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caseythereader's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Thanks to Macmillan Books for the free advance copy of this book.
- THE MARVELOUS is THE WESTING GAME filtered through social media, and I loved every second of it. Kann's fictional app nails the taxonomy of influencers, particularly when talking about what it takes to make it big.
- The central riddle and mystery was quite fun to try to solve along with the players, especially given that most of the characters were playing with hidden motives or only sharing partial information.
- It did take me a bit to be able to keep straight who was who since there are a lot of characters and we go from their usernames to their real names fairly quickly. But once I got a handle on that, I was in for the ride, strange clues, shifting loyalties, potential romances and all.
- THE MARVELOUS is THE WESTING GAME filtered through social media, and I loved every second of it. Kann's fictional app nails the taxonomy of influencers, particularly when talking about what it takes to make it big.
- The central riddle and mystery was quite fun to try to solve along with the players, especially given that most of the characters were playing with hidden motives or only sharing partial information.
- It did take me a bit to be able to keep straight who was who since there are a lot of characters and we go from their usernames to their real names fairly quickly. But once I got a handle on that, I was in for the ride, strange clues, shifting loyalties, potential romances and all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, and Panic attacks/disorders
melaniereadsbooks's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Thank you to Netgalley and Fierce Reads for an arc of this book!
Six young people are chosen off a social media app by the creator to come spend a Golden Weekend with her. This is the 10th Golden Weekend that the mysterious Jewel has hosted since founding her vloging app, Golden Rule, but everyone can tell that this one is different. When the participants get there, they are thrown into a mysterious competitions filled with riddles and teamwork to compete for one of two possible half a million dollar prizes, but not everything is how it seems.
This was a whirlwind! It alternated between three different POVs as well as information from the Social Media app, so it was a little bit of a mixed media story as well. I truly loved the experience of this book. It is very heavy on the Willy Wonka themes, and the mysterious benefactor--Jewel, is such an interesting character! I wish we had been given some POV chapters for her because I cannot even begin to imagine what could be going on in her mind during this!
The narrators are all super unreliable because they are very sneaky and hide parts of the truth. It made for such an interesting read. I loved all the riddles and challenges that were thrown in and I was definitely trying to follow the bread crumb trail to predict the ending, but I gotta say I was off more often than I was on. I really loved this writing style and the humor imbedded throughout this story!
Pub Date: June 8, 2021
Six young people are chosen off a social media app by the creator to come spend a Golden Weekend with her. This is the 10th Golden Weekend that the mysterious Jewel has hosted since founding her vloging app, Golden Rule, but everyone can tell that this one is different. When the participants get there, they are thrown into a mysterious competitions filled with riddles and teamwork to compete for one of two possible half a million dollar prizes, but not everything is how it seems.
This was a whirlwind! It alternated between three different POVs as well as information from the Social Media app, so it was a little bit of a mixed media story as well. I truly loved the experience of this book. It is very heavy on the Willy Wonka themes, and the mysterious benefactor--Jewel, is such an interesting character! I wish we had been given some POV chapters for her because I cannot even begin to imagine what could be going on in her mind during this!
The narrators are all super unreliable because they are very sneaky and hide parts of the truth. It made for such an interesting read. I loved all the riddles and challenges that were thrown in and I was definitely trying to follow the bread crumb trail to predict the ending, but I gotta say I was off more often than I was on. I really loved this writing style and the humor imbedded throughout this story!
Pub Date: June 8, 2021
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Gun violence, and Kidnapping
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