Even If We Break by Marieke Nijkamp

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Sourcebooks Fire in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book almost completely blind and I actually wish I'd heard the premise beforehand because it's genuinely very original and cool. This is a YA thriller centered around a live action roleplay game. A group of five teenagers, all dealing with their various struggles, meet up at a cabin in the woods for one final LARP session before they go their separate ways. Once the game begins however, things start to go very wrong after one of the characters dies in-game and then vanishes in real life.

This book manages to do a lot of difficult things well and it deserves credit for that. Firstly, it manages to be a compelling YA thriller without being over the top and campy. Secondly, it manages to juggle 5 narrating characters in a short space of time and keeps most of them fairly distinctive. I don't think there was enough time for me to really bond to the characters but I enjoyed reading about them and I never confused them with each other, which is a huge bonus. Finally, there is good solid representation here which is woven seamlessly into the narrative (specifically trans and nonbinary rep if you're curious).

I enjoyed this book a lot but there was just something missing to stop me from loving it. I think it was that personal attachment to the characters which just wasn't there, although they were better written than most characters in YA thrillers. Having read a book by this author before, I think it isn't so much a flaw as it is a product of their style. I also struggled a little bit to keep track what was going on, not in terms of complexity but more clarity. Again, because I didn't feel that attachment to the characters, my mind would often drift and I had to reread parts several times to really absorb it.

Having said that, I still recommend giving Even If We Break a try. It's really cool to read a book centered around LARPing, especially a thriller, and that premise is used to great effect. I suspect the fact that this book is about LARPing isn't advertised because the publishers are afraid it will either alienate people or turn them off, but I genuinely think it's the strongest aspect of the story. I'm glad I'm drawn to books about games anyway because otherwise I probably wouldn't have picked this up and that would have been a shame.

Overall Rating:

.5