Book review: Game design could leave you puzzled

The storyline of 'The Grandest Game' is attractive, however, it’s a frustrating read as so much is unexplained

Jennifer Lynn Barnes' 'The Grandest Game' ends with a cliffhanger but she has revealed there will be two more books. Picture: Instagram @authorjenlynnbarnes

• The Grandest Game 
• Jennifer Lynn Barnes 
• Penguin, €14.99 

American author Jennifer Lynn Barnes has written more than 20 successful novels for older teens and young adults.

The Grandest Game is the first in a new series set in the same world as The Inheritance Games. It features some of the characters readers will know from the earlier series, joined by new ones.

The Grandest Game is an annual competition run by billionaire Avery Grambs and the four Hawthorne brothers, whose family fortune she inherited. 

It’s designed to give anyone a chance to win a huge cash prize, and this year’s game requires one of seven golden tickets to enter.

How each of them got those tickets is revealed — some have been gifted them by the organiser.

The competitors are transported to an isolated island. The game involves solving very challenging puzzles and tasks. It resembles a television gameshow, particularly the puzzle solving sections.

To make it more complicated, the players are divided into teams — so they are forced to work together, though they are competing against each other.

We first meet Rohan, one of the competitors, and learn why he is taking part.

We are gradually introduced to the others, but in most of their cases their motivations are not as clear; some want the money, others want power, for others you are left wondering.

It’s difficult to identify with most of them or care whether they succeed or not, as the majority of the characters are not fleshed out. 

One exception is Lyra, who is the most interesting and developed of the characters.

Her family is about to sell their home — which is her favourite place in the world — to pay her college fees, and Lyra will do anything to stop that happening. 

She blames the Hawthornes for her father’s death, yet finds herself beginning to be attracted to Grayson Hawthorne who joins the others in the competition.

Why Grayson has to join the other seven is not explained, like much of the plot. What is his role? Has he been forced to take part, or was it his own idea?

The other interesting character is Gigi, who feels she just has to win. She has to — not only to beat her twin sister Savannah, but also so she can prove to herself that she can do it — and without help. She hides her self-doubt behind a positive, bubbly exterior.

Like Lyra, the reader can identify with her and care about her progress.

The storyline is attractive: Take a group of diverse characters to an isolated setting, pit them against each other as they are forced to solve very challenging puzzles and carry out tasks, all in the name of winning a huge cash prize.

However, it’s a frustrating read as so much is unexplained. One should be able to read this without being familiar with the characters in The Inheritance Games series, but that doesn’t work. 

Too much is assumed, such as the differences in the characters of the Hawthorne brothers.

Some of the puzzles are intriguing while, with others, it seems that they may be included just to cause confusion — rather than being integral to plot development. 

Barnes does succeed in raising tension as the challenges push the competitors to their limits, mentally as well as physically. 

However, the novel ends with a cliffhanger — so the reader is left dissatisfied. Presumably, this is to encourage older teens and young adults to look forward to the next installment of the series. The author has revealed there will be two more books.

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