Will curiosity kill the Cat?
A shadowy “Game” played on the fringes of normal society where everyday people gamble for life-changing magical prizes and losers may pay the ultimate price – to 15 year old Cat, it sounds like a kooky pass-time for nerds and dorks who still live with their moms. Cat’s used to being on her own – her parents died when she was three and she’s grown up fending for herself both because of and despite her aunt’s “parenting” style – and she’s most comfortable on the fringes, observing and being invisible. But when a crazed, breathless businessman asks for her help hiding from some people chasing him through London’s Soho neighborhood, Cat’s curiosity is peaked. She follows the man and his pursuers to a dingy club where she meets four enigmatic people playing what looks like a card game using Tarot cards. Their cryptic conversation and invitation to play the Game leave Cat shaken, dubious, and just a little too curious.
Not long after that strange meeting, Cat discovers an invitation in her coat pocket and almost unwittingly finds herself steered towards a glamorous house full of partygoers, revelers and merrymakers. It’s clear from the opulent setting that this Game is more than mere gambling for money, but it’s nearly impossible for Cat to make sense of what’s going on. Reluctantly she accepts information and advice from two other teens who’ve been invited into the game for reasons of their own. But Cat remains wary of the lure of the Game and the people whose eyes light up with the fever of play; until that is Cat discovers inside the Game a terrible, painful secret about her past and her parents’ deaths. Now she’s determined to team up with 3 other teen “chancers” to change the balance of power in the Game and win the right to learn the truth about her past and bring justice for her parents’ deaths.
British Author Laura Powell’s The Game of Triumphs is an intricately detailed mystery set in a shadowy world just off the edge of our own. The dark streets of London pulse with danger and the world of the Game is dizzying in its strange, supernatural power. Powell takes pains to make the reader feel as confused as Cat about the cards, plays, triumphs, and deceptions in the Tarot deck and the Game itself. At times, I felt a bafflement reminiscent of Frank Portman’s 2009 Andromedia Klein, but eventually there came a point of accepting the confusion because the action picked up and the stakes were raised to the point of breathlessness. Cat is a somewhat caustic, rough about the edges teen, but Powell skillfully shows that under her outer crust, Cat’s relatable, flawed, and trying really hard to cover up the pain and loneliness in her life. The Game of Triumph’s sequel, The Master of Misrule, is already out in the UK, but for those of us who’ve just entered the pulse-pounding, magical Game, the wait will, unfortunately, be too long.
- Posted by Cori