New Book Review: The Game with No Name

Title: The Game with No Name 

Author: L.G. Cunningham

Date: 2020

Publisher: L.G. Cunningham

ISBN: 9798669290665

Length: 207 e-pages

Quote: "It was the second day of our new life at Glenbat Manor, and it felt like all we had done was battle old stringy webs. It made me wonder if the previous resident was a giant spider."

One of them almost was...

Readers of a certain age may remember the movie Jumanji, in which a mysterious board game found in the basement sucks the players through interdimensional portals and gets them "playing" some dangerous "games." With the rise of literary interest in games and game shows, perhaps Jumanji was due for a remake. Well, in this book, it gets one. 

Tween twins Izzy and Noah, and their neighbor Walter, find themselves caught in playing a mysterious board game that sucks them into the worlds from which classic twentieth century board games seem to have been drawn. They have to sink "Battleships," guide "Hungry Hippos" to eat watermelon-like energy sources, identify a murderer using "Clues," and so on until they confront the builder of the game in a game of "Monopoly." The adventures move fast and end up in classic horror movie territory with the disclosure that--that'd be telling.

Despite the comedy element built into the plot, Jumanji was a fairly tense movie and The Game with No Name has some nightmare-provoking potential for stressed, tense children. For kids who like a bit of a scare, this will be a satisfying book and would make an appropriate movie. Apart from the scary scenes and the betrayal trope, this book contains few of the things adults worry about. It would be a good choice for a child who wants to feel tough about reading a horror story.