*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This was such a great read! really wish this was a series lmao

At the outset this is a pretty standard teen mystery. A girl on her own for the summer, studying abroad, who gets caught up in the disappearance of a classmate. But that basic format quickly twists in odd directions as the characters learn that their professor isn't simply named Dr. John Watson - he is the Dr. Watson. As Jules and her friends uncover the truth, we get some solid character development and setting descriptions. The clues for the mystery are integrated naturally into the plot, if a bit heavy-handed. The ultimate reveal, though it makes sense in the world of the book, is oddly unsatisfying and leaves too many questions unanswered. There is no strong emotional release and the tension simply falls apart. In the end, I found it a bit disappointing.

A Game Most Foul by Alison Gervais starts off with a lot of promise, combining a compelling mystery with a fascinating premise: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are alive and active in modern-day London. The setup was intriguing, and I was excited to see how the mystery and the dynamic between Jules Montgomery and these iconic detectives would unfold.

However, as the story progressed, the plot took a turn for the strange, and not entirely in a good way. While the concept was solid, the execution left me wishing for a stronger focus on the mystery itself and a more satisfying resolution. The outcome felt underwhelming and didn’t quite live up to the potential of the setup.

That said, there were elements I enjoyed. The inclusion of Jules’ hearing loss added an interesting layer to her character, especially with her powers of observation becoming a unique strength. The Sherlock and Watson dynamic was fun, but I would have loved to see it explored more deeply, especially in connection with the central mystery.

I also listened to the audiobook, and the narration was excellent. The reader nailed the accent and provided unique voices for all of the characters, making it an engaging listening experience.

Overall, A Game Most Foul isn’t a bad read—it kept me turning the pages—but it didn’t quite fulfill the potential I had hoped for. It’s an “okay” book that might appeal to fans of light mysteries or readers intrigued by modern twists on classic literary characters. With a stronger ending and tighter focus on the mystery, it could have been truly great.

Concept: A
Execution: C-

I’m usually a sucker for any kind of Holmes and Watson adjacent story, so I was excited for this one. It starts out promisingly - an American 19-year-old spends a summer in London living with her aunt in order to attend a prestigious writing workshop led by…Professor John Watson. She immediately befriends two of her fellow workshop participants (one of whom, of course, is a potential love interest), and they start to wonder if there might be more to their professor than meets the eye. When the class visits Oxford and one of the students disappears, our lead trio decides to investigate.

This is where things go off the rails. The story of Holmes and Watson takes a poorly-presented supernatural turn, and our central trio never really get to investigate anything - they (and we) are firehosed with exposition for the rest of the book. There’s not even any kind of closure in the end - just a sort of tapering off followed by a tacked-on epilogue that adds nothing to the proceedings.

I can’t in good faith recommend this one, which is unfortunate - it had so much potential! I will say, though, that the audiobook narrator did an admirable job of differentiating voices despite having an American accent herself and only one of the multitude of characters being American. I will definitely seek out more of her work.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This is set in London and the prestigious Ashford College during the summer and for Jules, her summer isn't going as she hoped. Going in I knew that this was set around a writing class and Sherlock Holmes that's all I need to know to give this book a read. Also, it features a Hard of Hearing protagonist written by a Hard of Hearing author! I love that.
There are two main mysteries within this book and I liked how both unfolded. I enjoyed the characters, they all played well off each other, made me feel something, and you can't help but want a happy ending for them. I also have to say I liked all the writing talk, that's something I love in books.
I have read Alison Gervais's other book The Silence Between Us and gave
it three stars and I am happy to say that I enjoyed this one even more!
A summer of writing gets twisted into a mysteries.

Thank you to NetGalley, Blink YA Books, Blackstone Publishing, Alison Gervais, and Khristine Hvam (audio narrator) for the opportunity to read and listen to the audiobook of A Game Most Foul in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows Jules, a creative writer attending a summer writing seminar at Ashford College in England. One aspect of characterization I really appreciate is her use of a hearing aide, which adds a nice feature of diversity. The hearing loss is recent, and Jules doesn't seem comfortable sharing that as a part of herself just yet, so she does try to hide it from her seminar classmates. She was really hoping the seminar would help her with her dream novel, but even seminar's may not have the power to end writer's block.

When a newfound friend and classmate goes missing when visiting a door that inspires C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, no one seems concerned. People do what they want, right? but the weird thing is that she was RIGHT next to Jules and suddenly...gone without a trace. Jules and two of her other newfound friends/classmates find the disappearance to be worth looking into, even if the police and Professor Watson don't find the disappearance to be anything out of the ordinary.

Jules, Percy, and Suruthi find themselves joined by a man who frequents her aunt's antique shop, by no other name than Sherlock Holmes! Of course, Holmes is perfect for mystery solving, but what's more, how is it that centuries-old fictional characters are making an appearance? Now Jules has two mysteries to solve, and she hopes she can find her friend in time.

This is a fun mystery novel with a twist on the characters of Holmes and Watson being alive and real (you'll just have to read for yourself to determine how this works). Sherlock Holmes fans will certainly appreciate what is going on with the characters and events in this novel. It is also a perfect mystery for a contemporary audience. Teen and new adult readers, as well as aspiring writers, will get thorough enjoyment out of this fun stand-alone mystery!

While the idea and notion behind the story wad fun and seemed great in theory, I ddon't think the execution did it justice. I felt like *something was missing* and there was more than a few thiings that *felt off*. I DID greatly appreciation the representation and diversity., but I also felt like just when some parts were heating up, they ended abruptly and the resolution just plopped out.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

***AUDIO BOOK VERSION***
A Game Most Foul is a fun YA mystery book with two characters in modern day times called Holmes and Watson slam dunk in the middle of it. We follow Jules, who's flown over from the states to attend a writing seminar at a prestigious college in London. Just after joining the course and making friends, one of them disappears, leaving her and her friends frantically trying to find out what's happened to her because the police and their teacher don't seem to be very concerned. Jules finds herself embroiled in two mysteries, struggling to navigate her hearing, which is declining daily, and complete her course when she's got a serious case of 'writers block'.
This was so fun to listen to on audio and perfect for YA to learn more about Sherlock Holmes and Watson and lead them on to possibly reading books about them stemming from reading this book. The narrator was easy to listen to and did a great job breathing life into each character.

Started strong, characters were kind of annoying, completely derailed and did not care for the ending. Wasn't what I had expected or hoped going in. Thank you netgalley for the arc, but this was not for me.

This YA mystery was a great palate cleanser. It was entertaining without being super twisty or suspenseful. The narrator did a great job bringing the story to life. I loved the writing group and the friendship that came out of it. Even though the story was told through Jules’ POV the personalities of Percy and Suruthi were developed as well. I loved following them as they tried to piece together what happened to their classmate. The twist on Sherlock and Watson was fun and it added a little magical realism to the mystery. The banter between them and the students was fun. I can’t say I loved how it ended but I how much I loved the group made up for it. I think listening to the audio definitely helped with the pace of the book a little too.

Thank you Blink YA books and Netgalley for the gifted audio.

I love reading murder mysteries and this one did not disappoint. A young girl goes to another country for a writing seminar. While there she stays with a relative that owns a shop. One day on an outing one of her classmates disappear into thin air, no one can find her and after a while the police give up, thinking that she has taken off on her own. However, some of her classmates don't agree and decide to solve the mystery themselves, with a little help from a man trapped in an office.

2.5
I could have lived with a portrayal of Sherlock and Watson that didn't ring true for me, but the bumbling idiocy of the other characters was too much to deal with. Do you ever get the impression someone is writing teenagers as overly stupid partial people just because they're teenagers? Well, I do...

this was a fun idea and enjoyable enough but it just felt like something was missing from it. I think I wanted more deduction and detecting. More clues. It felt like all the resolution got handed to us very easily and all at once and it just left me wanting but not in a good way.

"A Game Most Foul" started out pretty good.. It was interesting to read about a young main character who has hearing loss, about the ways it affected her and how she overcame her struggles. However...
It's taking me awhile to put a finger down on what exactly I disliked so much about this title. One of the main thoughts that kept coming up is, "Why did the author dumb down these teens?" The thought kept resurfacing every couple of chapters throughout. Yes, it is a Young Adult genre, but, just my personal opinion, the book could have benefited if the characters were just a little more... acute? Sharp?
The plot didn't catch my attention, I didn't really care what happened past the first third of the title.
I really wanted to like this, it's not a terrible book, but this Sherlock/Watson spin is just not for me.

"A Game Most Foul" is a fun YA mystery with a literary theme and supernatural twist! I enjoyed the romp through its British academia and gaslamp England settings, both of which are right up my alley when wishing to curl up and escape into an atmospheric and immersive world for my daily dose of cosy comfort.
I loved the quirky characters, as well as the diversity and inclusivity that went into composing this cast. I appreciated the account by the hard of hearing protagonist (based on personal experience of the hard of hearing author) which gave interesting insight to aid improved understanding about living with this condition.
The audio narration was engaging, bringing each role to life with appropriate accents and mannerisms to help you connect, identify and relate to everyone.

I adored this book. It had some tropes in it that on the surface it dealt with similarly to how they are always handled, but actually cut a lot deeper if you stop to think about the core messages that are there.

I identified with Percy deeply in my love for Sherlock Holmes, and this book paid such great homage to those books while being it's own story completely. It's such a different take on Holmes and Watson in the modern era, and every character is so well written. It also captured the spirit of Homes well, something not every inspired by book does.

I enjoyed running around with Jules, Percy, and Suruthi as they tried to figure out two intertwined mysteries. I appreciate all that was left open to interpretation at the end of this book too. While it has a satisfying ending, there are some things that feel open ended. I liked that the big strokes were there, but I could draw my own conclusion on others.


**Side note: This book has some great representation if you are looking for that. I appreciated how well the hearing loss is integrated in as just part of who Jules is and not something that needs to be othering. It is brought up a bit, because she is dealing with her own acceptance of it partially, but it's never something that holds her back or keeps her from anything, and I can't think of a single situation where someone interacts with her negatively around her hearing aids. The closest is someone not knowing what they are for sure but assuming correctly. It was really well done.**

Finding an inclusive author who writes with authenticity about someone’s unique lived experience is rare. Alison Gervais includes hearing loss without making it seem like an afterthought or a sort of thing that must be done to prove she is not omitting any population groups. The story she weaves is engaging—enchanting, even. The characters are lively and curious in a way that kept me engaged & will appeal to my students. The way that she addressed living with hearing loss and feeling different is equally as powerful though. I think she proves that writing in a way that represents all kinds of people doesn’t have to be trite or cliche. The narration on this also helped propel the story. Sometimes having multiple speaking characters makes a text difficult for struggling learners to follow—even when the story is appealing. This narration definitely eases that difficulty and really helps to propel the story.

In full transparency I did receive an audiobook ARC from NetGalley.

I loved this book! It was a delightfully witty and exciting mystery with a fantasy tie in. As a writer I really loved the ode to writers block and struggling to meet deadlines. As a mystery fan I loved the connection with Sherlock Holmes and some nods to my personal fave Agatha Christie! I am so excited to go see what else Alison Gervais has to read. Her style was so readable and witty, especially those chapter titles! I do wish there was some more character development of the secondary characters and more resolution to their story lines. Beyond that I flew through this book and loved every moment of it.

I am reviewing an ARC of the audiobook of A Game Most Foul.

I thought the premise of a modern day Sherlock mystery was creative and interesting. Most of the characters were well developed, I liked Jules and her aunt and her friends. Sherlock and Watson lacked something, there was some inconsistency in their personalities which was explained to some extent at the end but not really. The students seemed younger than their given ages, quite naive, so I couldn’t help but picture younger teens in my head. I wish we could have read some samples of their creative writing!

I really wanted to find out the answers to the mystery so that did keep me hooked but there were long sections where nothing really happened except Jules overthinking and repeating herself without adding anything new. The settings were interesting, I always love a literary trip back to London. Jules’ management of her hearing loss was included seamlessly in the narration and it was good to read about a character’s difference without it being a major hindrance nor superpower which some books do, it was just part of who she is.

The audiobook narration was pretty good. There were a few oddly pronounced words… macabre?! And the narrator had her work cut out for her having to voice accents from California, Canada, East London, Kent, France and Belgian in one scene! Overall it was well read and I enjoyed the story.
3.5 stars

The book started out really strong but then the plot took a bit of a turn for the weird and not exactly in a good way. I do think the story would have been a bit better with a different outcome. I did like the whole Sherlock and Watson plot point but I wish there would have been a bigger focus on the mystery of it all... again with a different ending.

I did really appreciate the fact our main character had hearing aids and I loved how that part of the character was written and explored through the book.

I think it could be a really great book if it would have maybe had a bit more editing but I do think some people will love this story.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!