Barry Jonsberg

Game theory has brought me to this point and I must follow where it leads. Even though this is not a game. Jamie is a sixteen-year-old maths whiz. Summerlee, his older sister, is in the grip of a wild phase. Tensions at home run high. When Summerlee wins a 7.5-million-dollar lottery, she cuts all ties with her family. But money can cause trouble - big trouble. And when Jamie's younger sister Phoebe is kidnapped for a ransom, the family faces a crisis almost too painful to bear. Jamie thinks he can use game theory - the strategy of predicting an opponent's actions - to get Phoebe back. But can he outfox the kidnapper? Or is he putting his own and his sister's life at risk? A brilliant, page-turning novel from a superb storyteller.

Game Theory

Paige Green

Rating: 3/5

Genre: YA Thriller/Mystery

Recommended Age: 16+ (language, violence, slight mature content).

I received this book for free courtesy of KidLitExchange. All opinions are my own.

Jamie is a 16-year-old math whiz. Summerlee, his older sister, is in the grip of a wild phase. Tensions at home run high. When Summerlee wins a 7.5-million-dollar lottery, she cuts all ties with her family. But money can cause trouble—big trouble. And when Jamie's younger sister Phoebe is kidnapped for a ransom, the family faces a crisis almost too painful to bear. Jamie thinks he can use game theory—the strategy of predicting an opponent's actions—to get Phoebe back. But can he outfox the kidnapper? Or is he putting his own and his sister's life at risk? An astute, page-turning novel from a superb storyteller. – Amazon.com

So I read recently that people who like to read do not usually like math. So when I was presented with a book heavily involving math and theorems I was a bit concerned that I wouldn’t enjoy this book. And while I didn’t enjoy it as much as I do others I still found this book to be pretty awesome. The characters were developed well and the plot was complex but not too complex that it loses its readers. I have read that the author was an English teacher and you can really tell by the writing. 

However, I can’t really say much good beyond that. I found while the book was perfectly written the structure was all over the place. It would start off in present day and then proceed to talk about an event sometimes in the present tense that occurred months prior to the original present day. The book’s pacing was thrown off by this constant shift in present and past and I felt the story was lost in the shuffle. I also found the book‘s main theory to be a bit ambitious. It states that you can accurately predict your opponents movements by thinking ahead in some logical and overly complex way. It’s basically the same theory used in chess and this book did well to mimic a chess game. However, humans are unpredictable by nature and thus this theory would never have a true 100% success level. Also, I found the way the main character talked to the young sibling very awkward. In the book he calls her hot and refers to her “other bits” as a prize that some boys are to win in their made-up bedtime fairytale. I’m not sure if this is an Australian thing, but it made me very uncomfortable as a reader.

 Verdict: While I thought the story was good overall I had some concerns with the structure of the story, the main element, and the way one character refers to the other. This might be a cultural thing or it might just be me since I’ve never had siblings and this I wouldn’t know what a comfortable way of talking to them would sound like. If you enjoy math or enjoy thrillers and enjoy sherlockian characters then I recommend you check this book out!

Game Theory

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