The book alludes to and explores a variety of mental health. The sense of loss of a loved one and the grief left behind, deteriorating mental health, the impact and consequence of bullying and subsequent suicide. All of these points in the overarching theme were handled and established extremely well, where when appropriate and provoked enough, had my heart heavy and my blood boiling. My main criticism however is with the character reveal of Carfax (and hence why this review is marked 'spoiler'). Throughout the book we are told two things about Carfax: So yeah – I’ll leave it at that for now! If you’ve read this book, do share your thoughts with me down in the comments! Even if you hated it, I would love to know! Where do you disagree with me? Where do you agree?

This book inspired by “The Glass Bead Game” by Hermann Hesse so maybe I can enjoy this book if I already read that book, but since I haven’t read it.. the concept about “Grand Jeu’ felt so murky! These are the times that scare her the most, the beginnings and endings: this is when the world is most unpredictable.” The Betrayals is a book that sneaks up on you. The first couple of chapters, you will probably be hopelessly confused as to what is going on, who these characters are, and when the events that are being narrated are taking place. In fact, after having read the entire book, I still can’t tell you exactly where and when this is set, although I do have my suspicions. In a way, it’s kind of like a short story: There is a lot hidden beneath that tip of the iceberg, numerous questions that will forever go unanswered. All you plot-driven readers who detest open endings and need explanations for everything – this book is not for you. You’d probably end up hating it with a passion, if you even managed to get through it without boring yourself into DNFing it 😅 The Betrayals, I think, did a marvelous job portraying a country that was sliding into fascism while its people looked the other way, bathing in the glory of their national identity and accomplishments – symbolized here by the grand jeu.Format I Read It In: Audiobook [Which I would highly recommend! I loved the narrators! And plus, it’s freely available if you have Scribd 😉 ] This was the slowest book I've ever read. I would have DNF'd it if it wasn't an ARC, and if people hadn't spoken so highly of The Binding before this. It was painfully boring often, the pretentiously vague tone throughout was stifling, and with no great payoff at the end to cushion the blow. I guessed the big ~twist. Miscommunication was a heavily-used trope. Mental illness is used as a central, yet somehow very dismissed, plot point. I will say that occasionally it grabbed my attention, just enough to keep me going, but there were about three different points where I strongly felt as though the story should be wrapping up - the first of these being before the halfway mark. and looking at the four main character POVs, there was truly only one whose chapters i was actively looking forward to reading. the other three are either seemingly unnecessary or just uninteresting. So we have a school that teaches its students how to play some kind of game, we have two characters at the school… and honestly that’s about as clear as it gets. Everything in this book is so vague it feels like a sketch rather than a novel. We never find out exactly what the grand jeu is – and seeing that this is a major part of the story this seems like a mind-boggling decision.

Read! Read everything you can. And then try to write the book you want to read and can’t find on the shelves. This is your second adult novel after seven young-adult novels. What brought about the switch in writing for different age groups? 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?

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I had a bit of a theory while reading this that came mostly true, and I'd like to include it here So, it's from my BR thread: 55%

All this vagueness creates a sense of detachment between the reader and the characters. I found it impossible to care about Léo and Claire when there was so much ambiguity surrounding everything else. The focus is mostly on their relationship but there’s nothing compelling about it seeing as neither of them are particularly likeable. So why am I giving it 3 stars? Because there's one thing that I was hoping it was going to happen since the very beginning and it actually did happen! There were moments where I was about to lose hope and I was thinking that maybe my crazy theories had gotten the better of me, so I was so happy to read that I was right to believe in this theory. The magic system in The Betrayals is utterly believable without ever being fully revealed to the reader. Bridget Collins has a way of throwing readers into the deep end when it comes to world building. She leaves her readers to piece things together for themselves, and it’s a sink-or-swim approach that really works for me. Somehow, having to figure things out and fill in the gaps in my knowledge with a combination of guesswork and blind faith makes the world feel far more tangible to me than it would if everything had been neatly explained.

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In The Betrayals, we are presented with a magic system called “The Grand Jeu”, which is something of an enigma wrapped in a (beautifully written) mystery. It seems to involve maths, music and philosophy and to be perfectly honest, even after finishing the novel I’m not entirely clear on the finer points – but it really doesn’t matter. Bridget Collins made me believe in the mysterious art of The Grand Jeu and the book is all the richer for it.