A family moves into a house that is surrounded by mystery. Even the neighbor boys who's dropped by says so. It's game night and one of the twins finds a board game in the basement. The twins and the neighbor start to play. The game isn't like their traditional board games. It sucks you in to complete a task. But will they survive to the end?

It was an okay story that had me thinking about Jumanji and Goosebumps a lot. Not a bad read, but also not a favorite.

I did not finish - I have tried reading this book on multiple occasions and just could not get into it.

How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley

Izzy is unhappy with her family's move to a new location. She's had to abandon her friends and her entire life, and for what? For the sake of her genius little brother who got a star scholarship at a gifted kids school. Izzy loves her brother, after all, they're twins - but at the moment, she can't stand the idea of him. That's because the move has made Izzy feel like she's unimportant, 'the dumb twin' and also totally alone. That's a hard thing to handle, when you're twelve.

Izzy's real problem isn't 'being dumb', though. She's smart enough - what gets in the way of her using the smarts is her quick temper and inability to manage her anger. This comes up quite a lot as the story progresses and the kids get into this Jumanji-style board game with real life pirate battleships and whatnot. The story involves the kids getting sucked into the game and facing dangerous tasks, so it's quite a lot like Jumanji (even to the point that (view spoiler)) But the story is fun to read, and it supports the drama between the main characters. It was a fun, quick read.

About the characters themselves, I enjoyed the story, but I found the 'smart kid', Izzy's brother Noah a little far-fetched and annoying. He's 12, but he talks like he's some ancient wizard in an RPG game, talking pompously and using antiquated words and whatnot. I could practically see his white beard! It's kind of a silly 'smart kid' stereotype. You can be sciencey without sounding weird an ancient. Kids who are into tech and science aren't like that, they're also often into games and youtubers and funny TikTok dances. They'd be the last people to talk like a 70 year old dude who won a Nobel prize in the 60's. I'd rather read about realistic kids than caricatures.

Izzy, on the other hand, comes off as a quite realistic kid, and her character struck me as believable. There is another important character in the story, but I will not go into detail about him because it is closely related to the plot details, and I don't want to spoil.

There was, however, one thing I was quite uncomfortable wih. I wasn't a fan of the kids trying to choke each other way more than I'd like to witness them do that. I mean, sure, kids can punch and kick and do many mean things when they fight, but WHY would you write about kids choking each other? MULTIPLE TIMES? I don't know any normal, functioning person who would seriously choke someone, because that's dangerous. Kids don't seriously do that, do they? (Cause if they do, then my belief in humanity may suffer a serious blow.) Choking is not for a kids book. Choking and strangling is dangerous and absolutely off limits. Have them fight and punch. Keep it soft. Keep your characters' hands off each other's throats!! Or do you want them to read the book and try to choke their little brother..??? (Am I being stupid about this?)

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

As a kid "Jumanji" was one of my favourite movies. It still is if I'm being honest. Reading a book that follows a similar premise like the movie, was a no-brainer for me. The overall idea was pretty good. I liked the idea of the different board games and the challenges. I'm afraid that's where my fascination with this book ends though. Unfortunately, I couldn't really make myself root for the characters at all. I found them inconsistent and unlikeable, mostly Izzy who changed her tone and opinion so rapidly that it gave me whiplash. Furthermore, the dialogues seemed clunky and strained to me which kept tripping me up while reading. I really wish I could have liked the book more, because the idea and the sibling relationship surely had a lot of potential but unfortunately, as it was, the book was not for me.

I want to thank BooksGoSocial for a copy of this book to read.

The Game With No Name is a fun and interesting story that can be enjoyed by kids and adults. It is like Jumanji with multiple board games. It is similar to the Goosebumps books series. It has interesting characters and a twist ending.

The Game with No Name is s middle grade fantasy novel by L.G. Cunningham.
It's an adventurous but spooky novel that is a milder version of Jumanji where the levels are actually board games, but instead of fun loving games we get games that could kill with pirates and hungry hippos.
Izzy and Noah's relationship is a typical sibling relationship with one child outshining the other, but I loved how the author proved that every child is unique and smart in their own way and that 'smart' doesn't always mean book smart.
I loved it, although you really need to make sure that your kid doesn't get creeped out by it because they may end up never playing a board game ever again just because of what happens. 😅
It's not "ghost scary" but if you're child has an overactive imagination, it might be too much to handle.
But for adults who are looking for something different and refreshing to read, this is it. Yes it is for children but it's still an interesting take on board games with an evil twist AND we even get a plot twist at the end that I didn't see coming....so yes at the end of it all I would highly recommend this and I wouldn't mind if there was a part two with different games involved.
🦄🦄🦄
Rated 9/10
Melina L.

This was such a cool book! Initially I was a bit disappointed that it seemed like it was just going to be another version of Jumanji but the board game aspect was brilliant; I found myself trying to figure out which games were represented on the board. With a good amount of creepiness and thrill and an excellent twist this is definitely a book I’ll be recommending. I just wish it were longer and involved more tasks!

Jumanji style book. The illustrations were fun to see. I agree with a previous reviewer about the nature of the characters and perhaps this could’ve used a little more editing, but I think that for young readers, it would be a fun series!

This book is so so much fun! Just great, and really what I needed. It’s really short, but jam packed with fun.

It is a twist on Jumanji (I say, having only watched the film....is there a book?!!), and it’s a really good one.

Wonderful! My thanks to Netgalley and Books Go Social for the copy

A great, fun book for children (and adults!) who are fans of Jumanji and board games.
A spooky, well written, humorous adventure which is hard to put down - Loved it!

dnf at 33%

It's the first day after the move in the new old house that needs a deep clean very badly, a friday night, which is traditionally game night. Since nobody knows where the box with the board games has gone, they give the weird thing they found in the basement a try.

We have two main characters, Isabelle who is annoyed because she'll have to be the new kid, and her twin brother whose name I already forgot. She calls him Einstein, and he's the resident boy genius, which means in this case that his phrasing is <i>very</i> stilted, he has no emotions and is constantly talking. I am a big Artemis Fowl fan and have no trouble with boy geniuses as protagonists in general, so I guess it has to be the book.

There's a third character, Walter, but he's even less than a real person than the other two, being constantly ignored by the writer. Who seems to be enjoying dialoge more than everything else, and uses so few descriptions you have to puzzle out quite a bit of what's going on.

This feels unedited, both by a professional editor and the author himself, like one of the first drafts of a novel that should have been left to sit for a while, and then edited, and then maybe published.

I am annoyed because I was so in the mood for a spoopy middlegrade novel. I am not mad about this being a Jumanji rip-off, as this was exactly the reason why I requested this title.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

I saw so much potential in Liam Cunningham’s work for engaging young readers and would love to put this book in the hands of middle grades students. Humor, adventure, and sparking dialogue punctuate the pages.

This is a very well written book that not only children will enjoy but young adults too, if you or your children are into scary histories I would totally recommend this to you.