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The Game You Played
It's a blindingly hot summer. International visitors surge into Sydney's Darling Harbour. Two-year-old Tommy is sailing his toy boat in the park when he vanishes. Six months later, taunting notes written as nursery rhymes begin arriving at his parents' home.
Little Boy Blue, where did you go? Who led you away? Only I know . . . .
The police believe the messages are just a cruel prank. But Tommy's mother Phoebe becomes obsessed with tracking down the writer of the rhymes. Her life and marriage shatters.
When the shocking identity of the message-writer is discovered, Phoebe's desperate race for the truth has only just begun.
"I love love love this author! This is the sort of book I love but never find very often!" - reviewer
Little Boy Blue, where did you go? Who led you away? Only I know . . . .
The police believe the messages are just a cruel prank. But Tommy's mother Phoebe becomes obsessed with tracking down the writer of the rhymes. Her life and marriage shatters.
When the shocking identity of the message-writer is discovered, Phoebe's desperate race for the truth has only just begun.
"I love love love this author! This is the sort of book I love but never find very often!" - reviewer
400 pages, ebook
First published May 17, 2016
5162 people are currently reading
10771 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,168 reviews
February 4, 2018
This was a nice surprise, I really enjoyed the suspense and the mystery within the book. I cringed with tension over the mothers remorseful feelings and her relentless actions. The storyline is a mother's worse nightmare yet you will be compelled to follow along or feel guilty about leaving this mom alone. ( Just kidding ). You really won't want to put this book down! I gave this book 4-1/2 stars🌟🌟🌟🌟⭐
September 23, 2022
"The Game You Played" boasted an intriguing and compelling premise:
A two-year-old boy sailing his toy boat in the park with his mother vanishes into thin air.
Who took the little boy? Was he still alive after six months?
Was the mother, who struggled with mental health issues, sleepwalking, and alcohol abuse involved?
From Chapter One, I was immediately sucked into the storyline.
Unfortunately, the book took a huge nose dive at 33% with too much repetitive text and zero action.
The storyline FINALLY picked up again at 75% with the fast-paced action I was seeking.
The ending, however, was very off-the-wall with too many eye-rolling moments.
The author's decision to unfold the story from the two POVs of the mother and the father of the abducted boy was effective and engaging.
Had this 14-hour audiobook been an 8-hour audiobook with a more plausible ending, the book would have earned five stars and endless praise from me. (Where was Anni Taylor's editor?)
Narrator Zindzi Okenyo did an outstanding job with the narration.
However, since the book was told from two POVs, the book would have benefited from two narrators -- one male and one female.
This book was written in 2017 and released as an audiobook this month (September 2022) as an Audible Plus freebie.
3.5 stars.
A two-year-old boy sailing his toy boat in the park with his mother vanishes into thin air.
Who took the little boy? Was he still alive after six months?
Was the mother, who struggled with mental health issues, sleepwalking, and alcohol abuse involved?
From Chapter One, I was immediately sucked into the storyline.
Unfortunately, the book took a huge nose dive at 33% with too much repetitive text and zero action.
The storyline FINALLY picked up again at 75% with the fast-paced action I was seeking.
The ending, however, was very off-the-wall with too many eye-rolling moments.
The author's decision to unfold the story from the two POVs of the mother and the father of the abducted boy was effective and engaging.
Had this 14-hour audiobook been an 8-hour audiobook with a more plausible ending, the book would have earned five stars and endless praise from me. (Where was Anni Taylor's editor?)
Narrator Zindzi Okenyo did an outstanding job with the narration.
However, since the book was told from two POVs, the book would have benefited from two narrators -- one male and one female.
This book was written in 2017 and released as an audiobook this month (September 2022) as an Audible Plus freebie.
3.5 stars.
May 14, 2019
This book caught my attention right from the start, so I just knew it was going to be a good book and that it was. The Game You Played by Aussie author Anni Taylor is the first book I’ve read by this author and it definitely won’t be my last.
If you love reading thrillers, mysteries or psychological thrillers then I highly recommend you read this book. With twists and turns when you least expect them this book truly is a page turner and will have you reading late into the night. Highly recommended.
If you love reading thrillers, mysteries or psychological thrillers then I highly recommend you read this book. With twists and turns when you least expect them this book truly is a page turner and will have you reading late into the night. Highly recommended.
September 1, 2016
It must be me... The start of this was pretty decent. Intriguing idea and not badly written. The end was fairly well paced. However there was quite a large chunk in between that really didn't work for me and was frankly tedious. The characters are not that well developed as far as I'm concerned and I found almost none of them appealing. Some parts are maybe 4 star, quite a lot is less that that and close to a dnf.
March 10, 2019
Well, I am so obviously in the minority with this one - but here goes. What a load of tosh, it's less about a boys disappearance than about the life / relationships of the mother.
Talk about contrived, the ending omg, how 'true to life' - her husband has a yacht, that the local nutter is really a heroine, that the abductor owns an island, that the police suddenly believe everything the mother says and take her up in a helicopter to solve the riddle. So don't recommend this one to anyone wanting a well thought through thriller, after all it says it all when of the main characters is called 'Dash Citrine' ....
Talk about contrived, the ending omg, how 'true to life' - her husband has a yacht, that the local nutter is really a heroine, that the abductor owns an island, that the police suddenly believe everything the mother says and take her up in a helicopter to solve the riddle. So don't recommend this one to anyone wanting a well thought through thriller, after all it says it all when of the main characters is called 'Dash Citrine' ....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 19, 2016
Phoebe and Luke left Phoebe’s Nan’s to take two year old Tommy to the water park at Darling Harbour in Sydney. Tommy loved the park with its little canals where he sailed his toy boat up and down with the sort of glee only a child can display. When Luke walked over to buy the family ice-creams, Phoebe’s eyes were away from Tommy for a second; when she turned back, he was gone. The frantic search; the dispatch of the police; the terror of those minutes stretched into hours – Tommy was gone…
Six months later and Phoebe was a shattered woman – Luke had returned to work but Phoebe was unable to concentrate on anything. She couldn’t sleep or eat, and her weight had plummeted. The day the first letter came; the simple rhyme on the page – Phoebe knew it was about Tommy. The police and Luke were sceptical about it being from the kidnapper, but Phoebe was certain. And when more followed, her race for the truth began.
When strange events began to occur and it seemed they were connected to a secret from the past, Phoebe wondered if she was going crazy. Nothing made sense anymore; her marriage was unravelling; her life had no future without Tommy. What could she do? The police didn’t believe her – were they even still looking for Tommy?
The Game You Played by Aussie author Anni Taylor is an incredibly twisted psychological thriller which kept me turning the pages with anticipation. A gritty, intense read, the identity of the perpetrator shocked me – I hadn’t seen it coming! The plot is well-crafted, the characters well written. I felt the need to give a good shake to one in particular! The first in this genre for Taylor, The Game You Played is one I have no hesitation in highly recommending.
With thanks to the author for this uncorrected proof to read in exchange for my honest review.
Six months later and Phoebe was a shattered woman – Luke had returned to work but Phoebe was unable to concentrate on anything. She couldn’t sleep or eat, and her weight had plummeted. The day the first letter came; the simple rhyme on the page – Phoebe knew it was about Tommy. The police and Luke were sceptical about it being from the kidnapper, but Phoebe was certain. And when more followed, her race for the truth began.
When strange events began to occur and it seemed they were connected to a secret from the past, Phoebe wondered if she was going crazy. Nothing made sense anymore; her marriage was unravelling; her life had no future without Tommy. What could she do? The police didn’t believe her – were they even still looking for Tommy?
The Game You Played by Aussie author Anni Taylor is an incredibly twisted psychological thriller which kept me turning the pages with anticipation. A gritty, intense read, the identity of the perpetrator shocked me – I hadn’t seen it coming! The plot is well-crafted, the characters well written. I felt the need to give a good shake to one in particular! The first in this genre for Taylor, The Game You Played is one I have no hesitation in highly recommending.
With thanks to the author for this uncorrected proof to read in exchange for my honest review.
July 12, 2016
I like psychological thrillers. This one was good, and it did have a surprise ending, but I still thought that the story slogged on a bit.
May 22, 2016
Six months ago Phoebe and Luke's two year old son, Tommy disappeared from a Sydney playground. They were enjoying a family trip to the local park and while Luke was buying icecreams, Phoebe stopped watching Tommy play for just a few minutes and then he was gone. No amount of searching or investigation by the police was able to find a trace. Six months on Phoebe still hasn't given up hope that he'll be found. While Luke has thrown himself into work at his busy real estate business, Phoebe drags herself through each day alone at home, zoning out with sleeping tablets at night and dreaming vividly of Tommy. And then the notes start arriving, in the form of sinister sounding nursery rhymes.
The story is told in the alternating voices of Phoebe and Luke. They are not the normal, well adjusted couple that they first appear to be and there are secrets and past events that impact on their current lives and those of the friends and neighbours. The author gradually reveals the complex layers to this novel, building up waves of tension until there is a final crashing crescendo where all is revealed in a stunning, unexpected conclusion.
This is a brilliant pyschological thriller - the author's first novel for adults after writing a string of popular YA horror stories. I highly recommend it to all lovers of thrillers.
With many thanks to the author for an uncorrected proof to read
The story is told in the alternating voices of Phoebe and Luke. They are not the normal, well adjusted couple that they first appear to be and there are secrets and past events that impact on their current lives and those of the friends and neighbours. The author gradually reveals the complex layers to this novel, building up waves of tension until there is a final crashing crescendo where all is revealed in a stunning, unexpected conclusion.
This is a brilliant pyschological thriller - the author's first novel for adults after writing a string of popular YA horror stories. I highly recommend it to all lovers of thrillers.
With many thanks to the author for an uncorrected proof to read
September 13, 2017
This book did not really grip me at the start but seemed to improve as it went along. However, it's less about a child going missing and more about relationships, self deception and acknowledging truths. The ending frankly when we discover what has happened to Tommy, the missing child, was totally ludicrous. In fact so ludicrous I think I've been over generous with my star rating. I won't go into the ins and outs of it because if you're going to read it I will spoil it but trust me when I say that you have to set aside any sense of reality and take a leap into the utter fantastical - and I don't mean that in a good way! I'm actually getting really fed up of authors who do this - they write a reasonably good novel and then haven't a clue how to finish it and expect their audience to be completely gullible. Sorry. Rant over!
September 23, 2022
I feel like it's hard to make good thrillers and this one got me hooked on page 1... Started it at 10 AM and finished it at 11 PM, ignoring my kids a little bit on an ugly winter CO day... I normally wouldn't pick out a thriller about child abductors bc i have smalls of my own and this stuff makes me stay up at night, fearful, but the cover must of intrigued me. I took into consideration some of the bad reviews but I really felt that the story line stayed connected, flowed nicely throughout the whole book. I wanted to feel bad for the Luke and Phoebe, the parents, but they were just selfish and small minded, even after the abduction. I like that it was set in Australia also. I will say that the identity of the child snatcher was a wrong guess throughout the book. It wasn't obvious and that was what made it a good thriller. So don't be too harsh on the author. :)
March 6, 2017
I am really surprised this book got so many good ratings. I suppose people are caught up with the "twists and turns" and are not really concerned with the numerous holes and improbable, unrealistic situations. Unfortunately, I have to add spoilers to truly review this book.
Pros:
Yes--this book is unpredictable for the most part. I was not sure where the author was going. That is good and I think this must be what the ratings are based on. I finished the book, though I skimmed a lot of the last few chapters because I just wanted to see what happened. I was not concerned with actually reading the book. But I did finish the book, I did care about what happened.
Cons:
There are so many holes in this book, so many things that left me thinking...this is not realistic at all.
1) The kidnapping to begin with--Phoebe and Luke were at Phoebe's grandmother's house, and their son Tommy is a toddler and needs to roam around and the grandmother is not cool about that so they take him to the harbor where he can play on the playground/water there. This is where the kidnapper, who apparently has been planning this act, grabs him. How could the kidnapper have predicted this moment? This is not something Phoebe and Luke do every week, at the same time, same place. This is how most kidnappings occur--the perpetrator watches the victim for patterns and commits the crime during one of the victim's routine moments.
2) Luke, from elementary age, is the only boy with 4 female friends. Think about this. How common is this? I have never in my life heard of any boy at this age with only female friends. He has *no* male friends for all of his elementary, teen and young adult years. Only as an adult does he have one male friend and it's his business partner. This is completely unlikely.
3) Phoebe has such a keen sense of smell that she can receive a letter and smell the "coffee" aroma and know that the letter was written inside a coffee shop. She caught her husband cheating on her because he had come home from one of his secret meetings with his lover and she smelled the other woman's perfume. And yet he had been doing this for months--if she had had such a keen sense of smell, wouldn't she have noticed this after his first or second meeting with this woman? Especially since the woman is one of her best friends, someone she spends time with at least once a week?
4) The house called "29" where a murder was committed years ago because a teenager (!) took some power tools and cut a chunk of wooden stairs out and then supported the cut out part of the stairs with ladders, and then, when the person was on the stairs, she snuck down below and kicked the ladders away. Really? How heavy would that chunk of stairs have been? Think about how stairs are constructed--could a female teenager really have done all of this alone? This is what the book is claiming.
5) The house 29 again. It is apparently an abandoned house and the teens hang out there, smoke pot there, get drunk there, make out there. Okay. Maybe this happens often in Australia. I know it can happen in the US where there is an abandoned house and homeless people squat. But usually houses belong to someone and have property value. The neighborhood where this house is located was once not considered important but during the time (15 years!) that the house was abandoned, the area became re-gentrified and the old houses are torn down to make way for newer, fancier homes worth a lot of money. But the owner of this house does nothing with this house, and the house, despite being the site of a murder and having stairs that have collapsed, is allowed to exist in its dilapidated state--and the police had even done an investigation after the murder so it it not like this house is not on anyone's radar. Highly unlikely. And later we find that Bernice has fixed the part of the stairs that has collapsed? How does one woman do this alone? She has fixed it so that people can actually go up and down the stairs again.
6) The perpetrator kidnapped the kid and hid him at the top story of her house for *months* and her apparently smart teenager suspected something but did not really know. ???? Has anyone babysat a toddler before? Could you leave a toddler alone in a room for *one hour* without knowing that there is a young child in that room? This child was snatched from his mother--at almost 2 years of age. No screaming, no crying, no tantrums...not enough for the teen to realize without a shadow of a doubt that there is a child upstairs....for months. No way.
7) As the story unfolds, we learn that Phoebe is actually an alcoholic and has had numerous episodes where she binge drank and blacked out with memory loss *while caring for her toddler son*. This is before the kidnapping. She apparently had one violent drunken episode where she smashed all of her son's toys up. This is serious alcoholism. I can buy that her grandmother and mother in law love her enough to clean up afterwards and not tell her what happens--I suspect that it may be realistic that some loved ones will not only pick up the pieces for an alcoholic and maybe even hide the evidence of a drunken rage from the alcoholic. I guess that could happen. But ***there is a young child involved*** and the both grandmothers were aware that this child was in the care of an adult who had become drunk and violent. Both grandmothers cleaned up and kept the incident secret--and yet they claim to love their grandchild. Is this child abuse by neglect? In any case it is ridiculous behavior by supposedly responsible adults who claim to love their toddler grandchild.
8) The whole Bernice assault in 29. Really? Luke's father, who had never shown up in the house before and as far as we can tell, had no knowledge of 29, suddenly appears to rape a teen?
There are so many more holes but I will stop here. Let's just say that the author paid no attention to detail and did not ask if this could happen or that could happen.
There is also a stylistic issue that I had. This author is overly fond of participial phrases. I mean overly fond. There were at least 2 per page and the majority of them were not necessary and they interrupted the rhythm of the writing. I found this so distracting but I guess not so distracting that I could not read the book.
I did want to end on a more positive note. Congratulations to the author for having written a successful book--after all, I am in the minority here, as there is an overwhelming number of 4 and 5 star raving reviews here. I finished the book because honestly, up until the last quarter of the book, I was okay with the plot inconsistencies and character inconsistencies. However, the last quarter, the inconsistencies just became ridiculous and it was obvious that the author just inserted things for convenience. But...at least 3/4 of the book was decent.
I actually think, with the exception of the overflowing participial phrases, that the author has decent writing talent. I think she developed Luke and Phoebe decently, and I think she did a good job leading the reader one way and then another and keeping the reader guessing. I hope that in time, she can focus on detail and realistic situations and give us an actual literary piece instead of just a cheap thrill.
Pros:
Yes--this book is unpredictable for the most part. I was not sure where the author was going. That is good and I think this must be what the ratings are based on. I finished the book, though I skimmed a lot of the last few chapters because I just wanted to see what happened. I was not concerned with actually reading the book. But I did finish the book, I did care about what happened.
Cons:
There are so many holes in this book, so many things that left me thinking...this is not realistic at all.
1) The kidnapping to begin with--Phoebe and Luke were at Phoebe's grandmother's house, and their son Tommy is a toddler and needs to roam around and the grandmother is not cool about that so they take him to the harbor where he can play on the playground/water there. This is where the kidnapper, who apparently has been planning this act, grabs him. How could the kidnapper have predicted this moment? This is not something Phoebe and Luke do every week, at the same time, same place. This is how most kidnappings occur--the perpetrator watches the victim for patterns and commits the crime during one of the victim's routine moments.
2) Luke, from elementary age, is the only boy with 4 female friends. Think about this. How common is this? I have never in my life heard of any boy at this age with only female friends. He has *no* male friends for all of his elementary, teen and young adult years. Only as an adult does he have one male friend and it's his business partner. This is completely unlikely.
3) Phoebe has such a keen sense of smell that she can receive a letter and smell the "coffee" aroma and know that the letter was written inside a coffee shop. She caught her husband cheating on her because he had come home from one of his secret meetings with his lover and she smelled the other woman's perfume. And yet he had been doing this for months--if she had had such a keen sense of smell, wouldn't she have noticed this after his first or second meeting with this woman? Especially since the woman is one of her best friends, someone she spends time with at least once a week?
4) The house called "29" where a murder was committed years ago because a teenager (!) took some power tools and cut a chunk of wooden stairs out and then supported the cut out part of the stairs with ladders, and then, when the person was on the stairs, she snuck down below and kicked the ladders away. Really? How heavy would that chunk of stairs have been? Think about how stairs are constructed--could a female teenager really have done all of this alone? This is what the book is claiming.
5) The house 29 again. It is apparently an abandoned house and the teens hang out there, smoke pot there, get drunk there, make out there. Okay. Maybe this happens often in Australia. I know it can happen in the US where there is an abandoned house and homeless people squat. But usually houses belong to someone and have property value. The neighborhood where this house is located was once not considered important but during the time (15 years!) that the house was abandoned, the area became re-gentrified and the old houses are torn down to make way for newer, fancier homes worth a lot of money. But the owner of this house does nothing with this house, and the house, despite being the site of a murder and having stairs that have collapsed, is allowed to exist in its dilapidated state--and the police had even done an investigation after the murder so it it not like this house is not on anyone's radar. Highly unlikely. And later we find that Bernice has fixed the part of the stairs that has collapsed? How does one woman do this alone? She has fixed it so that people can actually go up and down the stairs again.
6) The perpetrator kidnapped the kid and hid him at the top story of her house for *months* and her apparently smart teenager suspected something but did not really know. ???? Has anyone babysat a toddler before? Could you leave a toddler alone in a room for *one hour* without knowing that there is a young child in that room? This child was snatched from his mother--at almost 2 years of age. No screaming, no crying, no tantrums...not enough for the teen to realize without a shadow of a doubt that there is a child upstairs....for months. No way.
7) As the story unfolds, we learn that Phoebe is actually an alcoholic and has had numerous episodes where she binge drank and blacked out with memory loss *while caring for her toddler son*. This is before the kidnapping. She apparently had one violent drunken episode where she smashed all of her son's toys up. This is serious alcoholism. I can buy that her grandmother and mother in law love her enough to clean up afterwards and not tell her what happens--I suspect that it may be realistic that some loved ones will not only pick up the pieces for an alcoholic and maybe even hide the evidence of a drunken rage from the alcoholic. I guess that could happen. But ***there is a young child involved*** and the both grandmothers were aware that this child was in the care of an adult who had become drunk and violent. Both grandmothers cleaned up and kept the incident secret--and yet they claim to love their grandchild. Is this child abuse by neglect? In any case it is ridiculous behavior by supposedly responsible adults who claim to love their toddler grandchild.
8) The whole Bernice assault in 29. Really? Luke's father, who had never shown up in the house before and as far as we can tell, had no knowledge of 29, suddenly appears to rape a teen?
There are so many more holes but I will stop here. Let's just say that the author paid no attention to detail and did not ask if this could happen or that could happen.
There is also a stylistic issue that I had. This author is overly fond of participial phrases. I mean overly fond. There were at least 2 per page and the majority of them were not necessary and they interrupted the rhythm of the writing. I found this so distracting but I guess not so distracting that I could not read the book.
I did want to end on a more positive note. Congratulations to the author for having written a successful book--after all, I am in the minority here, as there is an overwhelming number of 4 and 5 star raving reviews here. I finished the book because honestly, up until the last quarter of the book, I was okay with the plot inconsistencies and character inconsistencies. However, the last quarter, the inconsistencies just became ridiculous and it was obvious that the author just inserted things for convenience. But...at least 3/4 of the book was decent.
I actually think, with the exception of the overflowing participial phrases, that the author has decent writing talent. I think she developed Luke and Phoebe decently, and I think she did a good job leading the reader one way and then another and keeping the reader guessing. I hope that in time, she can focus on detail and realistic situations and give us an actual literary piece instead of just a cheap thrill.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 27, 2016
Luke and Phoebe take their two year old son Tommy to a water park for an afternoon out. Tommy is having a wonderful time playing with his toy boat in the canal when Luke decides to goes off to buy ice creams for each of them. By the time he returns Tommy has disappeared and Phoebe is in absolute shock as to what has happened to her son. Phoebe is sure she only looked away for a minute, how can this be happening and where is Tommy? As one can imagine this is a very distressing situation to be in, how can a child just disappear? For six months they are totally lost with out Tommy but then strange things start to happen, Phoebe and Luke start receiving notes with a nursery rhyme written inside referring to Tommy. Who is sending these notes and what do they really mean? Just when I thought I had an idea of what was happening, I discovered I was way off the mark. An extremely engaging and gripping story that moves a long like a rollercoaster, highly recommended.
November 4, 2022
This book had so much potential to be an amazing story, but ultimately I felt like it dragged on. There felt like a lot of details could have been cut for a much more fast pace and exciting thriller. The rest of my review will contain spoilers. I don't mean spoilers on whether or not the boy survived but actual spoilers on who did it. Mostly, I'm doing this because I did not want to finish the book. It didn't grab my attention but I wanted to know the ending. I tried finding answers online and in other reviews but even the "spoilers" that said things like they were glad the boy was okay or that it was weird that the person who did it owned an island. At three-quarters of the way through, I hadn't yet met anyone that owned an island so what the heck?!
At the start of the book you're lead to believe that they have a perfect marriage and she is a great mom. Then you learn that she was an alcoholic who had multiple psychotic episodes and even went so far as to drunkenly destroy her son's toys right in front of him. She was considering leaving her husband and son to reconnect with an ex because she didn't feel like motherhood was for her and she felt trapped. But by the end she's happy to be a mom and is even granted custody of the kidnapper's child as well? The police are aware of all the horrible things she's done and yet they still are okay with that? It did not settle well with me.
Also, turns out that someone who was supposed to be one of her best friends was obsessed with the husband and even tried to kill Phoebe when they were teens. She had been having an affair with Phoebe's husband, and developed this huge scheme on her own that involved getting Phoebe's finger prints onto stationary and then sending threatening letters with the goal of getting her arrested so she'd be out of the way. She buys an island. She convinces Phoebe's husband to take her and her daughter on his yacht to her island. Then once they get there, surprise! Tommy's been on the yacht this whole 3 day journey. Before that? She'd been keeping him in a spare room in her house that she had sound-proofed before she abducted him. And then lied to her daughter and said the noises she was hearing were a puppy she purchased for her but wasn't well behaved enough to see yet.
So yeah overall I do not recommend this book. I get that it is fiction but for this type of novel, I like it to feel a bit more realistic but instead we've got people who can afford private islands and yachts. A woman with mental illness who is awarded full custody of her own kid plus someone else's kid even though her husband (aside from adultery) did nothing wrong and seemed to be the more competent person. Well, except for the fact that he also had been obsessed with the woman who became his wife since they were kids and did do some things to trick her into a relationship to begin with. Yeah overall I would not recommend this and hopefully if you did pick it up but don't want to finish this gives you the info you need.
At the start of the book you're lead to believe that they have a perfect marriage and she is a great mom. Then you learn that she was an alcoholic who had multiple psychotic episodes and even went so far as to drunkenly destroy her son's toys right in front of him. She was considering leaving her husband and son to reconnect with an ex because she didn't feel like motherhood was for her and she felt trapped. But by the end she's happy to be a mom and is even granted custody of the kidnapper's child as well? The police are aware of all the horrible things she's done and yet they still are okay with that? It did not settle well with me.
Also, turns out that someone who was supposed to be one of her best friends was obsessed with the husband and even tried to kill Phoebe when they were teens. She had been having an affair with Phoebe's husband, and developed this huge scheme on her own that involved getting Phoebe's finger prints onto stationary and then sending threatening letters with the goal of getting her arrested so she'd be out of the way. She buys an island. She convinces Phoebe's husband to take her and her daughter on his yacht to her island. Then once they get there, surprise! Tommy's been on the yacht this whole 3 day journey. Before that? She'd been keeping him in a spare room in her house that she had sound-proofed before she abducted him. And then lied to her daughter and said the noises she was hearing were a puppy she purchased for her but wasn't well behaved enough to see yet.
So yeah overall I do not recommend this book. I get that it is fiction but for this type of novel, I like it to feel a bit more realistic but instead we've got people who can afford private islands and yachts. A woman with mental illness who is awarded full custody of her own kid plus someone else's kid even though her husband (aside from adultery) did nothing wrong and seemed to be the more competent person. Well, except for the fact that he also had been obsessed with the woman who became his wife since they were kids and did do some things to trick her into a relationship to begin with. Yeah overall I would not recommend this and hopefully if you did pick it up but don't want to finish this gives you the info you need.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 13, 2023
I couldn't see him anymore in real life, but I could visit him in my dreams.
While visiting a local playground, two-year-old Tommy Basko, goes missing. Phoebe,Tommy's mother, looks away for just a split second, and when she turns her head to where Tommy was playing, he's nowhere to be seen. A huge search is underway, with no leads of where Tommy could have gone or if someone took him.
Six months later, his parents begin receiving cryptic messages in the mail about Tommy, mimicking his favorite nursery rhyme, Little Boy Blue. The police don't believe the messages are from the abductor, but Phoebe isn't so sure. She begins a frantic search for the writer of the rhymes. When new evidence starts to blame Phoebe as the writer of the letters, she is at a race to prove her sanity, all while finding the kidnapper.
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This was a very tense thriller. 😬 I could not work out what happened to poor Tommy until the last chapters. I hated Phoebe's husband, Luke. He was a pompous ass throughout the whole ordeal. Overall, it was a very solid read. Loved Zindzi Okenyo's narration. 💙💙
While visiting a local playground, two-year-old Tommy Basko, goes missing. Phoebe,Tommy's mother, looks away for just a split second, and when she turns her head to where Tommy was playing, he's nowhere to be seen. A huge search is underway, with no leads of where Tommy could have gone or if someone took him.
Six months later, his parents begin receiving cryptic messages in the mail about Tommy, mimicking his favorite nursery rhyme, Little Boy Blue. The police don't believe the messages are from the abductor, but Phoebe isn't so sure. She begins a frantic search for the writer of the rhymes. When new evidence starts to blame Phoebe as the writer of the letters, she is at a race to prove her sanity, all while finding the kidnapper.
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This was a very tense thriller. 😬 I could not work out what happened to poor Tommy until the last chapters. I hated Phoebe's husband, Luke. He was a pompous ass throughout the whole ordeal. Overall, it was a very solid read. Loved Zindzi Okenyo's narration. 💙💙
November 5, 2022
This book was awful. I have no idea why it got so many 5 stars (I actually think they're fake) bc they all sound the same. It was terrible. All of the characters are horrible, and midway the mom and dad have insane affairs that make no sense. The plot twist is stupid and ridiculous. Don't waste your time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2017
When I learned that Anya Allyn was writing a mystery thriller under a different name, I jumped at the chance to get it. I really enjoy her YA books, and I wanted to see what she would do in a completely different genre.
For a while I wasn't sure where this story was going. In the beginning, there were a few dream sequences and a lot of sleepwalking as Taylor set everything up. Then, around the halfway mark, things started getting really interesting. The pages started turning faster and I couldn't wait to see what happened.
My favorite parts were the feminist commentary on motherhood. I liked Phoebe because she was far from a perfect mother. She didn't want to fit into the boxes she's supposed to, and she doesn't want to be the kind of wife Luke expects her to be. She struggles with this, and the author touches on some of the things that would get a mother eaten alive if she ever dared admit them—a mother feeling that she doesn't want her child, for example. I didn't expect any of this, so it was a pleasant surprise to read.
4 stars!
For a while I wasn't sure where this story was going. In the beginning, there were a few dream sequences and a lot of sleepwalking as Taylor set everything up. Then, around the halfway mark, things started getting really interesting. The pages started turning faster and I couldn't wait to see what happened.
My favorite parts were the feminist commentary on motherhood. I liked Phoebe because she was far from a perfect mother. She didn't want to fit into the boxes she's supposed to, and she doesn't want to be the kind of wife Luke expects her to be. She struggles with this, and the author touches on some of the things that would get a mother eaten alive if she ever dared admit them—a mother feeling that she doesn't want her child, for example. I didn't expect any of this, so it was a pleasant surprise to read.
As long as he paid the mortgage, he was good. [...] there wasn't one more thing he needed to do to be husband-and-father material. But the wife and mother, she needed to turn herself inside out, empty herself completely. Everything in life she'd been trained to do so far was useless. Her career, her personal time, her motivation to succeed—she had to let all that go.
4 stars!
August 14, 2016
Not sure how I feel about this book It went on and on and on. frustrating.
Could be shortened by at least a fourth, was a tedious read. However didn't see villain til end. So kudos for that. Was hard to feel empathy for main characters. Honestly just wanted to be done with. I welcome other insights
.
Could be shortened by at least a fourth, was a tedious read. However didn't see villain til end. So kudos for that. Was hard to feel empathy for main characters. Honestly just wanted to be done with. I welcome other insights
.
May 25, 2016
Outstanding. Once I started this book I couldn't put it down. More twists and turns than you can poke a stick at. I can't recommend it highly enough.
October 18, 2023
what a wild ride that was. Everything I made a guess I was quickly proven wrong. Phoebe was wonderfully complex and what a well thought out page turner.
The only downfall was the narrator of the audio... she really didn't have the ability to change voices so it was hard to determine which character was talking at times.
The only downfall was the narrator of the audio... she really didn't have the ability to change voices so it was hard to determine which character was talking at times.
August 16, 2021
Yes, yet another one of those for us by us female authored female driven thrillers. There's just too many of them to avoid for a genre fan. The trick is to find the best ones and this one, while not quite in the best of realm, was actually surprisingly good. Started off with a really clichéd set up...perfect marriage, lovely young couple, toddler vanishes. But then the author just kept spinning the webs intriguingly enough to maintain the reader's attention throughout. Enter the unreliable narrator. Enter the onion amount of layers to characters. Enter the plot twists. So it ended up being quite a fun ride with very respectable amounts of suspense and mystery. Slightly drawn out, maybe, but such a quick read, it didn't really matter. The ending was all but too adorable, just barely saved by a lovely sprinkle of paranoia. Because, frankly, you should be...you never know. Entertaining read. Recommended for fans of psychological thrillers. And psychos. And games they play.
October 4, 2023
I wish you could give less than one. Sorry that’s savage but I only pushed on to find out what happened and the ending was trash.
How was it so long and yet missing so much.
This could have been condensed to a quarter of what was written.
What a waste of time :(
Not gunna lie I pushed though just to get my reading challenge star.
How was it so long and yet missing so much.
This could have been condensed to a quarter of what was written.
What a waste of time :(
Not gunna lie I pushed though just to get my reading challenge star.
February 13, 2017
I don't normally write reviews that contain spoilers, but I had to for this one. First of all, how the heck is this book rated so highly? I admit to getting absorbed in the story and wanting to know how it ended, but it wasn't a suspenseful or even satisfying conclusion. I feel very generous giving it three stars because it reminded me of a bad horror movie in which the audience yells "Don't go in there!" when it should be obvious to the players in the story, although it isn't. Now for my biggest plot peeves. I have more but I'll spare you all of my ramblings. Spoilers ahead...
May 18, 2016
Absolutely phenomenal!!!
This book takes off running and never stops. It's one of those stories that takes you by the collar and tells you that dishes, laundry, work, they can all be done later. This story is to be read. Now.
I started out thinking this was going to be a mystery: who kidnapped Tommy? However, just when I thought I had the answers guessed, everything changed. Again, and again. This is no cut and dry mystery: it's a psychological thriller, and written at the caliber of perfection I have come to expect from this author. Psychological thrillers are her game... and this one did not disappoint!
I recommend this to anyone looking for an exciting read with several turns you won't be able to predict!
This book takes off running and never stops. It's one of those stories that takes you by the collar and tells you that dishes, laundry, work, they can all be done later. This story is to be read. Now.
I started out thinking this was going to be a mystery: who kidnapped Tommy? However, just when I thought I had the answers guessed, everything changed. Again, and again. This is no cut and dry mystery: it's a psychological thriller, and written at the caliber of perfection I have come to expect from this author. Psychological thrillers are her game... and this one did not disappoint!
I recommend this to anyone looking for an exciting read with several turns you won't be able to predict!
July 6, 2016
One of the best psychological thrillers I've ever read.
As a debut novel it's fantastic.
As a debut novel it's fantastic.
September 14, 2024
4 Stars
Phoebe and Luke's son Tommy goes missing at a park.
Phoebe then goes into a deep depression as months go by with no sign of their son.
Luke gets fed up with Phoebe as their marriage is falling apart.
Phoebe starts getting notes about Tommy and tries to find out where they're coming from.
Because she's known to sleep walk and has a history of drinking, no one believes her.
Good story and not what you expect. This was an exciting thriller with a great ending
Phoebe and Luke's son Tommy goes missing at a park.
Phoebe then goes into a deep depression as months go by with no sign of their son.
Luke gets fed up with Phoebe as their marriage is falling apart.
Phoebe starts getting notes about Tommy and tries to find out where they're coming from.
Because she's known to sleep walk and has a history of drinking, no one believes her.
Good story and not what you expect. This was an exciting thriller with a great ending
June 23, 2016
I've read a few of these 'child disappears but all is not as it seems' psychological thrillers lately and this was one of the better ones. Most of them spend too long belabouring the mother's anguish - I get it, I really do, but there's only so many times I can be enthralled by the same sentiments over and over.
This book had a bit of that but (as you would expect) but then got onto the guts of the story, and what a twisted tale it was. Phoebe and Luke's 2 year old son Tommy disappears from a park one day. After the six months the trail is stone cold and the police are only going through the motions. Then arrives a series of notes on blue paper, taunting the family with rhymes that Phoebe feels are directed at her. She thinks they must be from the kidnapper but the police are not so sure. Things progress and you start to wonder about Phoebe, could she have engineered all this and harmed her son?
At this point the story really ramps up and its pretty darned good. One of my favourite characters is the very strange Bernice Wicks, she lifted the whole story. You think she is somehow critical to the plot but can't quite work out how. Most enjoyable.
This book had a bit of that but (as you would expect) but then got onto the guts of the story, and what a twisted tale it was. Phoebe and Luke's 2 year old son Tommy disappears from a park one day. After the six months the trail is stone cold and the police are only going through the motions. Then arrives a series of notes on blue paper, taunting the family with rhymes that Phoebe feels are directed at her. She thinks they must be from the kidnapper but the police are not so sure. Things progress and you start to wonder about Phoebe, could she have engineered all this and harmed her son?
At this point the story really ramps up and its pretty darned good. One of my favourite characters is the very strange Bernice Wicks, she lifted the whole story. You think she is somehow critical to the plot but can't quite work out how. Most enjoyable.
August 7, 2017
Okay, so I really really enjoyed this book. I thought the twists and turns were interesting and surprising and the entire thing felt fresh and different.
BUT. Part of the fun of a who-done-it is trying to figure it out. The author never dropped any clues until she was ready for a reveal, and then suddenly all the characters remembered that yesterday she said this and last week he did this and oh remember how as kids they always went there and also this one has stripes and this one is solid so they're not the same! Ah ha!! No, actually, no one told me, the reader, any of that. And they are very small clues. I certainly wouldn't have guessed anything from the snippets of conversation if she had let me in, but it's fun to think back 100 pages and realize that yes, it was in fact striped! Instead, it was as if the author was so afraid we would guess what happened next that she hid everything that gave the slightest clue.
So I really enjoyed the book, but you can't solve this one before she's ready. There aren't even red herrings, really. There just aren't clues. Or there are, the reader just isn't privy to them.
BUT. Part of the fun of a who-done-it is trying to figure it out. The author never dropped any clues until she was ready for a reveal, and then suddenly all the characters remembered that yesterday she said this and last week he did this and oh remember how as kids they always went there and also this one has stripes and this one is solid so they're not the same! Ah ha!! No, actually, no one told me, the reader, any of that. And they are very small clues. I certainly wouldn't have guessed anything from the snippets of conversation if she had let me in, but it's fun to think back 100 pages and realize that yes, it was in fact striped! Instead, it was as if the author was so afraid we would guess what happened next that she hid everything that gave the slightest clue.
So I really enjoyed the book, but you can't solve this one before she's ready. There aren't even red herrings, really. There just aren't clues. Or there are, the reader just isn't privy to them.
February 9, 2022
I really liked the look of the cover and description for The Game You Played as it sounded like the type of read I would usually love.
The story starts off well with little Tommy playing happily with his parents Luke and Phoebe watching on. Within minutes of Luke going off to get them all ice creams and Phoebe taking her eye off her son for literally seconds, Tommy disappears. We are then fast forwarded to six months later and the story flicks between Luke and Phoebe and we see how their son going missing has affected them both. As we get to know them better, we start to see the cracks between their relationship.
Overall this isn't a bad read, I just found parts slightly unbelievable and parts to do with Phoebe almost felt frenzied and I found myself struggling to keep hold of where the story was going. There are a few twists which help to keep you turning the pages but this wasn't a standout psychological thriller for me.
The story starts off well with little Tommy playing happily with his parents Luke and Phoebe watching on. Within minutes of Luke going off to get them all ice creams and Phoebe taking her eye off her son for literally seconds, Tommy disappears. We are then fast forwarded to six months later and the story flicks between Luke and Phoebe and we see how their son going missing has affected them both. As we get to know them better, we start to see the cracks between their relationship.
Overall this isn't a bad read, I just found parts slightly unbelievable and parts to do with Phoebe almost felt frenzied and I found myself struggling to keep hold of where the story was going. There are a few twists which help to keep you turning the pages but this wasn't a standout psychological thriller for me.
June 13, 2016
It's an okay read
The twists and turns in this book were hard to keep up with. The whole story maybe was just too drawn out. The main characters, Phoebe and Lucas, never became likeable for me. Phoebe was so complex and, for me, unbelievable that I just wanted her to be done. She invoked no sympathy in me whatsoever. I did like some of the other characters, though. I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend thus book, but I wouldn't go out of my way to trash it, either.
The twists and turns in this book were hard to keep up with. The whole story maybe was just too drawn out. The main characters, Phoebe and Lucas, never became likeable for me. Phoebe was so complex and, for me, unbelievable that I just wanted her to be done. She invoked no sympathy in me whatsoever. I did like some of the other characters, though. I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend thus book, but I wouldn't go out of my way to trash it, either.
February 21, 2017
I highly recommend this to everyone I know it reminded me so much of the girl on the train but this is more twisted.
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