“A game is only a game if you do not fully understand it.”
Meeting the partner’s family. Tricky affair, isn’t it? It’s hard to escape the feeling of being judged whenever you walk into another household, especially when you’re attempting to convince that household that you’re a suitable person to be entrusting their son/daughter with. Unsurprisingly, this awkward scenario makes up the premise of our latest book review, Catherine Steadman’s The Family Game. Nominated for Best Mystery & Thriller in the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards, join us here at What We Reading to see if this international bestseller lived up to expectations with our The Family Game book review!
Date Published: 2022
Author: Catherine Steadman
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 336
Goodreads Rating: 3.87/5
Premise
UK-born Harriet (‘Harry’) Reed is a bestselling novelist and has just moved to New York to live with her fiance, Edward Holbeck. Edward comes from old money and belongs to one of the most influential and powerful families in the United States. When meeting Edward’s family for the first time, the patriarch of the family, Robert, hands her an archaic cassette, instructing her to listen to it alone.
The cassette appears to contain a chilling series of confessions about Robert and his family, which Harry is forced to investigate whether they are in fact real, or some sort of test for her. Whilst jostling with her investigations into Robert and the Holbecks, she is thrust deeper and deeper into their lives, forced to play a series of increasingly dangerous games they label as ‘tradition’.
What Worked
Off the bat, this is one of those Thrillers you can sit down with and get stuck into at any time. It really doesn’t contain any profound themes or messages that are going to linger with you after you’re done with it. The pacing is extremely fast-paced, hauling readers along with Harry at break-neck speeds into the Holbeck conspiracies and their twisted games.
There are also some fun ways in which Steadman subverts expectations and dishes out the twists that deserve recognition. The cassette portions of the book were especially good at chugging the story along when it needed it. We can see why some readers would wonder why Harry didn’t just listen to it all in one sitting, but then the whole story would be over in half the time. We can suspend our disbelief for that, no problem.
Steadman is also an extremely good writer when it comes to describing the decadent surroundings Harry finds herself in throughout The Family Game. Whether it’s the high streets of New York or the Holbeck estate, The Hydes, all the settings were vividly described and amongst the most easily visualised of any book we’ve read this year.
Also, we have chapter subheadings, which is fun.
What Didn’t
Whilst Steadman is a legendary worldbuilder, The Family Game really doesn’t have much going for it in the way of an identity of its own. ‘The rich don’t live like us normal folk’ trope has been done to death in the mystery-thriller genre, and the Holbeck and their games don’t particularly stand out as anything new to the scene. It’s also used as a blatant cop-out whenever something needs explaining. ‘He is a powerful man and must have connections’ must have been an excuse used over half a dozen times throughout the book, which began to feel a bit nauseating by the end.
On that, this was one of the first thriller books we’ve ever correctly predicted, almost to the letter. It’s something we don’t attempt to do (we much prefer just going with the ride), but this was one where we got almost everything in one by the first few chapters.
And finally, our protagonist, Harry. She was likeable enough, and definitely competent in her investigations into the Holbecks. However, she suffers from that classic trope of everyone in the world just constantly fawning over her, for literally no reason whatsoever. Her debut novel is an international bestseller, every member of the Holbecks is obsessed with her, a retired police chief is available every waking hour for her ‘research’ questions, and the list goes on and on. We get there needs to be some way of keeping the plot going, but the number of times we found ourselves rolling our eyes at just how unbelievable this woman’s life is was astronomical.
Finally, we’re duty-bound to remind all readers that the dynamic between Harry and Robert is all kinds of messed up. At best it’s baffling and undeveloped, at worst it’s all sorts of messed up.
Verdict
We can see why The Family Game has made such a splash around the reading world. It’s a thrill-a-minute, decadent and eccentric affair that anyone can jump into and be engulfed by. Catherine Steadman’s descriptions really are something to behold, showcasing a really accomplished writing style that we certainly wouldn’t mind reading again.
Ultimately though, there are just too many aspects of The Family Game that we found to be too on the unbelievable side to enjoy. Harry seems to live a life more decadent than the Holbecks, and the way every member of this uber-powerful and established family find themselves taking turns falling over for her is incredible.
There isn’t a whole lot you’re not going to be able to guess with The Family Game, and certainly not much of an imprint it will leave with you. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun playing along with the Holbecks and their sadistic games in the meantime.
Our Rating: 3/5
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
