Monday, January 25, 2016

REVIEW: Game by Barry Lyga

Game (Jasper Dent, #2) 
Jasper Dent: Game (2)

by Barry Lyga

Genre(s): Thriller/Mystery, Young Adult, Horror
Pages:  520
Published: April 2013
Publisher: Little Brown Books


Official Blurb: "Billy grinned. “Oh, New York,” he whispered. “We’re gonna have so much fun.”

I Hunt Killers introduced the world to Jazz, the son of history’s most infamous serial killer, Billy Dent.

In an effort to prove murder didn’t run in the family, Jazz teamed with the police in the small town of Lobo’s Nod to solve a deadly case. And now, when a determined New York City detective comes knocking on Jazz’s door asking for help, he can’t say no. The Hat-Dog Killer has the Big Apple–and its police force–running scared. So Jazz and his girlfriend, Connie, hop on a plane to the big city and get swept up in a killer’s murderous game."





Review:  "WELCOME TO THE GAME, JASPER." Hardly what one wants to see about themselves written on a corpse. This book is darker and more twisted than I Hunt Killers by far. A very riveting read.


Instead of simply helping the NYPD catching some random killer, Jasper finds himself caught in a very elaborate game. Yet he is not the only one, back home, Connie and Howie just cannot abide their friend going alone so they have to stick their noses in too. Toss in the FBI, multiple suspects, family drama, and the infamous Billy Dent and these kids find themselves way over their heads. This story runs in several directions yet Barry Lyga does an amazing job keeping it all tied together.

We get to go much deeper with the characters here. Especially Jazz. Poor kid... If you though you understood his childhood in the first book, guess again. It is so much darker than we thought. Howie is such a typical pervy teen that always gets a crooked grin or shake of the head and chuckle out of me. I loved getting the different perspectives in this one. It adds so much to the story.

This is a much more mature young adult novel. There is violence and some rather sick, twisted sexual references. Not for the innocent. Several very instense scenes where I honestly had no idea of the outcome. And the ending has a cruel cliffy (since all books are available, I HIGHLY encourage you to have book three on standby). 

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