You know when you hear about something extremely hyped and you think, I’ll try it out? Well I did and I’m not sure what I expected. With extremely high hopes, considering the comps, I left reading this book a bit confused? There’s not denying the first edition is gorgeous, but part of me was wondering if it was just me? Keep reading this book review of The Games Gods Play for my full thoughts.
Summary
The gods love to toy with us mere mortals. And every hundred years, we let them…
I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus.
Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won’t notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus’ patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god.
The worst god. Hades.
For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible—the deadly contest the gods hold to determine a new ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus. But instead of fighting their own battles, the gods name mortals to compete in their stead.
So why in the Underworld did Hades choose me—a sarcastic nobody with a curse on her shoulders—as his champion? And why does my heart trip every time he says I’m his?
I don’t know if I’m a pawn, bait, or something else entirely to this dangerously tempting god. How can I, when he has more secrets than stars in the sky?
Because Hades is playing by his own rules…and Death will win at any cost.
Review
The Games Gods Play just might not have been for me. I’ve struggled to put into words why, but I think it breaks down to a perfect storm of factors. The Games Gods Play is incredibly fast paced. With short chapters, it feels like something is happening in each chapter. That for me isn’t a deal breaker, but I think what I was missing was some depth. For example, there are deadly trials and so there has to be a real sense of stake. But when the chapters are so short, I found it difficult to get invested in any of the side characters. So every time something bad happened, I thought oh okay, but I didn’t feel any emotional connection or stake.
And part of having the big bad deadly trial, where we don’t know if we’ll make it out, is feeling that pit of your stomach feeling. Similarly to the romance, with the amount of interactions I just wasn’t feeling it. In general, maybe you could say my feeling resulted in a lack of intense feeling? I just didn’t feel connected to the side characters – including the love interest – to feel anything for them? When they died, when they get together, or when we aren’t sure. Which meant that the emotional stake and the emotional beats – and tension – just weren’t there for me. I can see where the appeal for the book will be. Because there are plenty of elements I should have loved.
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But the execution just felt a bit too rushed. Every time I thought we might be getting somewhere, we were thrown somewhere else and I found it hard to feel grounded. If you want to give it a try, I do think there are readers for this. If you’ve been struggling to get back into reading and you love the idea of Greek Mythology inspired world, fast paced action, romantic elements, and deadly trials than this might be a good slump buster. But for me, and what I was looking for, it just missed the mark. Find The Games Gods Play on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.