From #1 New York Times bestselling author Marieke Nijkamp comes a shocking new thriller about a group of friends who go to a cabin to play a murder mystery game…only to have the game turned against them.
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.
For five friends, this was supposed to be one last getaway before going their separate ways—a chance to say goodbye to each other, and to the game they’ve been playing for the past three years. But they’re all dealing with their own demons, and they’re all hiding secrets.
Finn doesn’t trust anyone since he was attacked a few months ago. Popular girl Liva saw it happen and did nothing to stop it. Maddy was in an accident that destroyed her sports career. Carter is drowning under the weight of his family’s expectations. Ever wants to keep the game going for as long as they can, at all costs.
When the lines between game and reality start to blend with deadly consequences, it’s a race against time before it’s game over—forever.
Are you ready to play?
Tags: teen thrillerebook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook
- Format: ebook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook
- Size: 248 pages
- Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
- Publication Date: 15 September 2020
- Links: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51210722
- https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Marieke_Nijkamp_Even_If_We_Break?id=7jLXDwAAQBAJ
- https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/even-if-we-break-marieke-nijkamp/1135063378?ean=9781492636113
- https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/even-if-we-break
- https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/even-if-we-break/marieke-nijkamp/hardback/9781492636113.html
- https://www.waterstones.com/book/even-if-we-break/marieke-nijkamp/9781492636113
- https://wordery.com/even-if-we-break-marieke-nijkamp-9781492636113
- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Even-If-Break-Marieke-Nijkamp-ebook/dp/B0861C8D31
Dice, games, and stories
Stories have always been a big part of my life. In the books I read. In the music I listened to. In the worlds I build in my own head to make sense of the real one. (Neurodiverse brains FTW.) And in the games I played.
I started playing RPGs online. Text-based adventures on message boards. Some of them with rules and character classes and open world settings (primarily the ones I ran, because I was 100% That Kid), some of them primarily shared narrative in a streamlined story.
I played my first tabletop roleplaying game not long after, when a friend from choir introduced me to her group. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd edition. I played a thief, and never looked back.
In the years that followed, I played (and GM’d) countless games across various editions of D&D, other systems, homebrew systems, indie games, online, at cons, in real life, in an actual castle, even.
It was only a matter of time before a TTRPG storyline made its way into my books—though if I’m honest, there are hints and references to roleplaying in every single one of them so far. But Even If We Break is my ode to the games we played, and the friends we made along the way.
Of course, it’s a slightly twisted ode, because this is one where the friendships shatter and the game turns deadly. It’s a thriller, after all. This is a group of friends with too much history and too many secrets between them—who foolishly choose to spend the weekend in a cabin in the woods. (Let’s face it, never a good plan.)
But the game that brought them together is like so many games I played. Simple in style—paper, pencils, dice—and wildly ambitious in scope. It’s the type of game that brings whole worlds to life, where characters—and players—come to find themselves, and where story is the most precious thing. The stories of decisions and dice rolls, of fights and friendships, of laughter and late nights and plans that were made but never followed, references that make no sense to anyone but the group, and of so many ways to be.
Because if RPGs taught me—and Ever, and Finn, and all the characters in this book—one thing, it’s this: story is what shapes us. In the game, and out. Individually, and all of us together. Stories are what makes us human.
Author Bio
Marieke Nijkamp is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of YA novels, graphic novels, and comics, including This Is Where It Ends, Before I Let Go, Even If We Break, and The Oracle Code. Her short stories can be found in several anthologies. She also edited the anthology Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens.
Marieke is a storyteller, dreamer, globe-trotter, and geek. Before pursuing her lifelong passion for writing, she majored in philosophy and medieval history. She loves to go on adventures, roll dice, and daydream. She lives and writes in Small Town, The Netherlands.
Marieke is the founder of DiversifYA and was a founding sr. VP of We Need Diverse Books.
Social Media
Website: http://www.mariekenijkamp.com/
Twitter: @mariekeyn
Instagram: @mariekeyn
Grace J Reviewerlady 