The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

 

Ever since I heard this book was supposed to be like Knives Out, I was super interested, since that's one of my favorite movies of all time for its brilliant plotting, complex characters, sympathetic protagonist, and brilliant satire about class stratification in the U.S. Obviously with a comparison like that, a book has huge boots to fill and sadly, I'm not sure THE INHERITANCE GAMES can really hack it. If anything, it's more like a modern, reverse-harem version of THE WESTING GAME, but since that book is older (from the 1970s) and more obscure, I guess such a comparison won't sell as many copies.

Avery is a poor teenager who lives with her older sister who is constantly in this off again, on again thing with an abusive boyfriend. One day, she finds out she's become the heiress to one of the nine biggest fortunes in the world-- even though she's pretty sure she has no relation to the eccentric billionaire. So why her? That's what everyone else in the family would like to know, too.

I really forced myself to keep reading because I thought the beginning was really interesting, but I quickly began to get bored, as you can see from my status updates. The romance felt forced and I wasn't as amazed by the "puzzles" as my friends seem to be, and I thought the "twist" at the end was hugely anticlimactic and disappointing. I really don't care about any of these characters and I don't think I'll be reading the sequel. Younger readers will probably enjoy this but I couldn't suspend my disbelief.

2 to 2.5 out of 5 stars