Team Jameson or Team Grayson? How About Team No One

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Started: November 13, 2021

Finished: November 15, 2021

Rate: ★★★

Synopsis

• Avery Grahams is mysteriously put in the will of one of the richest men in the country, Tobias Hawthorne, and is left with almost all his money

• The Hawthorne Family, a well-known and very rich family, questions who Avery really is and her intentions after reading they were essentially left out of the will

  • The four grandsons of the Hawthorne family, Grayson, Jameson, Alexander, and Nash are conniving and also question Avery intentions

• But Tobias left Avery and his grandsons the last game they will ever play and hopefully, the outcome will give them a few more answers to the numerous questions they have

Review

Plot

Ok. Let’s make one thing very clear about this book. The Inheritance Games in a YA book. A young adult book. It is the epitome of what is considered to be a young adult book and I did not fully grasp that idea before reading it. And suffice to say, this book is both extremely underwhelming and frustrating all wrapped up into 370 pages of asking yourself “ok but it gets better, right??” And let me tell you, past me, it does not. If I only knew that this book reads like a young adult novel and targetted for ages 12-16, I would have saved my money and bought something else at the bookstore.

The concept of having four privileged boys and a new girl come together to solve a puzzle that was left by an old man seems like a fun thing to read about on paper, but the actual plotline of this book and its execution felt stagnant. Everything was happening, but nothing was happening. Barnes does a good job in her writing as there is clarity in her words of what is happening to the characters, but there is a lack of focus on what is being told. For instance, some scenes would have Avery in the middle of solving the puzzle and the inner dialogue would be of her wondering what one of the boys was thinking about her.

Some scenes also felt too short and choppy and overall lacked the energy of imagery and description. I am a huge fan of short chapters, but the book has like two-three page chapters and while some people may find this to add to the quick pace of the book, I found it to be abrupt and choppy in the storyline. I typically expect the end of the chapter to leave me hanging and wanting more, but every time the chapter ended, it felt as if someone rudely interrupted a flowing conversation. It made every chapter

Characters

Sigh, where to begin? Avery Kylie Grambs. Throughout the ENTIRE book, she kept insisting that she does not belong in the Hawthorne world and that she cannot handle the money she was given. This is understandable, but by page 200, I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes from the back of my head because I wanted her to take a stand. She constantly downplayed her abilities and I fully expected her to be this courageous main character who did not give a fuck by the middle of the book (she definitely gave off that vibe in the first few chapters of the book, but it dwindled as the book progressed). By the end of the book, she emanated “pick me” girl energy. And don’t even get me started on her being boy crazy, in the most SERIOUS circumstances too. On almost every other page, her inner dialogue would always mention what Grayson or Jameson thought about her and how she felt under their touch and blah blah blah. I wanted her to focus on the game, not on the boy. I like romance, and love a little a love subplot in a storyline. But she felt childish and too boy-crazy for me to like her. She had so much potential too!!! If only.

This book contains a love triangle between Avery, Jameson, and Grayson. And after reading the book. I am team no one. Both boys were way too unlikeable for me to choose a team. I’m not even team Avery if that’s not obvious from the above paragraph. Jameson was too childish for my liking and constantly treated Avery like some game and object instead of being a decent human being to her. Grayson was too flat of a character to be likable; his only personality is that he hates everyone because he did not get the money he thought he deserved. Both brothers were pretentious and frankly, overdramatic. I did not like any of them, nor did I like any of them with Avery.

Final Thoughts, Parting Words

I think that if I were to time jump back five or six years, I would have eaten this book up. It has similar vibes to Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard in terms of the love triangle and I loved that series in middle school. But now that I am technically an adult and have read more books suited for my age rating (where there are actual cursing and not purposeful censored words), reading this book felt like finding an old sweater I used to love and trying my best to fit into it now. Then, eventually looking at myself in the mirror and realizing, “Yeah, I grew out of this, but at least I have new sweaters in my closet that I enjoy now!” See where I am going with this? It was a great book, I was simply the wrong audience. I would happily recommend this book to people between the ages of 12-15 who love scavenger hunts and puzzles and love a cute love triangle. They would love this book and my middle-school self would love this book too.

Bonus: Kiss, Marry, Kill

For the fun game I usually play after reading a book, I would like to choose "Kiss, Marry, Kill" where I have to choose a character that I would like to kiss, marry, and kill. But in this special case, I will choose from the Hawthorne boys.

For kiss, I would have to say, Nash. He comes off as a player and I think he would be a fun person to hang out with. He also has a little bit of a soft side but I like how cool-headed he is.

To marry, I would choose Xander. He was my favorite out of all four brothers and he just has this golden retriever energy which I like. He also has the best humor amongst his the rest of his siblings and who doesn't want to share a scone with him?

For kill, I would say Jameson. It was between him and Grayson and treating someone more as an object is a lot worse than being flat and boring. I know that he is supposed to be this "mysterious" character but he just came off as this privileged and selfish guy. So I guess if I really had to choose, I am Team Grayson. But only because the other option was not much better.