I fell in love with Catherine Steadman when she played Gestalt in The Rook. Her voice is fabulous, so I listened to her previous novels - like Something in the Water and The Disappearing Act which she reads beautifully. I mean….she’s a captivating actress as well as writer. Why else would I have read The Family Game which features every trope known to teenage horror film aficionados? You know- privileged white folks doing stupid things? They ought to have common sense and NOT GO IN THE HAUNTED KRAMPUS
HOUSE …… but no. I could name the tropes but I won’t. No spoiler alerts here!

Harriet is a beautiful, successful, British novelist, but she’s an orphan [haunted] by her past. Edward is an uber rich American heir and a successful entrepreneur in his own right. She falls in love with him and falls into danger with his (too?) welcoming family. 💩 gets crazy - but I kept reading (often saying “no girl NO —- don’t do that…” or “don’t go there again!!”)

Steadman herself says, “Well, I wanted to write a twisty, turn-y, popcorn thriller with all those festive vibes but with an added pinch of page-turning terror and I hope I’ve delivered that with . . . The Family Game.”

@catsteadman delivers!

I really enjoyed about the first half of this book and I thought it would be great but then it started getting more repetitive and then the ending was so confusing and felt extremely rushed

This book is something else. The intensity of the family is beyond this world.


I have read only one other book with a family so overbearing that gave me homicidal feelings. I swear, this is something else. For a second I thought that this had paranormal elements and got excited and freaked out at the same time. At the end of this particular scene I'm talking about, I was a little disappointed but still freaked out. That made me love the book. I know, it doesn't make sense... for some people. I love books that freak me out and keep me thinking about them for a long time. I finished this book a week ago and it is still fresh in my mind.

I really enjoyed “Something in the Water” so I was excited to receive an advance copy of “The Family Game.” Unfortunately, this book never captured my attention. I really dislike when entire plots are dependent on the protagonist making a decision that, in reality, almost no human would ever make. Not listening to the secretive tape in its entirety makes absolutely no sense but it was a critical move for this thriller to “work.” Frankly, it just didn’t work for me but I can see how other readers who enjoy a “cat and mouse” type story would enjoy it. I was also super creeped out by the sexual attraction between Harriet and her fiancé’s dad, which didn’t really add anything to the story except weird the reader out. A slow slog of a read for me but I’m not writing Steadman off yet - maybe her next thriller will be more my speed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I want to start off by saying, I consistently love the pacing in Steadmans books. They're set up in such a way that I seem to enjoy the most. You get a prologue, then the plot leads up to the prologue--usually with some sort of reveal about the 60% mark to keep us invested.

I absolutely ADORED the Christmas vibes. I had no idea this book was set around Christmas--perfect timing to read! Overall I found the book to be fast paced and so much fun. I'd recommend do pretty much anyone who enjoys an over the top thriller.

Holy heck this was a fun read. Love the voice, love the main character, love the twist (although tbh I saw it coming about 3/4 of the way in). Very enjoyable page tuner.

✨Ｂｏｏｋ Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ✨

The Family Game 📚 by Catherine Steadman

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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This was a very good thriller by Catherine Steadman. It proved to be suspensful until the very end with a twist. Harriet is a novelist with a few dark secrets of her own. She meets her fiance's wealthy family, the Holbeck's a few weeks before Thanksgiving. The patriarch, Robert Holbeck, hands her a tape with a recording of a shocking confession and a proposition that plays out over the holiday family gatherings. How far would you go to protect the ones you love from your own kept secrets? And who can you really trust? While I did love the bulk of this book the ending seemed a little unrealistic but you will have to read it to make your own opinion! Thank you to @netgalley for the arc!
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I wanted to like this book so much but I couldn’t get into it.

Thank you NetGalley for eARC in exchange for an honest review

As we're first introduced to Harriet, I immediately liked her. I thought she was interesting, flawed, but a good narrator. She didn't seem to be hiding who she was, even though she definitely was hiding something.

When you meet her fiancé, Edward, you immediately like him too. He is kind, caring, and attentive; he's protective of Harriet and trying to protect her from his family. I really liked him, and thought he made Harriet very happy.

As you meet more of the Holbeck family, you get a glimpse as to why Edward wanted to get away from them. You have the feeling that they're hiding something but you're not sure what. When you meet Robert Holbeck and the story truly kicks off with the listening of the tape, you realize what is at stake here.

The tapes are concerning, gruesome and unsettling; it pulled me right into the story and I had to stop along the way to reassure myself that this is a work of fiction. The family felt so real, it's almost what I feel like Succession is like, or any other wealthy, famous family.

As much as I can sing this book's praises, I have to say that the relationship between Robert and Harriet was weird and made me queasy. It was too close for comfort for my liking and I was really off put by her descriptions of him.

That aside, this book took a left turn into a world I was not expecting to travel to. It got really weird, really fast and then we were on the fast track to crazy town. The reveals along the way were kind of what I expected when we first listened to the tape but the ending was unlike anything my mind could've dreamed up.

I cried, I laughed, I cringed - I felt so many intense emotions along the way but the ending was truly perfect. It made the story come together and left me with a warm feeling, and a need to revisit The Holbecks at some point. I would love to read another book with them at the center.

Family was a strong theme throughout the book, as was honesty, reputation and success and I think it made the ending that much more meaningful.

The Family Game will have you on the edge of your seat for all 300 pages. It was an incredible book that I cannot recommend to thriller lovers enough!

2.5 stars

It took me a while to get into this story because some of the choices and details the author made kind of slowed down the pace. I enjoyed the tension and the thrill of figuring out what was going on in the story. It was a good thriller I just found it to be a slow start and had a hard time finding any of the characters likable.

Harry is a writer who meets the love of her life but she is worried about his family accepting her during an initial meeting with his father she gets a cassette that has a confession on it and she has to figure out if it's real or some sort of game...

I'm just trying to figure out who gets a random tape with a mysterious confession on it and doesn't finish the tape...

Thank you to the publisher for a copy for review.

Steadman never disappoints. I thought that this book was just as masterfully woven together as her others. It was hard to put down!

I was totally obsessed with this snarky, layered thriller with the best of family drama. I was sucked in from the get go and couldn’t put it down!

I wanted to like this one more, but the parts were greater than the sum and ultimately it didn't quite end up working for me.

This book is such a fun ride! The characters are well fleshed out and the twists and turns will give you whiplash.. If you're looking for a unique, edge of your seat thriller - this is the book for you!

We follow UK-born novelist, Harry, who currently lives in NYC with her beau, Edward. Things are going well for Harry. Her first novel was widely accepted and she is now writing her second.

There’s also Edward Holbeck. He’s handsome, considerate, determined. He’s also from old money and warns Harry that his family is a bit odd, to say the least. She finally is able to meet the family, and patriarch Robert gives her the chills. He also gives her a cassette tape to listen to which seems to contain a confession to a dark family secret. Is it real, or fiction? Harry must find this out through a festive and ruthless Christmas celebration.

I really enjoyed this! Thank you to Catherine Steadman, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wow! The Family Game is one wild ride! A quick read, the novel is set in the world of the mega-rich and the characters are much like the amoral clan in Succession. Set between November 21 and Christmas, the novel focuses on Harriet Reed, an English novelist, who is a novelist engaged to Edward Holbeck. Superficially perfect, Edward is poised to inherit the family business as the oldest child. The thrills begin when Harriet discovers the trail of bodies surrounding the bodies surrounding the family. Who is responsible and why, and why on God’s earth doesn’t she just leave? A perfect thriller for winter that will keep you up all night. 4.5 out of 5.0 stars. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book.

One of my favorite thrillers to watch this year was Ready Or Not! .. a movie about a young bride thrust into a dysfunctional family’s deadly game so when I saw the premise of The Family Game by Catherine Steadman, I knew I HAD to read it as it reminded me so much of the movie.

The Family Game is on a whole other insane level though & makes Ready Or Not seem tame in comparison. This book is one shocking moment after the other and trust me.. you will SO not see that ending coming, I sure didn’t!

This book was SUCH. A. RIDE! Harry is an author who somehow finds herself enveloped in a decades old web of lies, deception and murder. This is the type of book where you are never certain about the motivations or truth to a character for more than one chapter, and by the end of the story almost everything you thought you knew is wrong. I had such fun reading this book and was completely shocked by the Big Reveal.

Steadman has a fantastic way of writing which sucks you into the story to make your heart pound and mind work overtime to try and figure out what the hell is happening in the Holbeck family. If you like reading about the evil eccentricities of the 1%, and putting your detective hat on to try to solve a mystery then this is THE book for you!

Post 11/20/22 on Goodreads (canhannahread).

QUICK TAKE: I think it's a sign that I didn't really love it in that I can't really remember any big plot details here. It was a solid, though forgettable read about a woman getting caught up in a very bad, not good at all rich family doing very bad, not good things.

The family game was a fast paced holiday thriller, Harry is set to marry into a rich powerful family when she gets to finally meet the elusive family. The patriarch slips her a tape to listen to and she starts to question everything. With an ending you won’t predict the family game is a great cat and mouse style thriller. Will read more of this author.