This book had an interesting premise, and I was excited to read it. Sadly, the story did not live up to the expectations, and that might not be on me. I found myself struggling to connect and get into the book.

As much as I wanted to read this book when I was first granted access via NetGalley I never managed to get round to reading it. I have now gone back through and read the Synopsis and found that now this book is just not for me and will not be reviewing. I want to thank the publisher for allowing me to have access to the book but due to my tastes changing in reading this book no longer appeals to me.

This book disappointed me. Right before its release and in the beginning after its release, the hype was really strong, so it had made its way to the top of my to be read list, but I just couldn't find myself engaged with the story and the characters. This is definitely not to say it's a bad book. I know that there is an audience for this book. As a librarian, I've seen it. It just wasn't the book for me.

A really interesting book, the RPG aspect is really unique and kept me interested throughout. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Aside from diverse characters, the story held no appeal to me. Maybe I'm over the YA thriller books, but nothing particularly came as a surprise to me. The RPG aspect didn't appeal to me. The random attempts at tackling hard hitting topics in the middle of a thriller felt forced. There's not a ton that I can say positively about this book, and I hate leaving bad reviews, so I'll just say this wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a free copy of this advanced copy of the book to read and review.

I gave this a four out of five stars I really enjoyed this book. I liked the ending. It kept me wanting to continue to read it was so interesting. When I had to put it down I kept wondering what would happen next.

I just couldn't get into this one after giving it 50 pages. It was very disappointing and I didn't love the writing this time.

I purchased this book for my high school library. My students have enjoyed it. and it has circulated well.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC copy of this book (even though it took me forever to get to it 😬). This book had a lot of different representations in it, which is great, but it made the characters hard to keep straight. Mix that in with switching between the real world and the live action role playing they were doing, it just made for a very confusing and not as engaging story.

I am a huge fan of this author. I posted my review around the time that I got this ARC, I just forgot to update it here. The characters and story were addicting. And the twists and turns...wow.

What an excellent, fast-paced read! I absolutely loved the prose in this book as well. I seriously couldn’t put it down. A great read!

I have mixed feelings about this one. I know for sure I'm not the target audience for this because of my distaste for horror but this was kind of addictive. I was able to get through it-continuously flipping pages but I was also left not really caring about the characters. Very interesting read for me though.

New to me author but definitely won't be last. Thoroughly enjoyed this story. Thanks Netgalley and to the publisher for letting me read this advance copy.

I have read every book that Marieke Nijkamp has written(currently reading her upcoming book At the End of Everything) and sadly, this book has ended up at the bottom of the pile in terms of liking. This story just had too much and not enough going on. I loved the aspect of a thriller RPG story but this book definitely didn't come through for me there. The contemporary part of the book also wasn't for me, it just felt too forced/fake. I think there were just too many different genres trying to play off of each other and they just didn't work out the best.

After reading Before I Let Go by Marieke Nijkamp I was really intrigued to pick this book up. The story follows five friends who go on a final trip to a cabin in the woods to play a role-playing game. All the friends have secrets, but as the game kicks off, things quickly turn deadly - but who is behind it, and can the truth be uncovered in time?

I really wanted to love this because I thought it sounded like such an intriguing story. I love twisty YA thrillers and this sounded like exactly my cup of tea. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. I guessed who was behind it very early on in the story so I wasn't racing to reach the big reveal. There was lots of diversity in the characters but I felt there could have been a bit more depth with the characters.

Usually, when I read thrillers I'm on the edge of my seat because there's such a tense atmosphere, but it didn't feel as if there was any real sense of urgency, I felt myself being a bit reluctant to pick the book up to read more. I really wanted to love this one but sadly it just wasn't for me.

This is a particularly depressing review to write because I loved Marieke Nijkamp’s first two novels. This is Where It Ends is one of my favorite novels of all time and Before I Let Go had the kind of creeping Wrongness I love most in horror movies, though the novel isn’t horror. I was so certain I’d love Even If We Break I preordered it, which is something I rarely do.

Well, my experience was pretty whelming.

Thanks to my brother being big into Dungeons & Dragons, I have some familiarity with tabletop gaming like the five characters at the heart of this story have been playing together for years. It’s not my thing, but I get why people love it. Nijkamp’s own passion for this type of gaming shines through in Even If We Break and it enthralls even a disinterested party like me. It also throws in an element of live action role playing, which is once again not my thing but easy to see why people love it when the author writes it so lovingly.

The diverse cast is another sweet spot, particularly the representation provided by Maddy, an autistic girl who has developed a pain medication addiction after a car crash wrecked her leg and ended her time on the school lacrosse team. As someone on the spectrum, you have NO idea how much it means to me to see representation closer to my experience. I’m used to seeing autistic people in media–particularly young adult fiction–as young children who are less verbal, more particular, and hard to handle, which isn’t how I am at all. Even representation of diverse groups needs to be further diversified.

However, a remark one member of the group makes about trying to find a BIPOC player specifically to make their group less white is …questionable. If that’s the way they think, no wonder their group is so white. I can’t imagine someone who isn’t white would feel comfortable among this group.

Though the novel delivers on its thrills with this booby-trapped cabin, torment personalized to each member of the group, and a gruesome, early death for one character, the characterization is weak and the narrative voices of our five narrators (three primary) are too similar to one another. It’s easy to lose track of whose chapter it is until they talk about something specific to one character, like Ever thinking about their sister. Then the ending just leaves me with an endless number of questions about one character and their upbringing.

So in comparison to Nijkamp’s first two novels, Even If We Break is a bit of a letdown. I don’t regret my preorder one bit, though. Why would I when it supports one of my favorite authors?

I just admit this ended up being a DNF for me. I was pretty disappointed after reading This is a Where it Ends. I had a really hard time liking any particular character and getting through this book. It just felt very boring to me and had such a slow pace with no development that I was just racing through it so I wouldn’t have to read it anymore. Not the best follow-up to her debut and definitely listen to the reviews when they say this was a mediocre follow-up.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced read of Even if We Break.

I did not finish this book. I found the writing to be jarring and I did not enjoying reading from these character's perspectives.

I'm a big fan of thriller movies (think Scream or Cabin at the End of The World) so this was right up my alley. I already knew I would love the author's writing style because I have read previous work from them. Some of the romance fell a little flat for me, but the overall concept was interesting enough to keep me going.