Game of Secrets

by Kim Foster

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If I had to think of an easy way to describe the book, it’ll be a collections of things I’ve seen repeatedly before, but I’m so sorry for being a sucker for these things.

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Last year I really enjoyed reading Daniel O’Malley’s The Rook which followed a very similar pattern to this one, and I think deep down it was one of the reasons why I had high hopes for this book to impress me if it was done right. Now while I don’t think that it was utilized to the fullest, I won’t deny that I read the entire thing in 4 or so hours and basically two sittings. Innate abilities and the like are somethings I’m a HUGE sucker for, the promise to be able to see more always makes me grip the book a little tighter (or should I say iPad since I always read ebooks???). Although the level of world building the before mentioned is light years ahead of Game of Secrets.

Regrettably I didn’t actually get it in the same level I was hoping for given that the abilities in this book aren’t that unique amongst the cast, it’s not like the Wolverine’s claws, Cyclopes’s laser vision or Jean’s plethora of mind based ones. At least, that’s what it seemed to me given the similarities of portrayed abilities when they were being used. Also, they were broken apart into three different categories, yet we didn’t get to see an actual portrayal of number three. That ending throws you for a loop for sure, but that’s not a real example lol.

That aside, I still found the fast pace of it interesting to see. I mean regardless of the similarities, it’s always nice to see how a school like system is implemented and how they work around getting their students better. Thing is, this book makes it incredibly difficult to see its protagonist as a smart girl, she puts herself in the worst possible situations repeatedly and although she comes close to dying, she just brushes herself off and onto the next stupid one we go!!!!! I do get where she’s coming from of course, but it’s just difficult to take seriously after a while.

Speaking of characters, the obligatory eventual romance though is probably the worst parts of this book for me, when there are many more interesting things to see in the verse, it’s a great dampener to see the precious pages being used up on nonsense. Literally nothing would have changed in this book if it was platonic more than anything but eh, guess not. I did enjoy that she made the guy in charge a clear thinker, even when you’re the protégé, your misses will not be tolerated nor brushed off without a valid reason.

I do wish she explored some of the characters a little bit more as well, they felt like walking tropes instead of ones to care about all that much. Some like Sig, I think would be quite an interesting guy to know more about it.

Despite my critique, I found this book quite engaging. Wether it’s the short chapters, the way or writing, my own personal bias towards this sort of thing or how she threw in some interesting things here and there, I found it be an entertaining 4 hours to spend on it. Even when I learned who the villain was quite early in the book, that didn’t make me want to stop reading.

Final rating: 3.5/5