These Deadly Games: A Pulse-Pounding YA Thriller with Secrets, Romance, and Twists - Paperback

by Diana Urban (Author)

To save her sister, Crystal must play her kidnapper's game-a game designed to take out her friends and the boy she's falling for, one by one.

Let's play a game. You have 24 hours to win. If you break my rules, she dies. If you call the police, she dies. If you tell your parents or anyone else, she dies. Are you ready?

When Crystal Donavan gets a message on a mysterious app with a video of her little sister gagged and bound, she agrees to play the kidnapper's game. At first, they make her complete bizarre tasks: steal a test and stuff it in a locker, bake brownies, make a prank call.

Then Crystal realizes each task is meant to hurt-and kill-her friends and the boy she likes, one by one. If she refuses to play, the kidnapper will kill her sister. Is someone trying to take her team out of the running for a gaming tournament? Or have they uncovered a secret from their past and now want to make them pay?

As Crystal makes the impossible choices between her friends and her sister, she must uncover the truth and find a way to outplay the kidnapper...before she loses everything.

From the bestselling author of All Your Twisted Secrets comes a modern-day I Know What You Did Last Summer. Get ready for an intense thrill ride with a ticking clock, a little romance, wild moral dilemmas, and a shocking twist that will blow your mind. **NEW EDITION JULY 2026**

"Had my jaw on the floor." -Jessica Goodman, New York Times bestselling author of They Wish They Were Us

Tropes:

⏰ Race against time

Sacrifice it all to save sister

Anonymous kidnapper

️ Friends get picked off

Love triangle

Kiss seals a promise

Gamer girl on esports team

Revenge and betrayal

Jaw-dropping twists