Crystal Donavan has a goal. She is planning on winning the Mortal Dusk tournament with her friends. She’s not good enough in the game to win as a single, but their team has consistently been on the top of the leaderboard, so together they have a chance at that $250,000 prize. Crystal really wants that money, to help her mother pay the mortgage so she doesn’t have to work so much.

The team consists of Matty, Randall, Akira, Zoey, and new member Dylan. They had five people on the team, but there was a rumor that the teams for the tournament needed to have six members, so they recruited Dylan. Now they know that only five players can be on the team, so they’re competing to see who can get to 20,000 MortalBucks first. Matty and Randall have already achieved that, so it’s just the other three spots that are left.

Crystal is determined to get herself on the team, even if that means she has to rush to get her little sister Caelyn to school on time and snapping at her when Caelyn tries to talk to her about a bully. All Crystal can think about is getting Caelyn to school, so she can maybe get some more time in the game. Caelyn would forgive her if she understood that Crystal was working that hard to help them keep their home.

Also, Crystal just loves games.

Later that morning, when Crystal is sitting in class, she feels bad about rushing Caelyn when she wanted to talk, but the tournament was the upcoming weekend, so Crystal didn’t have much time left to make the team. And then she gets the first message.

It’s a video of Caelyn in what looks like a basement room. She’s tied up, and being threatened with a knife. Crystal is told to do everything exactly as she’s told to, or this person will kill her sister. If she goes to the police, they’ll kill her sister. It’s a game, and Crystal has to play. She has no choice.

First, she’s told to go to a classroom in her high school and steal a test key. Then she’s to take that and put it in a specific locker. She manages to get it done in the time allotted to her, barely, and then the principal shows up at that locker right after and finds the test key. That’s when Crystal finds out who’s locker that was. It belonged to Dylan, and suddenly he was getting pulled to the principal’s office. Crystal is concerned about him, but she doesn’t have time to do anything, as she’s instructed on her next task.

As she spends the next hours running around, doing tasks she can’t understand, Crystal is also running through all the people she can think of who might want to keep her getting into the MortalDusk tournament. Because why else would someone do all this? But as the stakes get higher in Crystal’s game, she starts to worry that it’s about more than just a video game tournament. People start getting hurt, her friends start getting hurt, and Crystal is partly responsible for that. How far will this person go to destroy Crystal’s life? And how far will Crystal go to protect her little sister from her kidnapper?

These Deadly Games is a chilling story of revenge, a complicated game of vengeance, and it will take all of Crystal’s strength to win the game. Author Diana Urban has crafted a powerful story of secrets and lies, of nightmares and panic attacks. But she’s also created in Crystal a character smart enough to play the game well, and to learn important lessons of gameplay along the way.

These Deadly Games kept me on the edge of my seat. The tension in this book is palpable, and I had a hard time setting it aside and getting back to real life. It’s smart, sophisticated, and suspenseful, and I recommend reading it only if you have a chunk of time to set aside for it. You won’t want to put it down. If you’re anything like me, you’ll need to keep reading to get to the end and find out all the magician’s tricks that Urban used in crafting this thriller.

Egalleys for These Deadly Games were provided by Wednesday Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.