The plot for this book develops very slowly, so if you don't like slow burners this isn't for you. A lot of effort is put into building the vision of the school and the development of the two characters. Once you've got past the 50% mark things do start to pick up.

I can't fault the world-building in this book. I also enjoyed that although the book is set in a school the main characters are adults rather than students.

I pet-peeve through the book was the obscurity of the Grand Jeu, I think if this was more transparent early on I'd have been able to get into the story a bit more.

Overall, this book was only ok for me. It took me some persistence to keep reading as it Is a very slow burner

The Betrayals is a beautifully written, politically intriguing novel. Unfortunately for this author, their debut book was such a blinder that this novel did not live up to the very high standard that had been set. The plot develops v e r y slowly, with minimal action happening until about 70% through the book. The use of Latin in an attempt to build intrigue became frustrating when the concepts weren't ever really explained anyway.
I finished this book feeling a bit confused and disappointed.

The Betrayals by Bridget Collins was one of my most anticipated reads for 2021. I adore (and I mean I am absolutely OBSESSED) with The Binding so I went into reading her second book for adults with high expectations.

The Betrayals takes place at Montverre, a prestigious and exclusive academy clasped in the mountains, where only a select few scholars are invited to attend. Here, at Montverre, they are taught to play the Grand Jeu, a mysterious and strange game involving mathematics, music and literature. It is both a form of worship and a path to enlightenment. Presided over by the Magisters, pupils are striving to win, to claim the Gold Medal, to be the best. But a seam of darkness runs through this elite establishment.

Leo Martin soon discovers this. An ex-politician who studied the Grand Jeu as a boy, he returns to Montverre in disgrace, a shadow, a threat following in his wake. Montverre is the safest place but for how long, it’s impossible to tell. Betrayals, secrets and danger wait in the corridors, the cells and class rooms, and the past he’s tried to suppress, is closer than ever.

Bridget Collins is a wordsmith, enthralling with her elegant, poetic prose and rich, emotionally-complex characters. No one writes quite like Bridget Collins. Her world-building, woven through with magic, is second to none. Compelling, nuanced and powerful, able to exist in the readers’ mind long after reading, that precious portal of storytelling a constant escape and comfort. I adore her writing.

The Betrayals is an intelligent and absorbing read, looking at the power of betrayal, sexuality, equality, creativity, ambition, love and hate for three flawed characters. I loved the setting of Montverre, atmospheric and claustrophobic, rising threateningly from the mountains. The characters are diverse and well-developed. The twists clever and exciting.

I really enjoyed this book but unfortunately I didn’t love it as I did The Binding. At times I think the Grand Jeu was a little too obscure – I found it a tad challenging to wrap my mind round but that’s probably just me.

I recommend grabbing a copy of The Betrayals and discovering it for yourself!

Rating: 3 out of 5.
Synopsis: Leo, a disgraced politician, is forced to return to Montverre in order to study the Grand Jeu. But tragedy struck Leo in the past, and when he meets Claire – The Magister Ludi – those memories come to the surface.

CW/TW: suicide/mentions of suicide/mental health-ableism/bullying/neglect/sexism/death/other warnings may exist that I have missed.

So I have yet to read The Binding, because someone always seems to have taken it from the library *sigh* but when I saw this beautiful book on Netgalley I had to request it because it sounded incredibly interesting. And while I still plan to read The Binding at some point this year, I have to admit The Betrayals, though beautifully written, did not quite hit the mark for me.

The Betrayals undoubtedly has beautiful prose, it is metaphorical and descriptive, full of mesmerising imagery and breathtaking settings. The prose is well matched to the story, which is, itself, abstract. While it focuses on tragedy and Leo and Claire’s past and present, the heart of the story is the grand jeu – though its meaning is truly what the story is about not the game itself – a game that is not a game, a complex feat of music, literature, mathematics and science, beautiful but remains an abstract to the reader throughout. I actually quite enjoyed the beauty and heart that lies behind the idea of the grand jeu, the emotion and presences required for it to be successful – along with the complexities, and I love literature references – which this book has plenty of. But as beautiful and mesmerising as the grand jeu is that alone was not enough to make me love this book.

The primary reason that I liked but did not love this book is Leo. Leo is our central character, clever and bold – a gold medallist in the grand jeu. But, he is not likeable. Now, I love an unlikeable character, a morally grey character, or a questionable one, however, Leo was unlikeable in a different way. I’m aware the book takes place in a different time period and setting, but Leo’s self-entitlement and blatant sexism was infuriating and he doesn’t change. Leo’s story is told in the present through his and Claire’s narrative, and in the past through his diary entries. Leo builds a relationship with Aime in the past, and Claire in the present – and I did not like either. Leo’s self-entitlement and self-centered focus made it impossible to root for him in either relationship, his bullying and poor choices added to the frustration – to the point that I did not feel much sympathy for him even when tragedy strikes him. I love characters who are clever, and know that they are – even when they are rude, but Leo (And though this is addressed in the story it wasn’t enough)has little redeeming qualities, – he is empty, his emotions seem superficial at best. This is a big point in his past storyline interms of the grand jeu but Leo never adequately addresses it – if he had then perhaps I would have liked him more.

Claire’s character was more likeable, a woman in a position usually occupied by men, at a place made for the education of boys. I appreciated her and her intelligence, her desire to be more than what society wishes of her. Though, I did not like her ‘relationship’ with Leo, or some of the choices she makes regarding him, I did like her and her attitude to the grand jeu. Some of her actions are understandable, however, by the end of the book- she is a complex character, and quite a presence, her story quite interesting. I was dismayed by her ending in the book, however, I did understand it because of the time period and setting.

I enjoyed the past storyline, Leo aside. In fact, I liked Aime. I liked his passion for the grand jeu, his resilience, his overall presence. His character carried the past storyline for me, he was a compelling character that made you want to keep reading. His tragic family line, the expectation of his genius, his seemingly arrogant personality, and his later vulnerability and passion – makes him a captivating character whose shocking story conjures much more sympathy.

I also enjoyed The Rat’s chapters. The Rat is human but not human, a shadow, a ghost, that creates a haunting atmosphere throughout the story. Seemingly detached from the wider narrative, only to come into focus later on and bring about a bigger and more important overall message. The Rat and Claire’s chapters seem less relevant to the wider story overall, until closer to the end of the novel where they sharpen and become key to the plot and to the messages it creates. The shocking truths that are revealed turn the book on its head and make the stark truth of the betrayals and secrets that permeate Montverre come alive and demand closure.

The story is compelling at times, enough to keep you reading, but it does fall a little flat at some instances. Leo’s character, though crucial to the story, was -to me- to unlikeable, and cold, making it hard for me to love this book.

*I received an eARC from #Netgalley (HarperCollins UK) in exchange for an honest review – thankyou!*

The grand jeu is an inexplicable and indescribable game and the students of Montverre Academy are tasked with creating it.

Leo is in his second year and has been given a second chance at creation but the game, for him, is already tinged with grief and guilt. Can the glory and greatness it also promises surpass these feelings? Claire is the only female tutor in this male, academic world and has to prove that despite her gender and tragic family history she is worthy of a place in this elite world. Can she compete against the privileged males she mentors? And will these two individuals become allies or enemies, in their ambitious quests?

This entire novel was an evocative infusion of gothic atmosphere and dark academia vibes. I adored the exploration of this mysterious setting and only wished the reader was able to garner more of an understanding of the academy and the games its students were tasked with creating.

That being said, part of this book's charm was also its peculiar and ineffable qualities. Consistent intrigue and forever feeling a step removed from a true understanding of everything that occurred had me tearing through the pages to this novel's close.

The characters too played their part in disallowing the reader to ever feel close to an understanding of their nature or their motives. Mysteries abounded and every figure that featured here was cloaked in their own share of them.

I had a great time immersed in this dark mystery and can now confidently say that Collins is an author I can rely upon for a chilling and thrilling historical tale.

Completely different to the Binding, this is a curious book. It is intriguing as you need to learn what the grand jeu is all about. It isn’t particularly clear. The grand jeu is an academic game that combines maths, music and ideas in an atmosphere of meditation. It feels quite abstract. The explanation is opaque and dappled throughout the book, so you don’t necessarily feel like you know quite what the point of this game is and how it is possible to determine how it is created, delivered and judged in what is an entrenched and privileged establishment, overseen by the Magister Ludi. I at times felt very ignorant unable to be able to determine this.

It is a long book that I did not find particularly gripping. I picked it up and put it down. The key character is Leo, a failed politician that is not particularly likeable. His personality is quite grey and uninspiring, his morals at times questionable, but his human side does quietly emerge as you learn about his vulnerable past, competing for the grand jeu, and how he finds himself back where he came from at Montverre. This is a life changing experience as he learns to become who he truly is.

It moves between past and present. The plot is quite complicated and with interesting twists and reveals. In this sense the writing is mature and technically impressive. The rat aspect felt a bit abstract and bizarre. Whilst I usually like something with a curious edge like this in a book, it didn’t quite fit the style of this fiction for me. Though the rat played a pivotal end part, this could have readily been fulfilled by other credible characters in a more conventional way.

The maturation of Leo’s character in particular is intricate and extremely well done, but it is a slow burn (an emerging style of Collins), and against this quite drear and ostentatious background, it just did not quite engage me enough. I can recognise the quality of writing, the skillful discourse, but it failed to absorb & entertain me –so I was very much a bi-stander on the peripheries reading this, able to acknowledge the craft but not emotionally invested.

I wasn’t a huge fan of The Binding but the design of this book seduced me and I wanted to give the author another crack, thinking maybe I missed something with that book because it was so popular and just missed me. Unfortunately I didn’t love The Betrayals either and I could have easily DNFed the book if I didn’t need to review it for NetGalley. This book is all about the Grand Jeu, an archaic, traditional game at Monterrey that will never be explained to you as a reader, despite being constantly referred to. As a reader this made me feel like I was on the outside of this book, peering in at something as opposed to being immersed in it. I even tried googling it, which isn’t a great start when you have a book in front of you already about it.
The book follows Léo Martin, a former student at Montverre and now a disgraced ex Minister of Culture, sent back to Montverre, and Claire Dryden, the (first female) Magister Ludi for the Grand Jeu. Claire has Léo’s diary from when he was a student, so the story goes back and forth from Léo’s school days where he must work with his rival Carfax in creating a joint Grand Jeu to present day where Claire must create this year’s Midsummer Game and Leo is still finding himself drawn into the corrupted politics of his Ministerial past.

Other than the vagueness of the Grand Jeu despite the pages talking about people planning theirs, my main issue with this book is that the characters are just awful, more specifically, Léo is awful,. I fully appreciate a protagonist doesn’t have to be likeable but this man, particularly reading as a woman, is just detestable and yet I never felt the book condemned his behaviour, making him almost the hero at times. As a student he is weak willed, a bully who cracks to pressure, hot headed, competitive and only steps up occasionally, the majority of his ‘good’ qualities are secret. As a grown man he isn’t much better, only an utter misogynist to boot. I get this is probably a key part of the character of ‘middle class white man in politics’ and yet a romantic storyline with Claire is pushed ahead. We have to read him referring to her as plain, “just a woman”, referring to her weakness and inferiority to him, he truly does not value or respect women so why did I have to read this ‘romance’?? It just enraged me. To add to this, Claire read his diary and saw, again, his thoughts and behaviour towards Carfax and yet it still continues?? Léo is made out to be an intelligent man and yet he consistently acts naive, immature and selfish throughout the book, he consistently makes mistakes and yet we keep getting told how clever he is. I genuinely wished nothing well for this character and only endured/tolerated his involvement in this book right to the end. Claire I liked more, she had more substance and fire to her. Carfax though is the heart to this book and really shows the talent Collins has a writer, his struggle and turmoil on the page is heartening, he’s fascinating, loveable and you so badly wish him well.
Another thing I didn’t really understand was the persecution element of this story, throughout this book we understand Christians are being persecuted, the government is corrupt and hateful and has started to condemn Christians, capturing them and taking them away and forbidding them from education. And yet, religion is also referred to during the classes and the Grand Jeu, the religion itself there not explained. Similarly there is a character called The Rat, a mysterious girl who hides in the shadows of the school, and you start to learn her story. While it helps add to the misogyny of the school, it doesn’t feel explored enough, as does mental illness/suicide also referred to.

Collins is an excellent writer, the atmosphere of the school is captured brilliantly, and her style is brilliant, I just didn’t enjoy this and need to stop being seduced by beautiful covers.

Although the writing in this book was beautiful and immersive, the rest of the book for me felt flat. I couldn’t figure out where the plot was, and I didn’t know what was going on.

I believe this is a book you either love or hate, as the reviews for The Betrayals are mixed, so it may be I wasn’t the right person. I would still recommend you try this book, it could be the one for you!

I really enjoyed this book, although it is different to what I usually read. I found the plot engaging and the characters easy to warm to.

I was actually told about this book from the guy who works in my local bookshop and I'm so glad I listened to his recommendation!

I wanted to like this book, the prose is beautiful and the world created is exquisite but I was never really invested in discovering the truth behind the mysteries of the Grand Jeu and the characters that play within the walls of Montverre. The interweaving of past and present is compelling, but the individuals at the school are not compelling or indeed very likeable so your interest in their 'betrayals' is fairly limited. Collins' depiction of Montverde is beautiful and you do feel immersed in the setting, but the pace of the narrative is too slow and the conclusion too neat for my liking.

Somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars.....

I was really looking forward to reading this book as I enjoyed The Binding so much. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations.

The Betrayals pacing was too slow for me. I was prepared for this as The Binding took a long time to get going, this just didn’t grab me until about three quarters of the way through. As a reader I prefer to be engaged much earlier on in my reading experience, however, I will admit the last quarter was very good, if a little predictable.

Overall, it’s a good read, there’s some beautiful prose and I loved the imagery surrounding Montverre (at times it felt a bit like Hogwarts), but ultimately I felt it just lacked pace and depth. I needed to know so much more about the grand jeu, and there were times when the plot felt a little stagnant and I really had to push to keep going.

I cannot leave a review without mentioning the stunning cover artwork. This book will look beautiful on many a bookshelf.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read this unusual book.

This is a difficult one to review – it was very much a book of two halves for me. If I hadn't read and loved The Binding (in fact it is one of my favourites of the past few years) I would probably have abandoned The Betrayals before the halfway point. I was confused by what the 'game' was, didn't find the characters particularly likeable and felt a bit lost and bewildered by the plot. However, Collins' prose is beautiful so I stuck with it, and ultimately was glad that I did as the end of the book was gripping, touching and redeemed the story for me.
I will look forward to reading Bridget Collins' next story; she is an extremely talented writer. Thanks to NetGalley and The Borough Press for this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed Bridget's style of writing. I think it's imaginative and creative, but i had a hard time in feeling immersed by the book. I struggled connecting to the characters and to the story itself, i found myself confused most of the time.

One of my top reads of the year! I loved it. The 'Grand Jeu' is never explained but I didn't mind that. It left me room to imagine it myself. The central love story is so well done. Dark and sexy.

Don’t get me wrong, I like puzzles. Some of my favorite books are ones that feel like unraveling a knot or solving a Rubix cube. But this book felt like a puzzle where you put the pieces together, in the order they should go, and everything fits nicely except the picture it creates is utterly, infuriatingly incomprehensible.

I adored Bridget Collins’ novel the Binding, and this novel did not lack its predecessors deep emotion and breathtaking prose. What it did lack is a comprehensible plot, a remotely likable “main” protagonist, and a central concept that was explained in any detail whatsoever. It follows several different protagonists, the foremost of which is former government official Léo who has returned to the school (college? undergraduate institution? seminary?) of his youth to hide out from those who wish him ill and study the deeply opaque and frequently referenced “grand jeu”

I know this concept is supposed to vague. Is, perhaps, the whole point of the book itself. But reading this novel and having this insubstantial concept be the central driving force behind everything without even a WHISPER of explanation felt like beating my head against a wall. Is it song? Is it scripture? Is it writing, is it art? Yes, says the novel, in response. Yes it is. But it does not deign to explain further than that.

Furthermore, Léo himself was just terminally unlikeable. He spends most of his school years being terrible to an isolated youth, and most of his adult life moping around and thinking about how women are inferior. I was blown away by the difference in my feelings around this book versus the Binding, which was easily one of my favorite books of last year. If not for Collins’ gorgeously atmospheric prose and singular voice I would not think it was the same author.

The prose truly is the saving grace of this book for me and the reason it sits at 2 stars instead of 1 is Collins’ STUNNING verse. I draw your attention to this line in particular—“Wide darkness, darks of sky and trees, white-in-dark of snow and slope. And against it all two patches of gold, mid-air, flickering as the flakes thicken. Uncanny. Nothing here is the same as in my dream and yet it is, whatever story my brain was telling me, it’s this.”

Absolutely vivid and stunning. This is what sustained me through the end of the novel, no matter how frustrated I became. While I have a lot of issues with the story itself, I cannot deny that Collins is a fabulous wordsmith, and while this novel was a disappointment I will likely still pick up anything she writes in the future.

Firstly, I should say that The Betrayals is a phenomenal book. It opens up a whole new world to the reader. It brought to mind the type of society that I imagine we would have had under National Socialism: men in charge and better educated than women, women expected to know their place, only state sanctioned religion permitted, and those of other religions or schools of thought are ‘disappeared’. I really would have liked to have read more about this outside world, but I don’t feel short changed at only having read about what happens within the confines of Montverre. It is strange actually, that such a major part of Montverre, the grand jeu, is never explicitly talked about. We get the impression as a reader that it’s a performance consisting of maths, music, philosophy and state sanctioned religion. It’s held in extremely high regard: studying it is a sure fire open door to a position of power afterwards.

So what IS The Betrayals about? Well, betrayal, actually. Everyone is backstabbing and lying to everyone else in this book, and they’re lucky if they live to regret it. It’s the cloistered version of Dallas (with less sex)! I loved it. This was a hard book to put down, and one I steamed through far too quickly. This ticks a lot of boxes for me: historical fantasy (double whammy straight away), a mystery to solve, dystopian and a smattering of magical realism. I’m glad it looks like a book that could have a sequel - even if it never as one. It leaves the reader able to make up their own next moves (yes, I do that).

Huge thanks to the publisher for providing me with a NetGalley copy of this book - it was one of my reading highlights of 2020.

* Thanks to Netgalley and The Borough Press / Harper Collins for the ARC

The Betrayals can be summed up as captivating and magical. The novel centres around an abstract concept of the grand jeu - an ancient game and mysterious concept encompassing elements like music, performance, religion, language and history. I loved that its meaning is never explicitly told to you, so this ambiguity allows you as the reader to imagine, interpret and be metaphorical in your approach to what it actually is.

We flit from the perspective of The Rat, Magister Ludi (Claire, the only female professor in what is a male-dominated field), present-day Léo Martin (a disgraced politician sent to Montverre as a form of exile) and finally Léo's diary from when he was a student there. There is an excellent balance and unfolding of the plot from these alternative perspectives, and the language itself is so beautifully descriptive and enchanting you almost feel like you're there. Whilst set at Montverre, an exclusive academy and male-only educational institute, the predominant focus is not the students but rather the teachers that work there. The intricacies of characters' relationships are woven together in ways you might not see coming. The novel really challenges the ideas of trust, ego, love, patience and character depth and it allows a great exploration of the human psyche that ruminates in my mind long after the final pages.

There is a fantastical and atmospheric approach, with the history of the characters being elusive until the latter stages of the book. There's a darker look at purity laws, autocratic rule and gender roles which add a sense of imminent danger to secondary characters like the students in Claire's classes. There is also a deep look into the theme of mental health with threads on grief, bullying and suicide amongst others, and they were handled crucially and delicately in ways that made my heart ache.

Ultimately this is a book of mystery, with a sub-arc looking at elitism and the suffering of a society that isn't wealthy, Catholics or men. The fantastical elements really reminded me of Carry On and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in that it's introducing a newer concept, but if you enjoy both of those series you'll be enchanted by this one. I haven't read Collins' The Binding yet but I am eager to do so now.

I loved "The Binding" so was really looking forward to Bridget Collins' second novel for adults, "The Betrayals". I had to abandon my first attempt at reading because I just couldn't follow the bizarre story. I made it to the end on the second attempt but still feel that the majority of the plot either went over my head or was too abstract in the first place. I *think* it's about religious persecution, sexism, art, friendship and love. I still have no idea what a grand jeu is or what the situation is with The Rat. Unfortunately "The Betrayals" wasn't for me.

I get what all the fuss is about now!

This was my first Bridget Collins, despite The Binding waiting for me on my bookshelf, and what an introduction to an author!

It never ceases to amaze me that someone can create a whole other world from their imagination, and this is the perfect example - a world in which Christians are persecuted, and young men are sent to an exclusive academy to learn the ‘grand jeu’, a game which even now I struggle to wrap my head around!

Although I did struggle to fully comprehend the game itself, the core elements of this story are all too familiar - the persecution of people for their beliefs, relationships which grow from hate to love, competition, envy, betrayal, false identities...it’s amazing how much Collins can weave into one captivating tale.

The characters of Léo, former student and politician, and Claire, the first woman to serve in the highest office of Magister Ludi, are nuanced and balance each other perfectly, but it was the character of The Rat which really intrigued me - despite having the smallest part in the story, it was clear that she came from tragedy and would quite probably be key to the way the story pans out.

I was absolutely gobsmacked by the big reveal towards the end, and finished the story feeling satisfied but strangely bereft that Montverre and its characters would no longer be a part of my day - this is a beautifully written, smart and captivating story and I cannot wait to see what Collins does next!

Very poetic and beautifully descriptive, The Betrayals is quite slow moving. Disgraced ex-minister for Culture Léo is forced to return to his old boarding school, in a remote location in an unnamed country. There he resumes his study of the Grand Jeu, an arcane game whose rules are never explained, and meets the Magister Ludo, Claire.

Told in a combination of present day story, diary entries from Léo's original time at Montverre and interludes of mysterious narrator called The Rat, the writing is totally engaging and the world building excellent, if somewhat vague.

I liked this, and it was a dreamy escapist read, but at times the vagueness of the whole game irritated me somewhat. It veered towards pretentious, occasionally, but the relationship between Léo and Claire did intrigue me a lot.