Book Review: The Inheritance Games

⅖ stars

**

review may contain spoilers

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a highly popularized mystery YA fiction novel. It follows Avery Grambs, a fairly typical teenager barely scraping by, when she suddenly inherits the entire fortune of eccentric billionaire Tobias Hawthorne. Of course, it’s not that simple. Avery is forced to move into the Hawthorne mansion with the entire family, including his four grandsons and a series of puzzles and clues to solve in order to inherit his fortune. As Avery becomes embroiled in this game, she begins to uncover dark secrets about the Hawthorne family, including their involvement in a mysterious event that took place years ago.

To say I had high expectations going into this is an understatement. I was fully prepared for an intense, whodunit novel with a complex plot, unpredictable twists and intriguing romances. Unfortunately, it over-promised and under-delivered. I found the romance to be quite dull, the characters somewhat underdeveloped, and the plot was overall underwhelming. That’s not to discredit the fact that it was still an entertaining read. I can admit that I finished it fairly quickly -- and there is much to celebrate about the novel.

Perhaps the most enjoyable and the strongest feature of the novel is its plot: the idea of a young girl thrown into a world of mystery is instantly grabbing. It’s intricate and engaging, with many twists littered throughout the story. However, while the plot twists were made up to be one of the best features of the book, I found that some of them— especially the two dramatic reveals at the end— were a little gimmicky, sort of seeming like they were just thrown in there for the shock factor. It was the kind of twist that isn’t at all built up throughout the book, and could be summed up in a few simple sentences with little context.

Though Barnes has a talent for suspenseful scenes and building intrigue, I found myself to be confused by the uneven pacing. The chapters are quite short, and though I typically enjoy a fast-paced plot, much of the story felt rushed and underdeveloped. I guess I expected a majority of the novel to be about Avery solving these puzzles and deciphering the clues that were left for her, but it actually comprised only a small portion of it, so it fell flat in the end. The parts that did involve this “mystery who-dunnit” aspect were unnecessarily convoluted, and lacked the intrigue I was expecting. Much of Avery’s monologue was actually consumed by the interpersonal drama that exists within the Hawthorne family and developing the individual characters. These characters aren’t at all complex, but they have their unique personalities and motivations which are slowly revealed throughout the course of the novel.

A lot of the popularity surrounding the book is because of its supposed ”love triangle” (if you could even call it that) between Avery, and two of the Hawthorne grandsons, Jameson and Grayson. At face value, this is the ideal, cookiecutter love triangle. On one hand, we have Grayson -- brooding, mysterious, and handsome, with piercing blue eyes and a humble and protective nature. He’s somewhat of a loner and he keeps to himself, often disappearing for hours on end. On the other hand, there’s Jameson, who has a reputation of being smart, charming, witty and always impeccably dressed. Of course, they both deal with their personal demons and hide behind their “tough-guy exterior” but eventually open up to our protagonist, Avery. Though this is a typical progression for a YA fiction novel romance, that’s not where I think the problem lies. The real problem is that there is simply no chemistry in this romance. The relationship dynamic between Jameson and Avery was so forced, I found myself physically cringing at their dialogue together (everytime Jameson called Avery “mystery girl” a part of me died). They basically had no meaningful interactions before falling head over heels for each other, besides a couple moments of what was presumably supposed to be witty banter but was actually just bland conversation. The same can be said about Grayson -- I was hoping to have some sense of romance between them, but it might as well have been nonexistent. It seemed like the characters were shoved inside far too predictable archetypes, and sometimes it honestly felt like the brothers were all variations of the same person. Out of all of them, though, a character that I’m so shocked doesn’t get more attention is Xander, the youngest Hawthorne brother. Out of all four of the grandsons, he’s the only one that had any sort of chemistry with Avery that felt natural and real. Surprisingly enough, I haven’t seen anyone notice their relationship. It surely isn't anything special, but they actually had moments of understanding within each other and their dialogue was so much more organic.

While "The Inheritance Games" has received overall positive reviews, I think my main criticism is that it follows too many of the tropes and cliches of the young adult mystery genre. The novel follows a familiar pattern of a young, unassuming protagonist who gets caught up in a web of secrets and intrigue, with a wealthy and mysterious family at the center of the mystery. While the book executes these tropes in a way many readers may enjoy, I found them to be overly familiar.

If you’re looking for a story with a similar premise, but is much better executed, I would recommend the movie Knives Out, which essentially shares the same hook as The Inheritance Games. The parallels between the two are actually quite uncanny, both based off of an eccentric old man who leaves his large fortune behind to a young, unassuming protagonist. They both explore rich family dynamics, though the Inheritance Games is more romance focused, while Knives Out mainly uses romance as a tool to progress the plot and has twists that are genuinely thrilling.

Overall, The Inheritance Games has a great premise but lacks the substance to back it up. It’s definitely fast and fun, even if a little airy— not really a high-stakes read, and probably best for younger readers.

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