’t be a book that sticks with me long-term, and may not be the best fit for people who read a good amount of YA thrillers, I certainly enjoyed it while I was reading it. I look forward to picking up other books by Urban in the future.

3.5 stars rounded to 4.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

Pretty Little Liars meets One Of Us Is Lying. Great thriller ... the last twist definitely caught me by suprise.

16 year-old Donovan receives a message on her phone during class one day, wanting her to participate in a game. There are some ground rules, however: if she tells anyone or breaks the rules her sister will die. The tasks she's put up to are meant to hurt someone in her life. I thought that the sister, Caelyn, was honestly the most likeable and that most of the other characters really didn't have that much depth or reason to empathize with them. I do think, however, that that aspect of the writing didn't detract from the work enough to make me like it less. It is a bit predicatble, and it does feel like the tasks were solved a bit too easily, but I think that it was still fun and the pacing was pretty good. I thought that the other themes present in the book were interesting, too, and were really compelling.
This book was intense and fast-paced, and while it isn't going to completely blow your mind you will have an absolutely enjoyable time on this rollercoaster! I definitely recommend!

Crystal Donavan is a competitive gaming streamer who's goal of winning the prize money in a tournament is derailed when she starts receiving sketchy texts from a mysterious app asking her to complete challenges. If she fails to complete the tasks in time or tells anyone about the secret game she's playing her little sister will die.

Maybe I don't read enough thrillers so the plot actually kept me hooked. I was constantly guessing at who the kidnapper could be and what the end goal was. The main character was likable enough that you felt for a lot of the tough decisions she had to make and the stacks really did feel high at all times.

I would read more from this author without question.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an opportunity to read and review this book as an arc.*

This was such a propulsive and entertaining race against the clock thriller!

I don’t read a tonne of YA books but I always seem to enjoy them when I do and this one was perfectly twisted and devious! It was fast paced, addictive, action packed and bursting with tension and suspense!

While some parts were predictable, others certainly were not! I enjoyed this wild ride of a story!

3.5 stars.

Crystal receives mystery messages revealing her sister has been kidnapped and she must complete tasks to save her. As she completes these bizarre tasks, she realizes the mastermind isn't just out to hurt her, but her friend group too.

A friend group is competing against one another for an upcoming gaming competition, but their past threatens to haunt them as these tasks seem to be targeting their group. As someone who is not into video games, that portion of the storyline was foreign to me, but it was interesting to see the pressure and stress of their situation continue to escalate.

I wish we had a bit more character development because they weren't very likeable and didn't seem to be that great of friends. You also have to suspend belief to wrap your head around teens orchestrating this chaos, but once you do that it's fun to try and piece the puzzle together.

Overall this was a fun but somewhat predictable YA thriller that I'd recommend for fans of Karen McManus.

Thank you Wednesday Books for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is my second book by this author and while she has solid ideas, I just don't feel like I can connect to her characters really or the execution of the book. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion and others really seem to enjoy her stories so pick it up if it sounds interesting to you.

I went into this read completely blind, not having read the synopsis just knowing it was a mystery. I will say that this was super dark, much more than I expected from a YA story with murder strewn about and the frantic pace was easy to be able to keep reading. The mystery element was not well done for me, but maybe I just read too many mysteries, I knew who and the why almost from the beginning, I was just waiting for the big reveal to occur to gloat at my smartness. I think the author needs to work on the subtleties of her writing if she wants her plots to be more surprising, the way she had flashbacks was a big red flag as to what was going on.

Overall I was just glad to get to the end so I can start a new book. There was nothing per se wrong with this, I just found it predictable and pretty unbelievable overall- you will definitely need to suspend your belief to get through. The ending was a little too quickly wrapped up as well as with a huge open door almost as if there will be a sequel (that I will not be reading) so if you like that kinda thing here you go.

I read the author's first book and was so excited for this book. I really enjoyed this book and it kept me guessing until the end. I wasn't very fond of many of the characters but still really enjoyed the book. There were twists and turns throughout. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

A great thriller for lovers of YA thrillers! It gave me a bit of creepier One of Us is Lying vibes. I thoroughly enjoyed the authors writing style and character development!!

A big Thankyou to NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley of These Deadly Games by Diana Urban.
I requested this bc I have teenage twin boys who love video games and I thought it would be another great way to connect with them. I was a little worried that I would get lost in gaming talk, but I can assure any non gamer readers, that was not the case.
This is about a group of six friends who are entering an annual gaming competition that only allows 5 participants per team, so they are competing against eachother to see who will be eliminated before the contest.
If that wasn’t stressful enough, our main character Crystal is forced to play some “game” set for her in order to save her sister who was just kidnapped. Who is doing this? Is this real or some crazy prank?
The rules are simple:
Call the police -her sister dies
Tell anyone else-her sister dies
Quit the game-her sister dies, and the “game” continues without her.
This was a fast paced YA thriller that had me questioning everyone……even Crystal.
I think that anyone who loves their books packed with action, will enjoy this book.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the premise of the book bc I’m not into video games or anything game related at all.
My print copy is ordered for my kids to read next!

It has been a minute since I've read a YA thriller and what a way to get back into them than with These Deadly Games by Diana Urban. This was a completely wild and fast-paced novel, and I don't think I saw any of the twists coming. I started and finished the audiobook on the same day and managed to listen to it in just a few hours and one sitting at that. Once you start you aren't going to want to put it down and while I did think the middle lagged just a little bit at times, the majority of this book is nonstop craziness. It was super fun and unique having the main character Crystal be a gamer, and I loved how smart she came across especially when it came to her clues. I was rereading the synopsis again and I think this is best to go into blind since it gives a decent amount of the plot away which no one wants.

The audiobook is narrated by Kate Rudd, and she was pretty dang incredible as Crystal. She managed to completely nail Crystal's emotion and panic throughout, and I couldn't have asked for a better narrator for this book. These Deadly Games brought up something I hadn't actually heard of before, and as crazy as it seemed it is apparently completely real. I can't say anything else for spoiler reasons, but I loved the inclusion of this from the author. I really enjoyed the end of the book, but it was a tad open-ended and makes me wonder if Urban will ever revisit these characters. I didn't really understand part of it, and it wouldn't be MY choice, but it does make you wonder. I will certainly be reading anything else Urban writes, and this is going to be an excellent choice for those of you who love YA thrillers with fast pacing.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.