Review: These Deadly Games by Diana Urban

I feel like I have so many thoughts to organize after reading this one. To be honest it has been some time since I read something defined as a thriller/mystery so I was going in to this with very empty expectations, since I can’t remember the last time I read something like this to base any expectations off of. I am going to do my best to summarize my thoughts without giving any spoiler though, as it is a mystery, and to be honest I didn’t figure out who the culprit was until shortly before our main character did herself. Although I did have an ever growing list!

I’ve also been very out of touch with the bookish community, so I had to hype going in to this either. I found it on my recently added from my library and decided to check it out through Libby to read on my new Kindle. I have to admit, the synopsis seems a lot less sinister than everything that is actually going on in this book. The characters are an easily believable group of friends, but thanks to frequent flashbacks set throughout the novel, we get a good look at how the dynamics of the group were formed, and why things are the way they are.

I’m very mixed with how I feel about the pacing of the novel. While things kick off pretty quickly in the book, I felt that so much had already happened by the 50% mark I was dying to know who was behind everything that was happening and what was the reasoning. To me, that first half of the novel was so detail focused that towards the end of the book we were lacking the same detail and some plot points felt rushed to me. Especially the very end. While there were brief explanations given for things that happened off page, I was still confused as to how these conclusions came to be and disappointed we didn’t get to see them happen to better see the evolution of the plot.

I have been trying to get back in to touch with the booktube community and found something that BooksAndLala mentioned that sticks out to me about These Deadly Games that I think is what helped keep my interest the whole time and me being unable to put the book down. This would be the use of Red Herrings. While a lot of them weren’t blatant and in your face, they did help to guide you to create your own scenarios and conclusions to what was going on, without giving enough away to make you think you had the culprit at the same time. I didn’t have an idea of who it could be until shortly before Crystal uncovered it herself, and the way it happened was still a surprise to me as I read what was happening. This definitely kept me speeding through the book because I was dying (figuratively and unlike our friends in the novel) to figure out who it was and if my hunches were correct.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book, so much so I finished it in just 2 days. While there were things I didn’t like, that ended up lowering my rating to 4/5 stars, I still really enjoyed the book overall and would recommend it to someone else wanting a face paced mystery thriller. With the way the ending was left I would hope for a sequel, but if one does eventually come it would likely require a reread because I’m not sure how many details I would be able to recall while reading another novel in this same world with any remaining characters.