Bibliographic Information

Title: The Inheritance Games

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers  

Copyright Date: September 1, 2020 

ISBN: 978-1368052405

Genre

Mystery

Format

Book

Print Length

384 pages

Reading Level/Interest Level

Grades 9-12 (per Booklist)

Awards or Honors Include

• Nominee, Edgar Award for Young Adult (2021)
• Selection, YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults (2021)

Plot Summary

“He left you the fortune, Avery, and all he left us is you.” (p. 81, Kindle edition)

17-year-old Avery Grambs’ mother has died, her father has never been in the picture, and her home life is a mess with half-sister Libby and Libby’s low-life boyfriend Derek. Just as she’s scraping through her senior year of high school and trying to figure out her future, she’s told she has inherited a massive estate from eccentric billionaire Tobias Hawthorne – a man she’s never met. The only catch? She has to live for one year at Tobias’ sprawling mansion with the Hawthorne family – Tobias’ surviving daughters and grandsons – who are all outraged at being disinherited and want to know why Avery was given the estate. But Avery doesn’t even know, and as she tries to solve the mystery of what she’s doing at Hawthorne House, she also has to watch her back since it’s clear someone is trying to kill her. Will she make it a year at the House and inherit the estate? Why did Tobias choose her? And what other secrets are the other Hawthorns hiding?

Content warnings for domestic abuse, underage drinking, grief, trauma, and murder.

Author Background

Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ impressive educational background includes “advanced degrees in psychology, psychiatry, and cognitive science, including graduate degrees from Cambridge University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, and Yale University, where she received her Ph.D. in 2012” (Jennifer Lynn Barnes, n.d.). She excels as a Young Adult author in the mystery/thriller genre with over a dozen published books, many of them earning industry recognition and awards; The Inheritance Games also reached the New York Times Best Seller list. She currently lives in Tulsa, where she was born, and serves as an Associate Professor of both Psychology and Professional Writing at the University of Oklahoma (Jennifer Lynn Barnes, 2024).

Critical Evaluation

The Inheritance Games feels like a Knives Out for teenagers. The characters each occupy a specific lane of personality types – Avery is bright and edgy, Libby is the tender goth, Grayson is cool and calculating, Jameson is the tortured poet, and so on. Though none are particularly complex, they are distinct, and the ensemble makes for some enjoyable dynamics. The central mystery of Avery’s inheritance and the clues and puzzles left behind by Tobias act like breadcrumbs through a larger story about the family’s secrets and specific heartaches. The story sometimes suffers from repetition and stunted progress in the plot, but the book is a quick read with enough “aha” moments to keep interest and a promise of more puzzles and mystery in the future.

Creative Use for a Library Program

Tobias’ grandson Xander frequently says about himself: “I am a human Rube Goldberg machine. I do simple things in complicated ways” (p. 309, Kindle edition). A library could run a program for teens teaching the history of Rube Goldberg machines and how to build one themselves.

Speed-Round Talk

Avery Grambs has just inherited a multi-billion dollar estate from Tobias Hawthorne, a man’s she’s never met. If she can live with his family in their sprawling mansion for one year, the money is hers. But first she’ll need to solve the mystery of why he chose her, and stay alive in a house full of people who want her gone.

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation

There is some light innuendo in the book, but little to no language or sexual content, and though underage drinking is mentioned, it’s not explored. I would not anticipate a coordinated challenge to this book based on its content.

Reason for Inclusion

Mystery books are quite popular with teens, perhaps because “while adult mystery novels usually have detectives at work at solving mysteries, in teen novels it is often an average teen with an inquisitive nature–someone who is a true amateur” (YALSA, 2014). The Inheritance Games series in particular has been quite popular since this first book released and feels like a reasonable addition to a contemporary collection for teens.

Check out all the books in The Inheritance Games saga: