Week 34 Review: These Deadly Games

From Goodreads:

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?

When Crystal Donavan gets a message on a mysterious app with a video of her little sister gagged and bound, she agrees to play the kidnapper's game. At first, they make her complete bizarre tasks: steal a test and stuff it in a locker, bake brownies, make a prank call.

But then Crystal realizes each task is meant to hurt—and kill—her friends, one by one. But if she refuses to play, the kidnapper will kill her sister. Is someone trying to take her team out of the running for a gaming tournament? Or have they uncovered a secret from their past, and wants them to pay for what they did…

As Crystal makes the impossible choices between her friends and her sister, she must uncover the truth and find a way to outplay the kidnapper… before it's too late.

Author of All Your Twisted Secrets, Diana Urban's explosive sophomore novel, These Deadly Games, will keep you riveted until the final twist is revealed.

My Review:
This was such a great read! I really enjoyed her first thriller, and this one sounded really great, so I had to pick it up! I really enjoyed Crystal's story, of the desperation she had to save her sister, the horror of knowing that to do so, she'd had to harm her friends, and the potential that she's just losing her mind. Plus, along the way, we found out about the various secrets that they're keeping. It was such a great read!

We meet this gang of friends quickly-and just as quickly, Crystal gets contacted by Anonymous One, to start playing these games. They're high stakes, and games that don't make sense-until some patterns emerge, and Crystal makes attempts to fight back. 

I really had a great time with the way the story was told, it was intense, and we'd switch between the present and 5 years ago, when something happened. And we know it's something bad, something that they lied about, but oh, when we found out, that was just so sad! 

That reveal of who the bad guy was? And why they did what they did? That was pretty devastating. And I could understand why they're doing what they're doing, but not to the stakes and consequences that they went to. It's unlikely that we'll get a sequel, so I just imagine how things would go down. Unless we got a novella or something! I'd love that! 

Loved reading this book, and I can't wait to read more by Diana Urban! 

Author: Diana Urban
Read: August 23rd, 2022
Source: NetGalley/Library
Reason Why: Love her writing and it sounded good, and it's a SAC 2022 Book, Sophomore Challenge Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Published: February 1st 2022

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars