These Deadly Games    by Diana Urban Order:  USA  Can St. Martin's, 2022 (2022) Hardcover, e-Book      Reviewed by Hilary Williamson Diana Urban's These Deadly Games is an intense, fast-paced YA thriller, featuring sixteen-year-old Crystal Donavan. She's one of a group of friends who spend all their free time playing video game MortalDusk, hoping to participate in state and national tournaments with huge cash prizes that could change lives. The problem is that only five of their six can play on the tourney team, so they're competing for top scores - Crystal, Zoey, Dylan, Akira, Randall and Matty. As that develops, we learn that bad memories plague all of them except Dylan (new to the group) - of something they'd done five years before. Crystal seems like such a good daughter and older sister - what can have happened? Then Crystal receives a message with a video of eight-year-old Caelyn gagged and bound to a chair. It says: 'React to this, and she dies. Show this to anyone, and she dies.' The kidnapper plays a game with her, assigning a series of tasks. They seem innocuous at first, but then prove to do serious damage to her friends, one by one. How can she get out of this and save Caelyn? Finally, Crystal understands that this is about revenge for what happened before. She learns who orchestrated it, but ends up a suspect herself. Though she is cleared, the story ends on quite the cliffhanger. Don't miss this one! Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Teens books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews