The Dead Game by A. Bates

Tagline: Someone is playing for keeps.

Back tagline: The game got out of control…

Summary: Nobody was really supposed to get hurt. The Dead Game was just something that Linnie, Ming, and Jackson made up senior year to get back at some people who definitely deserved it – the cheats, delays, the put-down artists. To “kill” someone, you only had to embarrass them in public. But that’s not what happened.
The first target ended up in the hospital. More freak accidents followed – and then somebody wound up dead. The three friends quit playing the game – but the game wouldn’t quit. The Dead Game wasn’t just a game anymore.

First Impressions: Ooooh, this sounds good! I wonder if the Dead Game is something we can all play in real life too? That’d be cool. The cover is pretty boring though [Note from future: it’s not that relevant either]. I hope people actually die in this one otherwise I’m gonna be mad! Let’s find out!

Recap

Roll call, but just our protagonists because no-one else is that important:
Linnie – Our first protagonist who suggests the Dead Game.
Ming – Our second protagonist and the more academic one.
Jackson – Our third protagonist who’s a jock.

Our story begins with best friends Linnie, Ming and Jackson sitting at a lunch table at school, with the two girls feeling sorry for themselves. It’s nearing graduation for the seniors and they’re worried about their futures, because anything less than an A in Studio class will ruin Linnie’s career plan, while Ming is deflated because a pair of twins, Austin and Adler, transferred here at the start of the semester, which bumped Ming down to third on the ladder of grade-point averages.

You see, Ming had the highest grade-point average in the senior class before the twins showed up, and her aversion to them isn’t because of jealousy – the incredibly rich twins transferred to Hollander High purely to boost their grade-point averages, since it doesn’t offer AP or honours classes like their old school did, which automatically makes their scores better in comparison to the other students who haven’t had the same opportunities. As a result, Austin has the highest average, followed by Adler, and third is now Ming [Poor girl. America’s school system sucks!]. They want to get back at the twins somehow, and Linnie suggests murder is the best solution [Getting straight into the plot, I like it!].

We cut to Studio class now, where Linnie struggles to form any kind of shape on the pottery wheel. According to her teacher, she’s lacking focus and her fingers “are like sausages poking at the clay”, which hurts the poor girl’s feelings:

People do that to me, she thought. They find all my little sore spots and push on them. Just like my sister. Now I’m afraid to touch the clay. Maybe I’m not an artist at all. Artists have a different vision; I have…sausage fingers.

[Poor Linnie! I’m enjoying how well we’re getting to know her so far though, and we’re only on page 8!]. The teacher moves on and murmurs what sounds like words of encouragement to classmate Brenda, who proceeds to smash the vase she’s creating and have a fit:

Oh, that was a good touch, Linnie thought, her lips compressing in disgust. Very carefully done. I wish I’d thought of it. It’ll take her all of three minutes to dab the clay off her face and redo her lipstick. If she’d happened to touch a single hair on her head during her little fit I’d have been more impressed since that would have been a lot harder to fix!

[I complain pretty often about being told things rather than shown, probably more so with the Goosebumps TV show rather than Point Horror, but the books are still guilty of it. This paragraph is a great example of how it can be done – we’re not just being told why Linnie doesn’t like Brenda and moving on, we’re being shown her thoughts about her in a way that simultaneously alludes to Brenda’s manipulative nature].

Linnie decides to add Brenda alongside the twins on the kill list, which she’s going to explain properly to Ming and Jackson after school [It’d be wishful thinking to expect these teens to actually murder their school chums. It must be something to do with the game mentioned in the blurb instead]. As she becomes more focused, albeit on her little scheme rather than on the pottery, her hands transform the lump of clay on the pottery wheel into an urn-shape. The conflict with her sister is again touched on, and again without detail, and Linnie wishes she could add her to the list too, but unfortunately she lives too far away [Boooooo, add her anyway].

After school, Linnie meets up with her friends and we get a general description of them. Jackson’s tall, muscular and on the football team, while Ming looks small and frail next to him despite being quite sporty herself. The pair tell Linnie they can’t and shan’t help or let her murder anyone, but that’s OK because Linnie was just joking [Cheeky little devil!], assuming they wouldn’t take her seriously [Even though she told them she wasn’t kidding… OK].

Ming apologises for thinking her friend was a murderer and reveals she wanted to believe Linnie was serious because she’s been wishing the twins were dead herself [Bit harsh but they’ve effectively ruined her chances at a decent college because of their privilege, so yolo]. Linnie explains her real plan to her friends, modelled after the titular game her sister played once:

“Everyone had an assigned target. And each player was target, too. So while you were trying to kill your target, someone else was trying to kill you.
 “Basically, you had to get your target alone, and then you said, ‘You’re dead,’ or something like that, and then you had to take their target and try to kill that person, too, so the last one left alive was the winner.”
 She glanced at Jackson. He looked interested. So did Ming.
 “What I was thinking,” Linnie said, “was that we could do something to A and A. Something that would sting a little, and maybe be symbolic, like… oh, I haven’t figured that out yet. But they’d know it when they got hit, only they wouldn’t know who did it, or why.”

[Oh yeah, I know this game as Assassin. Never played it but it does sound fun!]. They’ll be adapting the rules though, opting to anonymously humiliate their targets instead. They deduce that their image and how people see them are the most important thing to the twins, and Ming decides she’ll steal Austin’s letter jacket, which he’s always wearing because it makes him feel like a big shot. He even had the nerve to ask Ming out while wearing it [Honestly, the audacity…]:

“He made it sound like he was doing me a favour,” Ming sad. He stood there in his jacket acting like he was granting his attention to a peasant. After what he’s coming here cost me I could have…”
 She shook her head, giving a half-laugh. “I almost said I could have killed him,” she admitted.

Based on his clenching jaw upon hearing this little tidbit, Linnie realises that Jackson’s got a crush on Ming [And I realise one of these three is probably gonna be our bad guy!].

The next day at lunch, the squad try to work out how Austin is wearing his letter jacket when Ming supposedly stole it after school. Ming explains that she cut through the woods, like she usually does to get home, and noticed Austin and Brenda making out among the trees, Austin’s letter jacket on a rock behind them with their school stuff. She took this as a sign and silently stole it while the lovers kissed, venturing further into the woods to a graveyard where she hung it over a tombstone [Not really sure what’s supposed to be humiliating about losing the jacket though. I guess its his pride and joy, but like, if I lost my favourite clothing item I wouldn’t be embarrassed about it?].

Jackson and Linnie reckon Ming accidentally took a different jacket, but she argues that it’s not like there’s any other prep school letter jackets around here [Wait, so he’s wearing a letter jacket from another school? What a fucking loser hahahaha. Would a high school even allow a student to do that?]. Ming’s so certain she got the right jacket that she takes her friends to the tombstone, and sure enough it’s sitting right there. Jackson suggests Austin just went out and bought another one:

“You can’t just go buy a letter jacket,” Linnie said. “Especially one from a school in another state.”
 “I guess if you’re rich enough you can do anything, because he’s got another jacket on,” Jackson pointed out.

[Hahahahaha I love these guys]. Heading back to school, Jackson says they should have planned their prank better – there’s no point targeting someone if they don’t know they’re being targeted [A very good point]. They all agree to meet up after school to discuss a better plan. In Studio class, the teacher compliments Linnie’s vase, but the satisfaction is short-lived when Brenda’s piece also gets some positive attention. Brenda’s definitely on the list now!

After school, the trio sets some more ground rules for the list – it should be a public humiliation for their target, and each person on the list should be benefitting from cheating in a way that disadvantages someone more deserving. Linnie reckons Brenda qualifies because of her manipulative tactics to get an A in Studio, and five more names are also added: Karl, who won the seventh-grade science fair with the help of his sister, beating out Linnie; John, “the biggest sleaze to ever hit this school” who spreads rumours about girls who refuse to date him [Oh, he’s one of those], like Ming, and even ones that do; Price [So many weird names in this book], who’s using steroids to get an edge over the competition in sports; and lastly, Jackson wants Rafe and Julie on there, but doesn’t give us specific reasons why. All we know is that Jackson thought Rafe “was perfect and he wasn’t.” [The targets sound like they deserve it but I’m also sensing a large amount of entitlement from our heroes lol].

At home later, Linnie jots down the other rules the friends had come up with [And I thought it would just be easier to take a photo of it]:

Linnie’s first target is John, who she’s excited to get back at on behalf of every girl at Hollander High, including herself. Turns out they’d gone on a date in the 10th grade after she fell for his bullshit lines, and when she refused to do anything with him up at the local make-out point, called Beer Can Hill [Stupid fkn name hahaha], he told everyone Linnie was a shit kisser and was so ugly that he wasn’t interested, and then cried because he took her home. This apparently ruined a whole year of Linnie’s life, because everyone believed the rumours he’d spread [But like, he asked her out? So if he thought she was so ugly, wouldn’t people think it’s suss that he invited her in the first place? Also, if he’s done it to so many girls, wouldn’t they all be aware of his behaviour and band together?], although she also mentions having lots of practice at feeling humiliated because of her sister [What’s the deal with this damn sister anyway? Why hasn’t she been named?].

She gets an idea of how to eliminate her target and rushes out to the neighbouring town’s mall, to avoid seeing anyone she knows, and purchases an expensive but good quality microphone and recorder, now fully prepared to commit her “murder” [I wish it was real murder :(].

We then move to to Ming, who’s struggling to think of a way to “kill” her target, Rafe. Without knowing why he’s on the list in the first place she’s unable to find any inspiration, not even from movies or books [Yeah, how annoying that Jackson didn’t tell us why Rafe and Julie are bad people. It better be something worthwhile when we do find out]. Elsewhere, Jackson’s also failing to come up with a good hit for his target, Brenda.

Some time later that I don’t think is the very next day, Linnie, Ming and Jackson discuss how they’re going with their hits, without breaking any of the rules they laid out, of course. They all agree that things feel different lately, but in a good way, as they each plot their attack and stalk their victim [They’re so excited, it’s super cute]. Linnie hints at wearing the microphone [For our sake I guess], so her plan must be underway already, while Ming has come up with a hit that will depend on the lunch menu and Jackson still hasn’t thought of anything.

The gang decides to spend some time apart to focus on their “new project” [Which I don’t really understand, because everyone at school knows they’re a little trio?? Wouldn’t it be more suspicious that they’re not together suddenly? One of the rules of The Dead Game was that you couldn’t kill your target within eyesight of other players, so maybe that’s what they mean, but it wasn’t really stated they’d be using that rule from the original game, so I’m not sure], and arrange to meet on Mondays after Jackson’s finished with track practice to touch base with their hits.

The following Tuesday after lunchtime, Ming’s ready to “murder” Rafe after studying his daily routine, but he doesn’t show up to lunch that day, inadvertently saving himself from the imminent humiliation. Linnie’s also been busy stalking John from afar with the mic and recorder hidden on her body. Right now he’s putting the moves on sophomore Mary Ann, who agrees to go on a date tonight [Poor girl. Sacrifices must be made for Linnie’s plan to work though]. Later, Jackson finally thinks of an attack plan after following Brenda to a clothing store [Please don’t disappoint me, Jackson].

Back to Min and on Wednesday, her plan fails again when Rafe walks a different way than his usual route, which would have brought him past Ming. On Thursday, she also chickens out when he doesn’t walk past by himself. She scolds herself when she realises she’s just using any excuse to get out of completing her task [I believe in you, Ming!], and hopes tomorrow will be her day.

What I’m assuming is that same day, Linnie’s recording John again as he flirts with another sophomore, spreading lies about Mary Ann in the process:

“Mary Ann, well, she’s a real sweet little girl. There’s that word, girl. I thought… well, you know. She told me she loved me so I thought… well. She’s just too young. She’ll grow up one of these days. Now, you. You’re different. I can tell. Are you sure you can get out tonight? Maybe your folks won’t let you out, even if it is Friday. Maybe you have to stay home Friday nights?”

[Little girl? Ugh, this guy is so gross]. This unnamed sophomore agrees to meet him tonight and suggests maybe they can go to Brenda’s party together, but John’s not sure “what’ll develop by then” [Come on, sophomore girl, use your brain! He’s just using you!]. This gives Linnie an idea – she has all that she needs on her tapes already, so she can edit them together and play them at Brenda’s party, where she knows for a fact John was invited as her date [Good one!]. Meanwhile, Jackson’s been watching Brenda be a real piece of work all day:

He watched her invite people to her party, then turn around a minute later and say, “Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot you didn’t make the cheerleading squad. Well, never mind about the party. You wouldn’t feel comfortable there, I’m sure.” She shrugged apologetically. “Oops.”
 Or, “You didn’t get accepted at Yale, after all,” or “I forgot you can’t dance.”

[What a little cow!]. Brenda eventually notices Jackson and turns on the charm, flirtily inviting him to tonight’s party. Jackson playfully tells her he has to wash his hair and walks away, satisfied that he’s got her in his snare. He gets a few admiring glances his way, so I guess everyone’s used to master manipulator Brenda getting whatever she wants [She definitely needs to come down about 3589756 pegs].

It’s finally Friday now and Ming is ready to complete her hit. When Rafe appears by the lunch room entrance, she times her walk perfectly so that she bumps into him and he ends up wearing her tray of food [Embarrassing I guess, but doesn’t seem too harsh. Hard to know what he deserves when we don’t know what he did though. Also, she’s been standing in the same spot all week with a tray of uneaten food, wouldn’t people be suss?]. Suddenly more people push through the doors and Rafe is knocked forward before slipping on Ming’s fallen try. He hurtles backwards into the crowd, where he’s trampled, crushed and kicked in the head as they all topple over him:

Ming tried to push forward to the pile of fallen trays and people. Rafe was on the bottom. She’d seen the whole thing, and it played in reverse as the pile began to undo itself, revealing a silent, unmoving Rafe, on the floor, smeared with food.

[I love the “played in reverse” description, so clever!]. As the people scatter, a teacher approaches Rafe’s unconscious body, ordering Ming to get to the office and organise an ambulance, and Ming is horrified by what she’s done. After school, Ming’s home alone, as usual, because her parents are super busy bankers who spend all their time in the city, even when they’re not working. She’s feeling guilty about Rafe and despite not being in a party mood, she decides to go to Brenda’s party with Linnie to distract herself.

Jackson’s also at the party, expecting a dramatic evening because most of the potential targets would be here. Unfortunately, though, Linnie’s unable to complete her hit because she can’t find the tape in her bag, which she explains to her friends [But… one of the rules was not to discuss your hits? Also, maybe they are allowed to complete their hits in front of each other? Maybe Linnie and Jackson weren’t in the lunch room for the Rafe incident, but Linnie’s plan was taking place at the party, where she knew at least one of her friends would be. I’m confused]. She realises someone must have taken it when she set her bag down in the kitchen while she got some food.

We then cut straight to Monday in homeroom, where the principal is just about to do the morning’s announcements over the PA system. Instead though, Linnie’s tape plays! It’s a perfectly edited mash-up of all the lies John’s told over the past week or so to get girls to go out with him, publicly outing him as a sleaze to the whole school [That’ll teach the krej!].

Rumours flow through the school over the next few days, with John absent since the tape played. Linnie’s heard plenty of different explanations – that John left town, that he’s hiding in a basement with all the girls absent from school on Monday and didn’t hear the tape etc. The most interesting rumour [To me at least], is how the tape got through the PA system:

She’d heard that someone had rigged a timer to the tape player in the auditorium, then had run a wire from the tape player to the master panel, bypassing the office and tapping into the PA system, there.

[Sounds complicated, but I guess it’s plausible]. There’s also plenty of rumours about who’s responsible, but no-one steps forward to bask in the credit, so it remains unknown for now [Maybe Linnie is framing someone and did it herself? She’s really the only person that knew about the tape before it went missing, after all].

By Wednesday, Ming’s really struggling with guilt and because she’s not family, she hasn’t been able to find out through her calls to the hospital what Rafe’s condition is. She’s so guilt-ridden that for the first time in her life, she’s not able to provide an answer when called upon in class [OK, nerd]. She wonders if he’ll survive, and if he does, will he be so brain damaged he can’t look after himself, in which case she’ll have to become a nurse and take care of him, since it’s her fault [I’ve been leaving a lot of stuff out but the character development is sooooo good in this book! I really feel like I’m inside our three protagonists’ heads!].

Ming ends up going home early that day and when Jackson finds out, he skips class to check up on her, where she admits responsibility for Rafe’s accident. Jackson reveals it’s really his fault, since he put Rafe’s name in the ring, and we finally find out why Jackson had an issue with him [And it’s kind of dumb].

They were good friends on the track team together, and Rafe had real talent, but dropped out sophomore year because he was bored of it and had taken an interest in motorbikes instead [Can we not have multiple interests?]. Their friendship quickly deteriorated after that and Jackson’s been harbouring some resentment ever since because he knew the track team couldn’t win without Rafe, and nominated him as a target because “he stole himself from the team, and stole our chance of being state champions” [Jackson, that is the worst reason ever].

To add insult to injury, when Rafe got a motorbike, Jackson’s girlfriend, Julie, dropped him and started dating Rafe, so that’s why she’s on the list [Will we actually meet Julie? Or Karl? Or Price?]. Now Jackson feels bad though, because he realises that maybe Rafe just didn’t feel whole when he runs, like Jackson does, and that doesn’t mean Rafe was wrong [Too right! Like I said, stupid reason. Chuck him on the list for stealing your girl or something, that makes more sense. In a way it’d be justified because he’s cheating you out of a girlfriend and Julie cheated your feelings maybe?]. Jackson also reassures Ming that Rafe’s doing well, which he knows because their families are still friends.

On Friday, Jackson finally gets the chance he’s been waiting for to humiliate Brenda. At lunch, she goes from table to table destroying people’s egos [So she definitely deserves a taste of her own medicine]:

She moved on, turning back now and then to see her effect in action.
She’s like one of those harvest machines, Jackson thought. Only instead of mowing down wheat, she mows down egos.

[Bates uses some funny similes hahaha]. Jackson hands a group of girl some sketches he made of Brenda stealing a bracelet from the store, which is what he witnessed the other day. Brenda just so happens to be wearing the same bracelet today, which is what he’s been waiting for [Sketches? That’s not evidence, lol]. The group of girls laugh as they realise what the sketches are suggesting, which lures back nosy Brenda.

She’s humiliated [They’re sketches!!! I could draw someone stealing a certain t-shirt, but that doesn’t mean they fkn stole it? Hahaha this is stupid] and runs from the cafeteria through the back exit. As the drawings are passed around the room, Jackson starts to feel guilty, even though he knows Brenda deserves it. He snatches the sketches back and follows her outside, planning to give them to her, but there’s no sign of Brenda.

As he heads for his final class of the day later, he finds a large crowd by the office and finds out Brenda’s dead [!!!]. She was found at the bottom of the steps outside the exit she took from the cafeteria. The sprinklers had been on, and because they’re so close to the stairs, they always get them wet and slippery [The sprinkler and these steps have been mentioned a few times, but I didn’t bother to say anything because I thought it was information that wouldn’t be relevant later, like so many other books I’ve recapped. My bad, hehe. Those steps were a lawsuit waiting to happen though]. Horrified, Jackson flees to the park to gather his thoughts.

Linnie and Ming find him there later, having pieced together what happened from what they heard around school. They feed him a story to recite to the cops, who are looking for him, that will prevent him from getting in trouble [And revealing the game, I guess? But they were fucking DRAWINGS! He didn’t do anything wrong? There’s some real questionable things in this book but I love it at the same time hahaha]. Later, Jackson’s questioned until after midnight by the police, going over the story over and over again:

It seemed to Jackson that you he’d get halfway through telling it and they’d jump back to the beginning, then jump forward to the end, and he was so confused he didn’t know which lunchroom table he started or ended at, didn’t know for sure who had died. He thought it might have been himself.

[Poor guy. Another great passage though. I love how far into the characters’ minds we’re seeing]. The following Monday the gang meets up to discuss everything. Ming really feels like someone had been pushing the crowd of people that fell on top of Rafe, and the topic turns to whether or not someone else has found out about the game. All three of them are sure they haven’t said anything to anyone [But I’m suss about Linnie because her hit seemingly had the least damaging repercussions from what we know so far], and decide it just has to all be a coincidence [That’s a big fucking coincidence, guys].

They agree to quit playing the game, sparing Austin, Adler, Price, Karl and Julie from their wrath. Linnie also goes into a bit more detail about her sister issues, telling her friends that her sister always used her as a scapegoat for her mistakes [Sounds like a bitch! Maybe Linnie is directing her frustrations toward her sister at the hit list? She was the last to agree to quit, too, which makes me even more suss].

At the school’s memorial service for Brenda the next day, Linnie has an existential crisis, realising that if anyone in the world dies, there’s really only 10 or 20 people who would actually care, unless you’re famous [This book is deeeeeep. Definitely true though, like imagine how many people in the world who don’t even know you exist. Brb gonna go cry xoxo].

By Wednesday the next week, the trio have still been hanging out together but barely talk until finally Linnie gets fed up with it. She yells at her friends, accusing them of acting like they’re dead instead of Brenda [Wow, too soon, Linnie!]. Jackson has been taking Brenda’s death particularly hard since he feels responsible, letting his life fall apart around him and noticeably losing weight [Omg bless, I love him]. Even Ming hasn’t been able to cheer him up, although they seem to have gotten a lot closer [Ooooh, maybe they’ll be a couple by the end of the book].

At school on Thursday, Linnie overhears some excited chatter in the halls about the Austin and Adler. Apparently one of them accidentally dropped his books down the stairs and papers went flying. When a teacher stopped by to help him pick everything up, he found a copy of next week’s test among the twin’s belongings [Ooooh, who planted that? I’m looking at you, Linnie]. Since the twins are so close, everyone thinks they’re both in on it together. Linnie’s amazed by the luck of it – if they’re busted for cheating, Ming will be valedictorian after all [And there’s our motive].

After school, the three friends discuss the twins’ cheating scandal. Apparently it was Austin’s belongings, but both boys are denying knowing anything about the test copy, claiming someone planted it after everything fell [I reckon they’re telling the truth, but fuck ‘em, they deserve it]. Ming reveals she was in class when it happened, but looked down the hall when she heard the books drops, and didn’t notice anyone being suspicious. Similarly, Jackson was at the drinking fountain at the top of the stairs when it happened, but didn’t see anything because it was so crowded [And where were you, Linnie?].

The next day, the trio finds out that Price, the one on their list for steroid use, has been disqualified from absolutely everything! Not for the steroids though, it was for drinking [Alcohol? Huh? Would that really happen? Australia is full of underage drinkers hahaha we’d all be fucked]. Jackson thinks it’s a little too convenient that exactly what he wanted when he put Price on their list is exactly what happened, especially after the Austin and Adler thing too, but Ming is in denial, saying anything bad that happens to the twins is “nicely convenient” and the Price thing just has to be coincidence. Right? [No bitch, wrong!].

On Monday, Ming’s heard more about Price – he wasn’t actually caught drinking, a bottle of liquor was just found in his car. He claims it was there when he finished work one night [It makes even less sense now that he was disqualified from everything?].

The newest issue of the school newspaper is out, complete with parting words from each senior in the form of a will-like sentence. The trio is shocked when they see Julie’s:

Julie Clay leaves Rafe Gibbons and it jumps on the back of Karl DeBerg’s motorcycle. It looks as if she is left Rafe for dead and gone after the guy with the biggest bike. Once a flake, always a flake. But will she will her flakiness to anyone? Will Karl leave his sister’s science fair projects to anyone else, or is he the only one who gets to use them?

[Ayyyy, none of that slut shaming, please! Is it even true anyway? I would have assumed Karl is more of a science nerd than a motorbike fan. I guess it makes sense for it to just be lies to humiliate Julie and Karl, the final victims of the list, in one go]. The gang finally accepts that nothing has been coincidence, since everyone on their hit list has now been humiliated.

They also realise they probably haven’t been as secretive as they thought with the game either, talking about it at lunch and at practice all the time while surrounded by people. And surely people would have noticed that Linnie, Ming and Jackson were shadowing John, Brenda and Rafe respectively [Duhhh. I don’t know why they thought they were being so careful when they’ve been banging on about it out in the open]. Someone else must be involved [Maybe… but I doubt it].

That night, Ming calls Jackson, then Linnie, to set up a meeting for tomorrow before school because she realised something else; Brenda was found at the bottom of the stairs where the sprinklers were, when she never would have risked messing up her hair like that. So why did she go that way?! [Are we only just realising it was murder now? I never assumed otherwise hahaha]. Later that night, a rock with a note attached is thrown through each of our heroes’ houses, all warning them to back off.

When they meet the next day, they discuss the notes and Brenda’s death a little more. If she’d wanted to escape the school, she would have gone to her car, which was the opposite direction to where her body was found. They finally realise she may have been murdered, [Really? Just now?] but they have no idea what to do now, and Jackson is furious about being told what to do via the notes.

Throughout the day, Linnie’s thoughts keep drifting back to her sister, since it’s all her fault Linnie even knows about the Dead Game anyway, and we get more backstory. When Linnie was five and her sister was 12, Linnie realised that her sister [Sorry I keep calling her that, but we still don’t know her damn name yet and the book’s almost over!] was constantly framing her, with a broken vase or stolen money, for example [Maybe her sister is doing it all?! ACTUALLY, maybe Linnie’s sister is just a split personality, and the other personality, her “sister”, has been doing all this shit?! Makes sense to me and definitely sounds like a Point Horror plot!].

At lunch, Ming and Linnie realise the reason Jackson’s been ignoring them all day is because someone has clearly been listening to their conversations – if they’re not talking, there’s nothing to listen to [Smart!]. Linnie tells Ming the three of them should think everything over, considering all angles, and then meet up again to discuss [Sounds like a plan, Stan!].

As she heads home after school, Ming tries to think about everything from another perspective, and she briefly considers Jackson being behind it all. But then she remembers how sweet and comforting he’d been and how much she likes him [Ooh la la], and that goes straight out the window. She starts thinking about their intended hits – John had returned to school three days after the PA incident [That would have been nice to know], Rafe returned after three weeks a quieter, limping version of himself but fine otherwise, while Brenda was dead [It’s gotta be Linnie, that was her main nomination for the hit list]. Elsewhere, Jackson’s also heading home and we get some more clever writing:

The echo he’d heard before sped up, too, and he knew it was his heartbeat, haunting him because he was alive and Brenda wasn’t. Her heart would never beat again.

[Love it. Bates has done a good job detailing Jackson’s depression spiral]. He tries to come up with answers to who is causing everything and why but is unsuccessful, eventually deciding he can’t figure it out alone. So the next morning, he finds Linnie and Ming at school so they can discuss everything once again.

Before that though, Jackson remembers that he found out Austin finally found his letter jacket [Lol I forgot about that little plot]. Apparently someone else had discovered it, but enlisted Austin and a bunch of others to look for something he’d pretended to drop not far from where tombstone. When Austin discovered his jacket, he was humiliated and ran off without saying a word [I still don’t really understand why this is so embarrassing but okeh]. Apparently he’d been wearing Adler’s letter jacket, because Adler never wore his [Oof, I should have picked up on that. I just assumed because such a big deal was made about them both being cocky that they’d both be wearing their jackets 24/7. Actually, why didn’t the trio think of that? Plot reasons, that’s why!].

Also, the twins are off the hook about the cheating thing because they had an alibi during the only time the science teacher had left his stuff unattended for someone to be able to steal it [Oh OK. Also, they’re talking about the game in public again? Idiots]. They realise what I’ve just pointed out, but continue to discuss Brenda’s potential murder and realise they could be next, so they decide to go to the police. They’ve all got stuff on tonight though, so arrange to meet up at 10pm so they can go together, but will meet at the gas station down the road first [Not sure why, sounds like a stupid thing to do?], and they’re all relieved that the Dead Game will finally be over by the end of the night [I’m sure not in the way they’re thinking though, hehe].

That night at dinner, Linnie realises that the anonymous fourth player of their game could have heard them making their plans to meet at the gas station, so she decides to get there earlier and have a look around [What? You think there’s a murderer so you’re gonna go wander around alone? Maybe Linnie is the bad guy if she’s that confident]. Linnie’s parents inform her that her sister is coming over for a visit later and is moving back to the area due to work [Well, there goes my split personality theory. Maybe her sister’s been stalking the gang and doing all this stuff? Otherwise there’s not really a payoff to her being mentioned 46895768 times].

Later, Linnie drives around the block that contains the gas and police stations to scope out any stalkers hiding around. Then she leaves her car and, dressed in all black, she sneaks along the route they’d be walking from the gas station to the police station, and on the way she passes a dark alley. She decides she’ll investigate it [Why are you here by yourself you idiot?!], even though it’s super dark, and thinks she hears breathing. She’s refuses to turn on her flashlight though [So why bring it?], too scared of what, or who, she might see. As she’s hiding in the dark, she hears the noise again and drops down, “hoping to avoid the blow” [But we still don’t know if someone is actually there, so not sure if anyone is attacking her?].

We cut to Ming and Jackson, who’ve arrived at the gas station at the same time. They notice Linnie’s car and realise what her plan was, so decide to look for her. Ming just wants to get the night over and done with and insists they split up [Ming, please]. Jackson protests, but reluctantly agrees because he doesn’t want to be all macho and controlling [I love you, Jackson]. So Ming goes one way and Jackson goes the other, planning to meet back in the middle. As Jackson arrives at the alley, he’s knocked over the head and falls unconscious [Knew it was a bad idea!].

Meanwhile, Ming makes it around the block to the original spot with no sign of Jackson or Linnie. she decides to retrace his steps and hears a familiar voice in the alley before she’s also knocked to the ground, landing on Jackson’s body [He better not be dead!] and falling unconscious herself. She wakes to see our bad guy dragging Jackson’s still-unconscious body away, and guess who! It’s Linnie!

Regaining her strength, Ming manages to follow and attack Linnie from behind, knocking her to the ground, seemingly unconscious [Wow, these people pass out easy] before also dragging Jackson away to safety. She sees a payphone nearby and attempts to use it, but Linnie quickly stops that, wanting Ming’s undivided attention for her bad guy monologue! Playing the game made Linnie realise something:

“The fake people will win in the end if we let them because the real people have soft hearts. They’ll never rise up and stop the Austins and Adlers. Real people can’t hate!”

[…]
“I’m flawed. It’s okay. If I were a fake person I’d be just like my sister. If I were a real person I’d be a victim like you and Jackson. I’m not really one or the other, and that’s why I can do it. I saw that someone had to do it, and only only one who can.

Linnie believed everyone on the list deserved to be punished and was going to keep secretly playing by herself when Ming and Jackson quit until everyone had been humiliated, but then Jackson wouldn’t let it go, so now they’ll be sacrifices for the cause.

After ripping out the phone and noticing Ming’s in shock, Linnie decides to get rid of Jackson first, her extremely questionable logic being that in her condition, Ming will wait, whereas Jackson’s just unconscious [I spent way too long trying to work out what the hell she actually means but it makes no sense to me. Jackson is unconscious, wouldn’t be easier to kill Ming first while you’ve got her trapped?], and leaves Ming in the phone booth to go kill him.

Ming refuses to let Linnie murder Jackson and stumbles her way to the nearby river where Linnie’s planning on pushing Jackson in to drown. Ming pounces on her and they tumble into the water before Ming loses consciousness again.

She wakes up in hospital the following Monday, five days later, and Jackson explains everything he’s learned from Linnie’s parents. When Ming completed her hit, the surge of people that crushed Rafe was caused by Linnie trying to push through to see what Ming had done. It was just an accident that Rafe got badly hurt, but it made Linnie realise she could improve their hits. So she easily sabotaged everyone else on the list, but the Brenda thing was a little more complicated.

Linnie had apparently told Brenda someone had a videotape of her doing something illegal, and waited at the back door when she noticed Jackson handing out the sketches. When Brenda saw the drawings, she thought Linnie was indicating someone had footage of it, and ran outside and found Linnie. Linnie’s not too clear whether Brenda tried to hit her or she tried to grab Brenda to stop her yelling, but somehow Brenda ended up at the bottom of the stairs [It might have been an accident, but then Brenda was the only person Linnie put on the list and she was willing to kill her best friends, so it’s not hard to believe she murdered Brenda].

Jackson had come to as the girls rolled into the water and managed to pull Ming out while Linnie drifted away, but she was rescued by strangers further down, while Jackson was able to flag down a car and get the police. Linnie’s parents had come to see him at some point to explain everything that Linnie had explained to them and her psychiatrists, and they revealed she was suffering from delusions of grandeur and felt like “she could save the world” [This ending seems kinda rushed lol].

As the story wraps up, Ming and Jackson each realise that they’re liked by the other one, but it ends with Jackson smiling instead of the usual kiss these books would normally do [Lameeeeee! We finally get two good characters that should actually be together, and we don’t even get to see it].

Final thoughts

I really liked this one, but I think it was more for the characters than the plot. Our three protagonists were fleshed out pretty well but they were kind of stupid, thinking everything was a coincidence and then deciding to meet at a gas station before going to the police? What the hell was the point?

Some of the dialogue was weird too, like they didn’t talk like teenagers half the time. Maybe it’s how all the hip teens talked in 1992?

The ending definitely felt rushed, and I feel like it didn’t really make that much sense for Linnie to be behind everything, even though I picked up on some of the hints. It’s the same issue I had with The Roommate – the character’s internal thoughts should have reflected them as the bad guy; it doesn’t make sense for them to not think about their devious acts when we’re in their head, but make them the bad guy anyway?

And what the hell was with the little side plot about Linnie’s sister that went absolutely nowhere?? It got brought up so many times I thought it would have a big payoff at the end, but clearly not. #WasteMyTime2020

I feel like now that I’m really summing up my thoughts I don’t like it as much… 6 irrelevant side plots about an unnamed sister of of 15!