**3.5-stars rounded up**

Admittedly, most of Crystal Donavan's focus lately has been on the upcoming Mortal Dusk gaming tournament she will be competing in with her e-sports team. So, when her little sister, Caelyn, goes off on her one morning, accusing Crystal of only caring about her games, Crystal can't really offer up much of a defense.

Although Caelyn's harsh words sting, winning the tournament could literally change their lives. She's really doing it for her family. There's a lot of money on the line. Nonetheless, dropping Caelyn at school for a weekend field trip, Crystal's heart aches thinking about her little sister feeling neglected. She needs to make it up to her.

A short while later, Crystal receives a jaw-dropping, cryptic message through a mysterious app that has suddenly appeared on her phone. It says Caelyn has been kidnapped and to get her back, Crystal needs to play a little game. The message includes video of Caelyn bound, gagged and scared. Even though it hardly seems possible, Crystal knows this isn't a prank. It's very real.

The games begin immediately and as she struggles through, Crystal begins to see the connection. Every game seems to be aimed at harming those closest to her; her best friends and teammates. What's worse, Crystal has to keep it a secret. The kidnapper has threatened to kill Caelyn if she tells anyone. Who could possibly hate Crystal enough to do this?

These Deadly Games is a wild ride. I am a huge fan of dangerous game tropes and this definitely didn't disappoint in that regard. I couldn't believe how far this kidnapper was willing to go; what they were requesting of Crystal at times seemed impossible. I was at the edge of my seat, biting my nails, waiting to see what Crystal would choose to do at each turn in the road.

The narrative follows Crystal in the present, but also includes flashbacks from 5-years ago, to a traumatic event centered around Crystal and her friend group. It's an event they have never really healed from. Could this current threat be somehow connected to that?

I enjoyed learning about these characters and felt they were well developed. The core group of kids played well off of each other's personalities and I was definitely rooting for them to come out of this okay. I also think Urban did a great job of including a wide range of potential suspects for the kidnapper. I feel like I suspected just about everyone at one point or another. I thought she executed that aspect of the suspense/build-up really well.

Additionally, I think the pace was really well done. The action kicks off fairly quickly and then the intensity builds steadily until the ultimate, explosive conclusion. I definitely expect a sequel to this, although I have heard no official announcement of one yet. You better believe I will be snatching it up as soon as it is released!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Wednesday Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I thought this was so much fun and would definitely recommend it to Readers who enjoy wildly-intense YA Thrillers!

Thanks #netgallery for this book in exchange for an honest review. Quick, fun read. Not my normal genre. I admit that I skimmed some of the video game Info towards the beginning of the story.

I've never read anything else by this author before so I have nothing to compare her writing to but the writing style wasn't bad. Maybe I'm getting too old for the young adult variety of thrillers but this one was a little too out there and farfetched for me. I'm sure a teenager reading this book would really enjoy it but as an adult reading all the scenarios that played out, it was a little too unbelievable.

Crystal receives an anonymous message on a mysterious app of her sister being bound and the kidnapper wants her to play their game. She must complete some bizarre tasks and if she fails to complete them, her sister dies. Then Crystal realizes all these tasks are meant to hurt or possibly kill her friends so she must make the impossible choice; does she keep her friends sage or save her sister?

Not a terrible young adult thriller by any means, just wasn't that great to me. The beginning did suck me in with the little sister getting kidnapped but I kind of lost interest along the way. The twists were pretty predictable and I didn't really care for any of the characters. It had an intriguing concept and was pretty faced paced, overall a solid three stars.

*Many thanks to Wednesday Books for the gifted copy for my honest review!*

I knew as soon as I started reading this book that it was going to be a tough one for me. It moves really quickly, and has a fairly large cast. Crystal and five of her close friends are on an esports team together preparing for a tournament game. Her mom and sister are important characters, plus a few other rivals and side characters. So there are a lot of moving parts to the story. I liked that.

What I found challenging, though, was connecting with Crystal. She seemed to have a lot of emotional contradictions. Sometimes conflicted characters– where they feel two opposing things simultaneously– are really gripping, but something about Crystal’s character just didn’t click with me. She blamed her mom for not getting help when her dad was abusing her, but blamed herself for her dad leaving.

Crystal had a conflict with one of her team members that didn’t really make sense to me, either. I didn’t really understand the stakes of the secret that Crystal and her friends kept from the past. I don’t know. I feel like I just didn’t connect with the story in the way that I wanted to.

I don’t know. Other than the character disconnect, I thought it was a pretty intense read, definitely something readers who like Karen McManus or R. L. Stine would like. THESE DEADLY GAMES reminded me a little bit of HOW WE FALL APART by Katie Zhao, so I think readers who enjoy those kinds of driven, fast-paced suspenseful stories will probably like this one a lot more than I did.

I wanted to like this but it was completely unrealistic and also predictable. I could see the big twists coming from a mile awhile. Disappointing because the premise was so good. Just an ok read. Someone else might enjoy this more because of the gaming element.

Thanks to Netgalley, Diana Urban and St Martin's Press Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Already Available: 2/1/22

Thank you to NetGalley, Diana Urban and St Martin's Press for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this novel overall, it was fairly quick paced and the action started right away and went on right until the ending. This band of friends was pretty interesting and the games aspect of this novel kept me turning the pages to see what game she was going to have to play next to save her sister. It was a tense, gripping and thrilling novel that I would definitely recommend for it's unique premise.

This sophomore novel by author Diana Urban is a mystery/thriller that holds the attention from the get go. Protagonist Crystal is a gamer, and with her friend group, plans to play in a tournament in the hopes of winning enough money to help her divorced mom keep a roof over her and her younger sister's heads. But after dropping her younger sister off at her school for an overnight field trip, Crystal is contacted through a mysteriously installed app on her cell phone, showing her a video of her tied-up and gagged sister, and a threat that Crystal must play the person's "games" or they will kill her sister.

This kicks off a series of events in which Crystal's stakes are clearly high. By the third "game," she's figured out that her game master is getting her to deliberately cause harm to her friends, and she's desperate to figure out who it is. Is this connected to the gaming tournament, or is it connected to a secret her friend group has hidden for five years?

Urban does a great job of dropping red herrings as Crystal frantically tries to save her sister from the stranger holding her hostage. The pacing is terrific and I could not put this book down! The character development was very well done, flashbacks were included in such a way that did not drag down the forward motion of the story, and I genuinely didn't know who was the person at the other end of the game until Crystal figured it out herself. It was a great story with a satisfying ending that leaves the reader wondering if a sequel might follow.

If you like mystery/thriller novels, add this one to your TBR pile.

This was a well written and tense thriller that was SO hard to put down. The mystery itself was fantastic.

The only reason I’m not giving it five stars is because of the jarring and constant flashback to “five years ago” scenes. Every time one of those happened, I felt like it took me completely out of the story (which frustrates me because I was enjoying the story so much).

I feel like the flashback would have maybe worked better as a full chapter explanation near the climax of the story.

But overall, the book was worth the read and I’d recommend it to thriller readers. Also, I’d definitely read this author again because I enjoy Urban’s writing style.

Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me. It sounded promising and seemed to have had all the things I typically like in a book, but the storyline just didn’t jive with what I typically enjoy after all.

3.5 STARS

Games are Crystal Donovan's entire life.

She's always been the competitive sort, but more than that, games have been an escape. They've helped her keep her little sister away from their father's drunken rages, and they've brought Crystal closer than ever to her friends. Now, if she and her friends can compete in an upcoming esports tourney, if they can win, she might even bring home enough prize money to save her house. The mortgage isn't paying itself, after all, not even with Crystal's mom working long shifts at the hospital to keep the Donovan family afloat.

But when Crystal receives a message that offers her a choice between playing a series of games, or letting a mysterious kidnapper kill her little sister, games aren't the comfort they've always been. One task leads to another, each with unexpected consequences, and along the way, Crystal and her friends are getting hurt.

Maybe it's meant to destroy her esports team before the tourney. Or maybe someone has discovered Crystal's worst secret yet, and they want to see her pay. Either way, she can't let her sister die.

It's time to play some games.


These Deadly Games is surprisingly intense.

Sure, it starts off with a bunch of high schoolers playing an MMORPG with the hopes of competing in a major tourney, but that's normal, right? So is an overnight field trip for the junior high kids, like Crystal's little sister.

But hours after Crystal's sister is supposed to be in Frost Valley, enjoying the trip, Crystal gets a video message of Caelyn bound and gagged, followed by the kidnapper's demands: play the game, or Caelyn dies.

What began as such a simple event escalates rapidly, and the games do as well. At first, the consequences seem unconnected, but as it becomes clear that the games are meant to hurt the people Crystal loves the most. In fact, some of the games are meant to kill.

I love the way it escalates so dramatically, even if it is occasionally outlandish. It's hard to think clearly, to put all the pieces together, because Crystal isn't thinking clearly either. She's dealing with deadlines and ultimatums that put her beloved little sister's life on the line, and her only impulse is to save Caelyn, no matter what. The frantic pace is designed to confuse, and it's pulled off extremely well in that regard.


With such a fast pace, though, there's not as much time for characters.

I get that this is a standalone thriller, not a multi-book epic fantasy. I know we're not going to be able to dig in particularly deep into any characters beyond the POV character. That's simply how it goes, especially in a novel this speedy.

But I still wish we'd gotten a little more about Crystal's friends. She's known most of them since she was a child, and some of them even share her darkest secret. Akira, her best friend, gets a little more time and care than most, but the other members of Crystal's close group feel less than fully developed. It's shame, seeing as it's their lives on the line along with Caelyn's, even though Crystal doesn't notice at first. Their futures are just as much at stake as the Donovan girls', but I don't feel nearly as strongly for them most of the time.


This is the book to pick up if you want a fast-paced thriller in your hands!

It's a whirlwind of odd tasks that amount to grave danger, set over the course of a little more than a day or two. Simple games lead to deadly consequences, and there's no simple option, no good way to escape the games at hand without endangering someone's life. 

If you want some contemporary peril and a competition to the death, this is the book for you. Snappy and sharp, it takes any game you could ever think of to a new level entirely.


CW: alcoholism, domestic abuse, gambling, violence, bullying, racism, loss of a loved one, disordered eating

[This review will go live on Hail & Well Read at 5:00pm EST.]

While I heard many good reviews on this one. It was just not for me. It felt alittle to YA for me. I could not get into the whole Gamer thing.

Let's play a game. You have 24 hours to win or she dies...
Crystal notices a strange notification on her phone that turns out to be a video of her sister gagged and bound. The anonymous sender says she has 24 hours to win their game or else her sister dies. She's given odd, but simple enough tasks, such as deliver test answers to someone's locker, bake a batch of brownies, make a prank call, etc. At first, Crystal doesn't realize that these tasks are meant to harm and kill her friends. When she figures that out, she is left with an impossible choice, kill her friends or let her sister die. Will she figure out a way to cheat the rules of the game? Or will she have to play along to save her sister?
These Deadly Games was such a fun read! I loved reading this YA thriller and couldn't wait to pick it back up and find out what would happen next. I did have a theory who was behind it all and why, pretty early on in the story, and found my suspicions to be true. This story was fast-paced and filled with suspense. I enjoyed it very much and recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA thrillers!
I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

This was an over the top, cheesy at times, fast paced thriller that did definitely entertain. Overall this one was a 3.5 star for me rounded down for star selection. Crystal is shocked when she receives a weird message through an app she doesn’t recognize that shows her sister tied up and being threatened. She’s forced to play a game and if she tells anyone or doesn’t follow the rules her sister will die. At first the tasks don’t seem too awful, but she quickly realizes that even tasks that seem innocent result in significant harm to her best friends. She tries to cooperate enough to keep her sister from being harmed while also trying to figure out who would be doing this to her. I did think the big reveals at the end were pretty predictable, but it was a fun story regardless.

Crystal is an esports player bent on winning a tourney for its big cash prize. However, things get serious when someone wants to play games with her in real life. An anonymous cyberstalker demands her to complete a series of timed tasks in exchange for her sister’s release. Some of these tasks seem completely innocuous at first—like baking brownies. However, to Crystal’s horror, she eventually realizes that the mystery mastermind secretly aims to kill off her friends one by one and it’s up to her to try uncover their identity.

These Deadly Games by Diana Urban is a pulpy page-turner filled with twists and turns.

I’ll start off and say that the premise itself is fantastic and feels timely relevant in the growing age of streamers.

However, I wasn't invested in the characters for this one. They feel shallow and focus on trivial things, detracting away from its sense of urgency and stakes. For instance, in one scene, Crystal has minutes left to complete a task and her sister's life is on the line, but instead she’s hung up on talking to her online nemesis.

Gripes aside, These Deadly Games would make for an entertaining popcorn read in the hands of the right reader.

I received an eARC from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for a honest review, all words are my own.

Diana Urban's sophomore novel is a heart racing and wrenching look into what happens when one teenager is left with an impossible decision. For Crystal Donovan it was supposed to be any other day playing video games with friends, but with one single text message everything changes, now it's a game of life and death.

While this thriller could be put into a category for most shocking turn of events, overall the novel, while YA, didn't feel like it. The terminology and slang being used felt like an outsider trying to fit in. While not a young teen myself. I can say for certainty that a lot of the things the young main characters were saying just didn't fit into what would seem real. It sort of felt like the person writing it had never really met a teenager or even engaged in video games before.

While the YA part of this novel felt off the thriller part did not. Diana Urban had a way of keeping my eyes on the page even when I wanted to close them from fear. The twists and turns this novel took were things that I never imagined and put the characters in situations I would never survive. This thriller ranks high among the ones I have read, the overall plot and sequence of events was something that I could have never imagined, they were dark and twisty and oh so gruesome. This thriller bordered on horror with how gruesome it seemed to get.

Overall this novel was an enjoyable thriller, it kept my heart racing and my blood pumping but the dips into unrealistic teenage lingo dragged me out of the immersive experiment with every drop of the word horse. If you're looking for a terrifying thriller, look no further but beware the worst horror of them all, annoying teenagers.

These Deadly Games follows Crystal, a high schooler who gets wrapped up in a deadly game that puts her family and friends' lives on the line. When Crystal starts getting anonymous texts from someone claiming to have kidnapped her sister, she is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that her younger sister doesn't die, even if that means losing those around her in the process.

Although I did enjoy this book overall, I still found it a bit predictable and guessed two of the plot twists way before they happened. Crystal also annoyed me at times, and I would have loved to see chapters written from the perspectives of some other characters just to mix things up a bit. But even though I wasn't shocked by much in this book, I still found myself feeling captivated by it, and I love how open-ended the last page or so was. I also really liked how much These Deadly Games focused on gaming and technology; I found it all quite fascinating.

TW for abusive parent, alcoholism, murder, death, cyberbullying.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC of These Deadly Games by Diana Urban!

This was everything I wanted it to be. Great set up, fantastic twists, not afraid to get dark when it needed to, fast paced enough to keep those pages turning, and some actual consequences for the actions of the teens involved, as well as a somewhat plausible villain. I really enjoyed reading this.

What I liked about this as there was minimal amount of ‘set-up’ before we launched into the twisting and turning elements of the plot. I also really liked just how despicable all the characters were. There were very few redeeming qualities about any of them and I think that’s what made this book really fun to read. It made the suspension of belief a little easier for some of the more outlandish plot elements as I really had no sympathy for most of those involved and instead somewhat relished in the game. The gaming overtones to the ‘worldbuilding’ also helped with this. Yes, some of the twists were predictable but they were nicely speckled in with the unexpected which made this a fun read.

The pacing of the book was also very well timed. We got some great mix of lulls and ‘safe’ moments mixed in with franticly paced moments of panic. They blended really nicely to keep the pages turning and to keep the reader engaged. The flashbacks were also interesting, but they were some of the more predictable moments in the plotline. They did signpost quite a lot for what was to come.

Overall, I felt this read very like the TV show version of Pretty Little Liars, but with far more Gaslighting (if that is even possible). It has that same popcorn munching, want to see what happens next as something new and even crazier is about to happen, kind of feel. I enjoyed it.

Very few YA thrillers have truly "thrilled" me, but I'm happy to say These Deadly Games is one of them. Though I found the writing to be a little awkward, the plot itself was fantastic. The games Crystal is forced to play are cleverly executed and as the stakes grew higher so did my addiction. It's been a while since I sat and read a book for hours at a time. The twists, the reveals, the desperation Crystal succumbs to- all well-done. Diana Urban has greatly impressed me, and I can only hope we will be seeing more from her. Highly recommended.

If you're a fan of Pretty Little Liars but wanted it to be a little darker, this is the book for you. If you didn't like Pretty Little Liars... this book is still for you.

These Deadly Games jumps right into the action in chapter two and it kept me on my toes for the rest of the book. Crystal gets a text from an anonymous person saying she needs to play a game or her little sister is going to die. There are rules that Crystal must play by or her sister dies.

I ended this book with trust issues. Everyone is a suspect and I trusted no one. I guessed a couple of the twists but there are quite a few twists in the book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

So...this was not a great book for me. The characters were flat and uninspiring. I was so unconvinced by the main character's actions at the beginning of the book and their thought process that it immediately threw me off from the story and it was honestly such a struggle to actually finish this novel. The culprit was so predictable too! I had a pretty strong feeling near the 30% mark and it ended up being correct. I don't know. It all just felt so unbelievable. So movie-esque but like a movie with a 15% score on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm so bummed because I was interested in the author's other book but I'm not as enthused.