Even If We Break

There was a time when they were all friends, when they came together as a refuge every week to play Gonfalon and escape their real world problems. When it started in middle school. there were 6 of them, Ever, Finn, Carter, Liva, Maddy, and Zac. Zac left the group, and they were 5. Now, it’s coming to an end. Soon some of them will graduate from high school and head off to college. Others in the group will stay behind to finish high school or to work. And although the group has already started to develop some fractures, they still have this weekend. One last weekend to come together as friends to play the game. They have costumes, hand-sown by Liva, and Liva’s family cabin all to themselves. They have this last chance to get away from family and school, work and responsibilities, for one last campaign. Ever had come up to the cabin early to prepare for the rest. As the creator of Gonfalon, they had created all the quests, all the challenges, all the puzzles in the game to distract and get the best out of them. They had moved around the furniture and added complicated markings to depict the magic in the game. Ever made sure everything was in place so the entire group could come to the cabin tomorrow and start playing their last quest right away. And even though the cabin and the woods around it are rumored to be haunted, Ever doesn’t worry about that. They just concentrate on making this weekend perfect. But an overnight rainstorm makes things more difficult from the start. The trek from the cars to the cabin is blocked by a wall of rocks that came down from the mountain. Ever, Liva, and Carter don’t have too much trouble scaling it, but Maddy’s injured knee and Finn’s crutches make it painful just to get to the cabin. But they do, and after a few minutes to get settled, they all get in costume and prepare for the mysteries that await them. The group start to solve Ever’s mystery, but other mysteries keep popping up. There is strange music in the air, the heat goes out, and Ever’s props were moved and changed. The atmosphere, already charged from the personal secrets and betrayals, becomes laden with the ghost stories of a killer in the woods. But it’s not until Liva goes missing that the friends truly start to feel that they are in danger. The rest of the friends realize that the only way to get out alive is to pull together, but will they be able to put aside their grievances and focus enough to save themselves from a potential killer? Will they all be able to survive this last weekend together? Marieke Nijkamp has written this chilling, thrilling look at friendship, how it can go wrong and how it can right. Even If We Break is a powerful look at the secrets that divide us and the choices we must make to remove those divisions and come together as a dynamic group. And if this roller coaster of a story alone isn’t enough, these characters are also dealing with personal issues like neurodiversity, gender diversity, addiction, bullying, poverty, and their sexuality. I was excited to dive into Even If We Break, and once I did, I didn’t want to stop. This story is part horror story, part locked room mystery, with plenty of teenage angst added in. These characters are pushed to the edge, and they have to find the strength within themselves to survive. This is the perfect escape for a difficult year as well as powerful inspiration to be your best self in spite of circumstances, or maybe because of them. I highly recommend this one if you find yourself looking for a particularly intense YA read. A copy of Even If We Break was provided by Sourcebooks Fire, with many thanks, but I liked it so much I also bought the Kindle version from Amazon.

FIVE friends go to a cabin. FOUR of them are hiding secrets. THREE years of history bind them. TWO are doomed from the start. ONE person wants to end this. NO ONE IS SAFE. Even If We Break was a great YA Thriller, especially for this time of the year. We get to watch five friends as life changes if more for them on this trip, for the best and worse possible ways. Marieke did an amazing job with this book, the pace was great, it never dragged out, and it was easy to get into. I liked the characters, and liked to see how they changed. I found her ability to bring in characters that aren’t represented in other books to be great, and it felt good to see a character that I could relate too. It was fun to see a RPG in a story but it not be the whole story (it gave a little stranger things vibe with that) and I had to find out if I was right on who was behind everything. I read this quickly (in two sittings) and enjoyed it very much. If you want a fun thriller, and if you’re not big on scariness this maybe for you. I definitely gave it a five star for a good YA thriller.

It sounded intriguing. A nice little TTRPG murder to solve that becomes a real life murder mystery. What it actually ended up being is tedious. Took too long to get anywhere. Entirely too much navel gazing by all the individual characters. I couldn’t find anything redeeming about any of them so I disliked them all.

I was really looking forward to this book, but I just couldn\’t get into it. I tried and tried, and there were moments that were really good, but overall, not one of her best. And the ending…..it was like forever long and it just dragged to the point that it became irritating.

I did enjoy this story, I liked the plot and the characters. Maybe I\’m just too old to understand the gaming world but I never figured out why one character was always referred to as them. Was it only me? As said I found that very confusing when other characters were talking to or thinking of this character.

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