Book Review: "Games We Played" By Shawne Steiger

Never judge a book by its cover!

This is the wonderful, fresh, and hard hitting discussion about anti-semitism, PTSD, sexual gender, and hatred in mass groups especially trolls online.

While I didn't expect all this based solely on the cover or the premise what I did find what an interesting take on two women in particular and how they try their best to meet the demands of others while tending to their own inner insecurities.

It begins with Jocelyn being a cop, Liz being a married woman having a three year fling with Jocelyn, and then we find Rachel being terrorized for being a Jewish woman.

The name calling and derogatory verbal abuse directed to Rachel Goldberg was a difficult thing to endure which makes her have a tough exterior.

The moment we learn that Rachel a up- and -coming actress participates in this online promotional account developed by her friend to further her career leads to a host of name calling once the trolls learn of her nationality and the topic of abortion.

As this circulates into a whirlwind of insults and hate crimes we find that her address was leaked out deliberately causing undue harm upon her and her family. Her home was broken into to while her property damaged with hateful speech and Nazi symbols.

Liz while married was deeply troubled in the decision making process as she swayed both ways from staying married and living in the closet to opening the doors and allowing her sincerity to take over with her authenticity towards herself, her husband Michael, and her kids, as well as to Rachel.

Rachel meanwhile played both avenues with Liz and with Jo but the latter girlfriend seemed to understand that-Two's company and three's a charm- and gave her an ultimatum.

Stephen a close friend was also in this scenario having flashbacks and triggers from serving as an Iraq vet while also believing his grandfather was a Nazi member with German heritage.

As this played out readers were invited to a back and forth brawl both externally and internally in a number of ways. There's racial hatred at a local bar with JT and friends, then we experience similar with the memories of a party and a rape, and we find further evidence of more physical abuse with the mother who went back to Uncle Frank and was hit repeatedly.

All of this sets up the climax when we find that not everything is as it seems with the family's lineage and the history they thought they all understood until now.

History sometimes has dark elements written in and these two separate families have a mixture of the light and dark within them both.

Upon this realization we find that JT then grabs Rachel's arm, that Stephen's grandfather wasn't who he said he was, that Rachel's own dad also was a fraud.

In the end, Liv and Rachel seem to forego further connections while Jo is brought back to the picture.

The ending with Grace and her input while addressing Stephen's feelings and the entire revelations that exploded unto the paper was remarkable.

Thank you to Shawne, the pub, NetGalley, and Amazon Kindle for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.