It's Only a Game / Kelsea Yu / Book Review

IT'S ONLY A GAME

Marina Chan has a secret: "Marina Chan" isn't her name at all. Marina Chan isn't real, and the real girl she left behind when she ran away from her old life is better left in the past. Marina's been careful to keep any hints of that girl from slipping through the cracks. That's why she doesn't have any friends.

Except for her online gaming teammates, that is. But it's not like they've ever met in person. Until this weekend. Marina knows meeting up is a risk, but it's a risk she's willing to take. Being on the run is kind of lonely. Plus, it's not like she can turn down an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of her favorite gaming studio, even if that means risking her old identity slipping through.

But the tour of the studio goes awry when the head of the company--and the creator of their favorite game--is murdered, leaving Marina and her teammates the only witnesses. Whoever killed him plans to frame them... unless they play along with the cryptic instructions the killer left behind. They're no stranger to playing games, but lying, stealing, and trespassing in real life feels different. Especially when they're at the mercy of someone willing to destroy all of their lives.

THOUGHTS

This book is high-stakes and high-melodrama in a way that usually doesn't work for me, and yet somehow, I loved this book. It feels like the perfect balance between over-the-top and strong characters that can shoulder the melodramatic tone.

PROS

Great Hook	This book has teeth from the beginning. It starts off so, well, normal. A group of gamer friends getting a behind-the-scenes tour of their favorite gaming studio? It's a dream come true, but not a far-fetched one. But when things go inevitably awry, Kelsea Yu does a great job of casting doubt and suspicion over the whole scene. Because murder doesn't just happen out of the blue. There's always motive, and that motive proves a great mystery, the underlying foundation of this book that I, at least, was just dying to solve.
University Uses	You know what professors love? When students come to their office hours to engage with their specialties. And sure, these gamers might not exactly be students, but they pull off the part well. I could totally believe that a random professor would be happy to divulge all he knew to two "business students" who came calling, and that yeah-this-could-happen factor, here and in other instances throughout the book, really propped up a plot that would otherwise have been too high-key to be believed.
High Stakes, High Tension	This book doesn't skimp on the tension. The stakes are so high because you know, from the beginning, that there won't be any pulling back. There's some pretty significant blackmail going on here, and there's some pretty strong follow-through, too. This plot twists and turns, dancing around the truth and giving such a horrifying revelation that I, at least, was pretty satisfied once all was said and done.

CONS

A plot like this--murder, blackmail, and a ticking clock--works best when any outside factors are limited, which is why I was so surprised when these gamers were just, you know, left to go out into the world after witnessing a bloody crime for which they're potentially on the hook. Sure, the blackmail is strong enough to keep them in line, but it feels like a real risk, to let them leave the scene of the crime before you're done playing with them. It felt like the perfect set-up for a locked-room style thriller, and the loose ends felt too great when it wasn't set in a closed environment. They had to do some sleuthing outside of the gaming studio, so it makes sense, plot-wise, that they would have to be let go. I'm just not such a cold-blooded, scheming killer would really let this happen. I got over it, obviously, but I did have some questions.	Open World
Hey, I can appreciate some niche hobbies being explored in fiction, but... sometimes when these gamers were together, headsets on and levels loaded, their lingo felt a little, well, forced. I mean, it felt natural that they would be slinging acronyms to each other if they've been playing this same game for years. But I haven't played this game. I don't know the terminology, and so the few times they were really in the zone, I was really out of it. It felt like reading a bunch of technical jargon tossed into a sci-fi book--like, sure, these sound like science/gaming terms, but are they really? It felt, I don't know, a little bit... nonsense.	Gamer Code
Kelsea Yu, to great effect, alternates between timelines. One chapter is in the very tense present. The next skips back to Marina's childhood--her mother's secrets, her own dark past. And this alternating, for the most part, works. But a few times, at the height of suspense, dropping back in time just deadened the impact a little bit. This isn't really the fault of Yu's writing. It's the fault of the alternating formula chosen. It wasn't terrible, but there were a few times that I felt, well, deflated to be going back to the deep, dark secrets of times gone by.	Formula Foibles

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8/10

Fans of Diana Urban's These Deadly Games will love this new team of competitive gamers forced to play a game that proves to be a little too real. Those who loved the deadly glitz and glam of Wendy Heard's She's Too Pretty to Burn will like the high-stakes, high-melodrama nature of this new thriller.

Details Publisher: Bloomsbury YA Date: July 9, 2024 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.