Books that feature games or the theme of gaming have proven a great hook for readers, myself included. Games, puzzles and riddles immediately suggest strategic critical thinking and a balance of rules, inventiveness and creativity. Literature about video games offers a similar allure, with the added benefit of exploring the idea of infinite lives and infinite chances. I’m especially intrigued when authors take something we’ve all played at some point, be it a board game, puzzle or video game, and raise the stakes. Below are a couple of my favourite gaming books.
THE INHERITANCE GAMES, JENNIFER LYNN BARNES (AUTHOR)
The Inheritance Games is the first book in a trilogy and the start of a twisty thriller full of dark family secrets and deadly stakes. The protagonist is Avery Gramb, a 17-year-old with a plan for a better future: study hard, earn a scholarship and get out.
But everything changes when eccentric billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. And no one knows why, least of all Avery. Now she must move to Hawthorne House, a mansion filled with secrets and games, riddles, puzzles and codes, a testament to the old billionaire’s obsessions. And most dangerous of all, Tobias Hawthorne’s family still lives there.
A family who had expected to inherit billions, and who Avery has just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: brilliant, charismatic boys who grew up solving their grandfather’s puzzles. And now Avery might just prove to be the greatest puzzle of all. This book has the best tropes used cleverly for maximum effect for a suspenseful mystery: the grand mansion full of secret passages and rooms, the obscenely wealthy yet dysfunctional family and shifting uneasy alliances. Avery herself is fiendishly clever and makes for a compelling main character, easily matching the brothers in their puzzle-solving abilities. The Inheritance Games is a certified page-turner from the first chapter, with a fast-paced narrative, high stakes and high drama, this is the kind of book you’d want to read in one sitting.
TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, GABRIELLE ZEVIN (AUTHOR)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow features a different type of game but they’re no less engaging: I’m talking about video games. Winner of the Books Are My Bag Reader's Awards for Fiction in 2023, this book focuses on Sam and Sadie, who first met as children while in hospital and formed a fast bond over video games. Fast forward to eight years later, when they meet again as college students in a crowded train station.
The spark of their friendship rekindles immediately, and they begin a creative collaboration in what brought them so much joy as children: video games. Together they create immersive virtual worlds that challenge and delight. Their games make them global superstars but with success and fame comes betrayal and tragedy. Like the best video games, Gabrielle Zevin’s writing is beautifully immersive, readers will be drawn in and invest in her characters very quickly. She evokes sympathy for their struggles: Sam with disability, Sadie with sexism and both with a feeling of not belonging. But for me, the character who steals the show is their friend Marx, who becomes Sadie and Sam’s producer: his loyalty and unwavering support for the two of them resonated with me.
The insights into the gaming world are fascinating; the writing goes into vivid details but explains these elements clearly and makes them easily accessible for non-gamers too. The psychological contemplations of games are equally compelling, such as how games draw people in and the intertwining of storytelling and gaming. Zevin expertly draws readers into both the virtual world and the real-world experiences of Sam, Sadie and Marx in a unique love story that encompasses much more than just romantic love.
