In The Family Game, a successful writer meets her fiancé’s family for the first time and finds herself embroiled in a complicated and dark game with her soon to be father-in-law. Twisted and engrossing—I didn’t want to stop reading this incredible psychological thriller until the very last page (and even then I didn’t want it to be over, if I’m honest)!

Setting

Set between Thanksgiving and Christmas in New York City and in the family estate, The Hydes, in upstate New York, this book takes a dark twist on the dreaded family obligations around the holidays.

Plot

Everything is coming together for novelist Harriet (who goes by Harry). Her writing career is taking off and she is on deadline for her next thriller. She is recently engaged to handsome, wealthy Edward Holbeck in a fairytale romance. She’s moved to New York City to live with him and left behind her lonely past in London, where she was orphaned at a young age. Harry is grateful to start a new family with Edward.

Not long after their engagement, Edward’s family reaches out hoping to connect with Harry and if she is willing to help, bring Edward back into the family. The Holbecks are old money, and though Edward could have been set for life in the family business, he has taken his own path to success separate from them. His engagement to Harry may be the perfect opportunity for him to come back to his family.

When Edward’s sister tricks Harry into agreeing to spend Thanksgiving with the family at their New York home, Harry finds herself drawn into the dark and glittering world of the Holbecks. Edward’s father Robert pulls Harry aside for a chat and she can’t help but feel there is more beneath the surface of their conversation than she realized. When Robert slips her an old cassette tape containing a shocking confession, Harry becomes entrapped in a game that she isn’t sure she wants to win.

Why was Robert willing to trust Harry with the secrets he revealed on the tape? As Harry pieces together the clues, she realizes things with the Holbecks are darker than she ever knew. Harry must win the game or risk losing it all, maybe even her life…

My Thoughts

I actually read The Family Game during the pandemic years where I was reading for enjoyment but didn’t have the bandwidth mentally to post reviews. That meant that when I went to look at books I wanted to review recently from my shelves, I couldn’t pass posting about this one. I went back and read it a second time so I can confirm this is a book that I enjoyed just as much on a re-read, even knowing the twists.

I read a lot of psychological thrillers so I notice when they deliver above and beyond. The Family Game is so expertly written and dark. I did the audiobook the second time around and Catherine Steadman narrating is truly a treat. Her acting skills plus being the creator of the story make the narration shine. Also, with the sections of the book from the tape being narrated, I loved the way they altered the audio recording to sound like a cassette tape. It pulled me even deeper into the story!

Harry as a main character is one of the best parts of the book. Initially she may seem too good and kind for this family, but she has some scrappiness to her that comes out as she gets deeper into the games. At a certain point I began to realize that no one was better suited to her position within the Holbeck circle.

The Holbecks are twisted! There is a voyeurism, I think, to reading about these extremely wealthy families and their secrets. More money, more problems (and more secrets), as they say. The Holbecks follow primogeniture, which is essentially about birth order regardless of gender. This added an edge to the family members, as their order in the lineage had a certain meaning to it and that translated to their freedom in their life, career, relationships, and future.

The games! From the moment Harry’s publisher calls her to back out of their meeting and she realizes it was because Edward’s sister pressured them to so she could meet her, I knew there was going to be a lot going on here. Nothing that any of the Holbecks and their extended family do should be taken at face value. These people play games merely by breathing!

The cassette tape was a particularly fascinating element to the story. Robert pulls Harry aside for a cryptic chat and slips her the tape. She must track down the right device to even be able to listen to the tape—something that was certainly a challenge that Robert intended. Once she has the tape, we hear the shocking contents of the message Robert recorded for her. And to add a layer to it all, Harry is faced with what she pursues, how she pursues it, and whether she should share anything with Edward.

The settings were outstanding, particularly the Hydes, which is old, opulent, and had a fascinating backstory. The grounds and house are full of hideaways, mazes, and secret spaces. I could vividly picture it all! It was similar to watching a film in my mind (which makes me realize this book absolutely should be made into a film).

Suspenseful, gripping, and dark—I truly didn’t want this book to end!

This was absolutely delightful, I just did a reread and I can not say it enough I loved this! This is one of those books where you there thinking hmmm this would make an excellent movie!

Both a nail biter, and twisty I could not put this book down.

If your fiance is the man of your dreams and his family is a little...intense you'd be curious right?

Well curiousity killed the cat and Harriet is in the cross hairs. A murder, a long standing tradition, and a mystery.

Would absolutely recommend, not saying a thing more except read this!

I pick this novel because they compared it to BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, but it wasn't like that to me. It was still a thrilling read I loved the main character. Highly recommend.

In The Family Game, Catherine Steadman tells the story of a woman who is joining a family, but the family has dark secrets in the past. The protagonist struggles to figure out who she can trust in this ultra-rich family. I personally did not like this book as much as Steadman's previous one, and I found the depictions of the wealth of the family to be unrealistic. Still, it was a fun, easy read.

- based around the holidays
- dysfunctional family
- old family $$
- fast paced
- SECRETS... lots of them

page count: 366 audio: 11 hrs

I decided to listen to the audio on this book, and I'm glad I did. I found out Catherine Steadman is the one who narrated. She does great! I did like how the "taped" chapters sounded different.

Man, this family... is messed up. They take family game night a liiiiiiittle too seriously.

This is my first C.S. book, and it won't be the last. The twists in this book are surprising and I did not see the final twist coming.

I did learn how to make it through a maze though. Ha.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House, & Catherine Steadman for the opportunity to read this book.

This was such a fun, fast-paced thriller! The games were wild and intense. The Holbeck family dark and disturbing. You never knew who to trust or what was really going on. It takes place during November - December, so if you’re looking for a chilling fall/winter thriller, I recommend checking this one out!

4/5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers, and Catherine Steadman for allowing me to read and review this book.

This is a really good thriller. I thoroughly enjoyed it and did not see the ending coming. There are twists and turns throughout this book that are executed amazingly.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes thrillers, especially family-oriented ones. This book kind of gives me Knives Out and You're Next vibes, so if you like those movies you will most likely enjoy this book.

Huge fan of thrillers and cat and mouse games. I loved the premise and the characters. I kept reading, wanting more and more.

Catherine Steadman never disappoints. What I appreciate most about her books is she always has unique premises that are different from the typical thrillers we see. This story had a fun and unique premise and it immediately captured my attention. I did feel the main big twist was pretty obvious, but that did not take away from my enjoyment of the story at all. I think this is a perfect book club pick, because it is filled with characters making *interesting* choices that would make for great conversation.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

In this case I'm going to be scathingly honest. This is truly one of the worst books I've ever read.

I suppose it started kind of cool- rich family, odd secrets, all that jazz. I mean there's nothing wrong with it, but it's been done before.

Then it just goes off the rails and not in a fun surrealistic way or even in a mystery way, it's just almost nonsensical. It seems like the author just took some canned stories, borrowing heavily from fantasy and tradition, and smashed them together into a crap sandwich.

Also the prose is just boring. I never felt attached to the story or interested in it whatsoever. Even the arc with the patriarch of the family asking Harriet (our MC) to write his story- which was kind of the mystery here- was extremely boring. Totally pointless and that was probably the most intrigue this book had.

The Krampusnacht scenes were just unbelievable stupid. It's like the author wanted to make this family seem as fucked up as possible without breaking any crazy barriers.

Ultimately, I was left wondering what on earth the mystery even was here . Because I'm really not sure. The whole point of the book seems to be that "blood is thicker than water". Even with the revelations of the 3 main characters, there wasn't a huge mystery. It was just a girl figuring things out and telling the reader. To me that is extraordinarily poor mystery writing- you don't tell the reader exactly what you're discovering there has to be a sense of well.... mystery!!

I almost DNF this. It was so drab, so shallow, and so over-the-top in the most stupid ways possible. I'm sure some readers will glean pleasure from this novel- and more power to you if so! However, I couldn't stomach this poor excuse for a twisted mystery. This is exactly what I DON'T want to read. I don't even know how this got published.

I hate to go this hard on ARCs, but they do give them for honest POVs correct?

Oh, this book is FANTASTIC. Like a mix of Ready or Not? and Succession, which I thought was refreshing and entertaining, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time!

the premise is most obviously reminiscent of the film ready or not, but when its premise takes the form of a book it was presented as less absurd and funny and more tense-on-purpose. pretty good

Although it took me a bit to get into the story, overall I really enjoyed this book.

What I loved:
I always love a story about an author (and rich people.) I find those kinds of stories and the plots around them very interesting. I enjoyed the suspense throughout the book.

What I didn't love:
Some of the character motivations seem unclear to me, but maybe that just wasn't very important to the overall plot? SOME of the points of the plot seemed a little too far fetched.. but then again.. it IS a thriller afterall.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC even though it took me quite a long time to get around to reading it.

One of my favorite thrillers I've read this year! Twisty and dark and so unique, I couldn't put Catherine Steadman's The Family Game down. Full of tension and big reveals throughout, I highly recommend this book for fans of Ruth Ware and Riley Sager.

Thanks for this eARC!

I really enjoyed this book overall. The concept had me intrigued from the start and made me want to keep reading to find out what happened next. There were some moments during the story where I felt like events became too predictable and it was somewhat slow to start, but I always kept going. This story left me on the edge of my seat and wanting more, plus the twist at the end was definitely unexpected. I would definitely recommend this book!

Overall I found this to be a good thriller. It was well paced with many unpredictable twists, and then towards the end a few slightly predictable ones. It’s set around the holidays so I recommend reading in November or December!

This story unfortunately fell flat for me. I think it had a lot of potential but the follow through was not there. The prologue and the last 40 pages were very engaging. However, the bulk of the story had too slow of pacing. I did enjoy the date stamps at the start of the chapters, the chapters being titled after direct dialogue, and the twist at the end!

Loved this read! Such a quick thriller, with some really good twists & turns. Would for sure recommend this one!

This has an original plot line involving a young woman’s meeting of her fiancé’s family and the games she must play in order to assimilate. Some of the games are incredibly disturbing and she questions what is really going on with this family. The ending has an abundance of suspense and a surprising twist.

This was a fun one! Good character development and the plot was well executed. It was creepy but not scary. I'd definitely recommend if you like thriller and a lock-room mystery.