The Dead Game (The Dead Game Series, #1) in Review / Write / Read Club (Indie & Self-Published)

Jun 30, 2015 Ed Morawski rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Okay, if you want to market your book to me as a 'Thriller' you better deliver pulse pounding non-stop action. 'The Dead Game' didn't deliver. If you look up the definition of 'Thriller' you could just put: NOT The Dead Game. Harsh? Well after seven chapters (that's right - chapters!) of mind numbing descriptions of a town and its post college inhabitants and their snarky friendships, the only thing thrilling was when I had to slap myself every few minutes to stay awake.

I know I am overly analyt Okay, if you want to market your book to me as a 'Thriller' you better deliver pulse pounding non-stop action. 'The Dead Game' didn't deliver. If you look up the definition of 'Thriller' you could just put: NOT The Dead Game. Harsh? Well after seven chapters (that's right - chapters!) of mind numbing descriptions of a town and its post college inhabitants and their snarky friendships, the only thing thrilling was when I had to slap myself every few minutes to stay awake.

I know I am overly analytical when it comes to my reading but I couldn't help but wonder how a bunch of newly graduated youths could manage to all own businesses like a bookstore, antique shop, hardware store, etc., etc. Heck, as I understand it half of college graduates can't even find a job let alone have the capital to start a business after crushing student loans. Oh, but one, Todd, owns most of the main street buildings and rents them to the above mentioned friends, yet lives in an apartment. Huh? (Read: all convenient plot device.) It's also rather amazing these twenty-somethings seem to spend most of their time on the beach or having barbeques and not at their stores. Which I guess is why they were given businesses instead of real jobs in the book. As a further irritant, when not describing these people in glorious terms of how great their bodies are, the author loads us with endless stilted dialogue of these happy go lucky characters discussing whether or not to go to the mysterious party at a haunted house. And to top it off we get to enjoy a seemingly endless countdown to the big event.

Then there is the town itself named Oasis, which consumes so many pages of endless descriptions that are about as exciting as reading a map. But even then what jarred me and took me right out of the story was this passage:

Linda Bennett was walking home from her bookstore in the picturesque town of Oasis, daydreaming about the beautiful fall weather in northern Florida. The leaves were turning those intriguing shades of orange and red. The trees were beginning to shed their multihued leaves that blew around in the warm breeze. She loved the coastline of Florida, where each season brought with it a wide range of colors and foliage in the midst of mildly changing temperatures.

I've been to Florida many times and as far as I know the only 'season' there is hurricane season. I don't recall the palm trees ever changing color. Even the above sentence contradicts itself talking about leaves falling in the mildly changing temperatures! So again my suspension of disbelief got whacked.

Okay, okay this is all secondary to the story, you say. What about the thriller? Scratch that - horror?

Well, despite the fact that the young people that inhabit the town blithely ignore 'shadows' flying all around them, I made a conscious attempt to ignore all these discordant notes and continue reading, hoping that if I wasn't going to get any thrills, there would at least be some chilling horror. But alas there is nothing new or fresh here, nothing we haven't seen before in a hundred B movies or old books. A staircase that goes flush causing people to slide down - oh boy like we haven't seen that before. Rich vampires? Uh, I think there were several major motion pictures about that. After the big party the whole thing kind of reminded me of a bad Melrose Place episode and by the halfway point I was wishing and hoping every single one of these shallow characters would be gruesomely murdered, but alas...

Obviously I'm either out of touch or not the intended audience for 'The Dead Game' since this book has garnered a hundred five star positive reviews, so maybe you'll just love it. I didn't.
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Jul 06, 2017 E.M.G. Wixley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Beautifully descriptive with well-drawn characters. ‘End House’ has personality and is extremely creepy along with the town, which on the surface would seem perfect but has underlying chilling secrets. Full of contrasts with both good and bad vampires. Linda and Shana both have their eyes on the mysterious Todd and together they search for answers.
The story gathers pace with many twists and turns and an ending which leaves you wanting more. This book is a creepy, easy and entertaining read.

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May 01, 2025 Gary Stringer rated it it was ok

The Dead Game is a vampire supernatural mystery paranormal romance…at least it tries to be.
There were a lot of good story ideas, here (arguably too many for one short novel) which just didn’t quite pay off the way I hoped.

The prologue hooked me straight away: In a seemingly idyllic village, there is a spooky End House that seems intent on killing its inhabitants.

Sound great! Sign me up!

After that, well, I can be patient with a story. Sometimes, the story structure needs a bit of setting up befor ...more

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Dec 16, 2024 Amber Daulton rated it liked it

Linda moves to a quaint seaside town, makes friends, and accepts a party invitation to a supposedly haunted house. While there, she and her new friends learn just how dangerous the house can be.
I haven’t read many haunted house paranormal mysteries, so I was happy to give this one a try. Ms. Leist’s story was sound with interesting plot twists that kept me guessing, and I liked her word choices and use of description. However, I couldn’t relate to the characters or feel what they were feeling, m ...more

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Mar 31, 2025 Gene Kendall rated it really liked it

Susanne Leist’s The Dead Game presents an attractive blend of horror, mystery, paranormal elements, and romance, creating a story that thumbs its nose at strict genre classification. Our star is Linda Bennett, who trades busy New York for the seemingly peaceful coastal town of Oasis, Florida, in search of a quieter life. However, what she finds is anything but tranquil. A series of eerie events, including unexplained deaths and missing tourists, reveals some dark secrets inside Oasis. The prose ...more

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