For any book that is taking a beloved IP and reworking it into something new, there are always bound to be a number of reasonably disappointed readers. It is, as they say, a hazard of doing business. All that said, there are often many who do it incredibly well, thus mitigating the quantity of those who will fall into that camp. As I started <i>A Game Most Foul</i> I had genuinely believed that this might be one of those sorts.

But, ugh! For a minute there, I was actually substantially impressed with Alison Gervais’ rework of our beloved Sherlock Holmes stories. But then that ending…

I get an odd sense that Gervais was somewhat influenced by the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film—which I loved, by the way—when she was writing this. The thing is, there are aspects of that film that worked really well largely due to the way in which it was presented. The fact that the film did not go too far in one direction, but rather left it somewhat up to interpretation with a slight leaning in both directions depending on how you looked at it, is why (at least, in my mind) the film was successful.

Gervais just jumps off the cliff of a single direction, leaving absolutely nothing to interpretation. I didn’t exactly hate this about the book since there had to be some sort of explanation and, up to that point, the characters were actually written fairly well.

But then there’s the mystery that began everything, a question to the fate of a classmate. Now, there’s usually much satisfaction in the answer to Sherlock Holmes’ mystery questions. We have a lot of fun trying to suss out what the answer will be and we genuinely enjoy being right or wrong when we do. Gervais’ book really didn’t leave much for us to guess at, unfortunately, which admittedly takes a lot of the fun out of it.

And, perhaps most unfortunate of all, the answer was awful. I was so painfully disappointed in the route Gervais went with this mystery. The big twist reveal at the end was monumentally disappointing and not at all in line with the source material she’s pulling from. Desperation may cause desperate acts, but even then I could not justify the choices she took with this book.

My dear Watson and Holmes, I am truly sorry.

This book is a mystery that follows an American in London for a writing workshop. One of her classmates goes missing and her and her friends try to find out what happened.

This book was just ok for me. I loved the setting and the descriptions throughout. I thought the characters were likable and interesting as well. There seemed to be good chemistry between everyone as well.

My biggest complaint is that I just felt a bit bored throughout. I don’t feel like the action started until like half way through and I was just waiting at that point. I think the mystery should’ve started sooner. I also feel like the dialogue felt a bit young for these characters who were 18-19. I know it’s YA but they felt younger to me.

Overall, not a bad book and I think teens would like this more than I did.

Thanks so much to netgalley and Blink for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

I was interested in this book because I love mysteries and Sherlock Holmes. However I didn’t enjoy either aspect of the story. I’ve read other books by Blink publishing, and I love that they publish YA books that have clean romance and no swearing in them. I appreciate that this book met my expectations there, but I was very disappointed by the spiritualist/occult plot points that were in the book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Alison Gervais for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for A Game Most Foul coming out June 18, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really wanted to love this book. I love books set in England and anything Sherlock Holmes. I thought the hard of hearing main character brought good representation. I thought the set up sounded really good on paper, but the execution wasn’t my favorite. I thought the story was doing a little too much all at once. If it was just a story about Holmes and Watson living in modern day, then I probably would’ve loved that more. But then the first half of the story felt different than the second half. I was slightly confused by the ending. I would check out other books by this author.

While I still like the premise for A Game Most Foul, the book itself is unfortunately not for me because of some "bumps" in the writing and how the mystery was resolved. However, I do think several of my dislikes came down to personal preference, so A Game Most Foul might be a great read for you.

"A Game Most Foul" by Alison Gervais offers an engaging blend of contemporary mystery and classic detective fiction. Jules Montgomery, a young writer attending a prestigious seminar in London, finds herself struggling with hearing loss and writer's block. Her summer takes an unexpected turn when a fellow student disappears, and Jules, along with her friends Percy and Suruthi, decides to investigate. The story takes an intriguing twist with the arrival of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who, despite being fictional characters from the Victorian era, are mysteriously present and eager to help solve the case.

While the novel excels in its unique premise and the empowering portrayal of Jules’ hearing loss as a strength rather than a weakness, it does have its shortcomings. The pacing is inconsistent, with some parts of the story dragging and others feeling hurried. Additionally, the characters, though generally likable, sometimes lack the necessary depth to fully engage readers. The intriguing inclusion of Holmes and Watson raises interesting questions, but the story falls short of providing satisfactory answers, leaving some plot points unresolved. Despite these issues, "A Game Most Foul" is an entertaining read that will appeal to mystery enthusiasts and fans of Sherlock Holmes, offering a fresh take on the detective genre through the eyes of a resilient and observant young protagonist.

Short and Sweet Review
Jules is attending Ashford College’s writing seminar in London and she’s excited but she’s still nervous about navigating London and trying to figure out how well she’ll do with her gradual hearing loss. During an outing with the class one of Jules’s classmates goes missing and unfortunately Jules was right there but didn’t hear or see anything which makes her a big suspect. That’s only one mystery, Jules’s professor is Watson and his friend is Holmes, so now we have to figure out how two fictional characters from the Victorian era are here in modern times.
A Game Most Foul, was a fun book to read I really enjoyed it and for a mystery it felt like a change of pace maybe because it wasn’t so dark. Usually there’s a murder but we’re not really sure what’s going on surrounding Ashley’s disappearance and also we get to have Watson and Holmes and figure out why they’re stuck here. Jules is a good character, I liked the representation of having a character that wears hearing aids and she does explain what it’s like and how things aren’t always easy for her. I also liked that she made some friends, Percy and Suruthi, they spend most of their time together writing and trying to solve both mysteries. It was also cool that Jules’s aunt owned an antique shop because that’s where we first meet Sherlock. Both mysteries are intertwined in a way and it was interesting to see how it all played out. The pacing was good and I liked the sleuthing that was happening and it didn’t hurt that the group had one of the best detectives helping.
Overall, this was a breath of fresh air for a mystery novel. I loved all of the characters and how they interacted with each other. I would recommend this book I thought it was fun how Sherlock and Watson were incorporated and it was a lighter mystery.

♡𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 &| 𝐞𝐀𝐫𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
3 🌟
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𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬 :
•ya
•mystery
•Sherlock Holmes vibes
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I'm a sucker for a book with chapter names | titles! Which means I'm a sucker in this book. This book does read very YA | childish! Which could be a problem for some people who do enjoy YA. The premise of the story was intriguing with Watson and Holmes and writing college students trying to solve the mystery of the missing student.
The narrators did a good job bringing the story to life. The only thing that bothered me was when she changed her voice to do British accent, it sounded cartoonist.
Overall, if you enjoy Sherlock Holmes and Ya, I would recommend this book to you.
* Side note* the fun fact about the Narnia door at Oxford.
♡𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 June.18♡
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Thank you, Netgalley, and Blink Audiobook for the (ALC)-Audiobook, and Blink for the (eArc)-eBook for my honest review.

Jules is so excited to be attending a prestigious writing seminar in London. The professor is a strange character named Professor Watson. things take a turn for the worse though when one of Jules’ classmates disappears on a class trip. Soon, she realizes that Professor Watson is actually Dr. Watson and he and Sherlock are not only real people but still alive in modern society.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one! I thought it was a fun twist on Sherlock + Watson. My biggest critique here is the ending/whodunit of it all. I can see how maybe it would be a surprising ending but it did take away from my enjoyment of the book. Despite that, I thought it was pretty fast paced, fun characters, and a decent mystery.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this book, I liked it a lot and I was seeing the 3 average and was confused, Then I got it, This isn't really a mystery at all and it definitely wasn't a game. Jules is a great main character! I liked her a lot and her actions were very realistic and I liked her friends and everything. Then Watson comes out of no where and ruins it and all the air was taken out. I thought we were going to have a parallel mystery storyline and it was all a misunderstanding and I'm just left sadly disappointed.

A Game Most Foul started out really strong for me, but something about the second half of the book didn't do it for me.

Not my favorite book. I did like Jules and her friends, they were done very well. Not a fan of how Holmes and Watson were written. The story was good for awhile but I did not like the ending,

Thanks to the publisher & Net Galley for providing me with an eArc.

I was interested in this book as a fan of Enola Holmes, Sherlock, Hercule Poirot, Benoit Blanc, and the general murder mystery genre!

The book had a fun and interesting concept, but did read rather young for it to be set at college/college age-- may be better as an upper MG/lower YA set in HS based on the tone. It also didn't do much to set up the world -- I forgot where and when it was set often! Especially since often these types of mysteries are set in Victorian/England -- if they aren't, it helps if the setting also acts as a character for the enhanced mysterious atmosphere (like Knives Out).

The characters didn't get much development besides the relationship between the MC and Percy, which seemed a little unfounded as well.

As for the plot, it didn't really feel like a mystery where they gathered clues, looked at suspects etc. It was very much like they were in class, Ashley disappeared, they find her iPad and Holmes, they team up, then it's solved. The two mysteries didn't seem to be linked as nicely at the end as they seemed to want to be -- and didn't have a satisfying conclusion.

Overall the conclusion of the book was very rushed and half-done, and we never got answers as to if/why <spoiler> Ashley was related to the medium. Also was not a fan at all of the big reveal/culprit -- it seemed very out of character, especially as a Doctor. </spoiler>

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and honestly review an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

This book was solidly fine. If you’re looking for something easy to read, a little Sherlock and Watson mystery brought into the modern day - you should enjoy this.

For me, the dialogue in this felt quite stilted, the plot felt… less like we were experiencing it through the characters, and more like the main character was slowly narrating each plot point to us. It was a lot of telling, very little showing.

The characters themselves were fine, but I didn’t grow attached to them at all, they didn’t feel like real people, just little archetypes.

Again, I think for a younger audience, this would be fun and engaging! If you’re still in your Young Adult era, if you love stuff like Enola Holmes, this might be right up your alley.

3⭐️

3/5 stars!

This was a little too much "Scooby Doo meets Sherlock Holmes" for me. At the same time, I did enjoy this. It was an easy read, with a few "flat" characters for my liking. But, that being said... I did read it in two sittings, and I did enjoy it. Just not enough to give it a solid review or a higher rating unfortunately. I will however, be keeping an eye out for any more by this author to read again in the future.

A massive thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley UK for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

tl;dr
A relatable lead and an intriguing mystery, with the inclusion of Holmes and Watson somehow being the least interesting thing about this.

Thoughts
This is going to sound weird, but I loved everything about this book except Holmes and Watson. I knooow! But let's start at the beginning. Jules is a great lead - complex, smart, determined, and extremely human. Her struggles with herself, her writing, and her dreams were all very relatable. I also loved having an OwnVoices author talk about learning to live with hearing loss. Her friends are great, with contrasting personalities that both shine. Add to that some light romance, and you've got a very promising recipe. I'd be more than happy to watch the three of them solve mysteries forever. But that's not exactly what we get, because then we get Watson and Holmes, and an old mystery of theirs instead. Now don't get me wrong - I love Holmes and Watson, and I'll read any incarnation I can get my hands on. But I had invested a lot into the three young writers at the start, and I didn't enjoy seeing them take the back seat in a mystery they were already handling with a decent amount of competence. I really don't know how this could've been handled differently, but I do know that I was very eager for the kids to shine, and they didn't get as much screentime as I would have liked for them. I am saying this in the complimentary sense, dear author. I liked your characters, and they didn't need help. The mystery itself is serviceable. I didn't feel let down, but there weren't any huge surprises either. This book is marketed as being for Holmes fans, but it resonated with me much more as coming of age story about young writers.

The story is about a girl who joins a writing seminar and one of her classmates goes missing. Her and her friends find out that John Watson and Sherlock Holmes are still alive in present day but they don’t know how. They recruit them to help solve the mystery of their missing classmate.

I liked Jules and her friends. I think they had a good dynamic with the relationship. Some of the other classmate you tend to forget are there though. When it came to the reveal of Holmes and Watson, I feel like it could have been done a little better. To me personally it was a little anticlimactic. And I wish more was written about their lives afterwards. Overall it was a good story and I would recommend it to anyone that likes light mysteries and Sherlock Holmes.

American teenager Jules attends a writing seminar in London led by a Professor Watson. As the course progresses, the creative writing takes a back seat as there are two mysteries to solve: a missing classmate and the puzzle of how Holmes and Watson are still alive in the present day.
A Game Most Foul is a mix of mystery and magic. Fans of Sherlock Holmes will enjoy a novel interpretation of this character and how he operates in a different era to his own. The character of Jules brings an insight into how someone who is hard of hearing might approach being in a new situation and meeting a group of new people. Initially she tries to hide her hearing aids but then realises that the others are aware of her hearing loss and there is no need to hide them. I loved her friendship with Percy and Suruthi and the relationship between the three of them is one of the highlights of the book.
The solution to the mysteries is given rather than discovered which felt a bit disappointing as I would have liked to see more clues and development of the mystery element of the story.

What I Liked:

- The tidbits about Oxford were fun. I didn't know about the Narnia door until I read A Game Most Foul.

- Jules, Percy, and Suruthi were fun characters and well-developed. Gervais balanced Jules's hearing loss well with her character, making it a part of her but not all of her character (if that makes sense). Suruthi's character, while a little over the top, felt realistic, which can be a tricky thing to do with a personality as bold as hers.

- For the most part, I felt that Gervais's versions of Holmes and Watson felt fairy in line with Doyle's original characters.



What I Struggled With:

- The side characters were pretty flat. I honestly forgot about one of the students in the writing seminar until he popped up again. While I understand needing to populate the story, I think the side characters either should have been further developed or cut. They don't add anything really to the novel as they currently are.

- There were a couple times were the interactions between Holmes and Watson felt weird and childish. It's been a while since I've read the original novels, but those instances felt inaccurate with Doyle's characters, and how Gervais's versions acted most of the time.

- This is a little nitpicky. but Jules's jetlag didn't feel realistic. I've traveled overseas several times and never had minimal jetlag like Jules did. Maybe Gervais and I have simply had different experiences with jetlag, but that initial feeling of inauthenticity did pull me out of the novel a tad.

- The prologue felt clunky, and I think you could skip it without missing anything. Because of the back cover copy, the reader is already clued into the fact that Holmes and Watson are alive in the modern era. However, in the prologue, Gervais never refers to Watson by name, though it's clear that he's the POV character, rather calling him "the man." It led to clunky writing.

- Some of the key revelations in the book relied on telling, rather than showing. As a result, it felt like Jules and her friends didn't do much to solve the mystery, but were rather given the information.

SPOILER BELOW

- I didn't like how the mystery was solved. It might be simply because I like the original Watson character, but it left me feeling a little betrayed. I also am not a fan of spiritualism, the occult, etc., so I didn't enjoy those elements being added.

END SPOILER


Overall:

While I still like the premise for A Game Most Foul, the book itself is unfortunately not for me because of some "bumps" in the writing and how the mystery was resolved. However, I do think several of my dislikes came down to personal preference, so A Game Most Foul might be a great read for you.


Cautions: seven instances of coarser language; two instances of British swearing; two kisses; light-moderate romance; SPOILERS AHEAD mentions of the occult and seances; Watson and Holmes's immortality is caused by some sort of spiritual interference

I love Sherlock Holmes so I was very excited to read this book and see how they had adapted the characters. I loved that Jules was not only hard of hearing but it showed how she could overcome and adapt to solve crimes. There were moments that confused me but overall I enjoyed this book.