'Darkly': Grist for the gamers' mill

Darkly ***
Marisha Pessl
Walker Books 

My hands are bound behind my back. I'm tied to some kind of chair.

A Darkly game is warred and won in the mind before the box is even ripped from the plastic. Louisiana Veda said that somewhere. 

Except now I don't want to win. I want to live. 

The above extract of Marisha Pessl's YA thriller, Darkly, is a succinct summary of what to expect. 

Dear reader, this isn't as much a “beware” as it is “brace yourself for 407 pages of our protagonist, Arcadia 'Dia' Gannon and a cast of teen characters whose names reads like something out of a Hunger Games novel as they get embroiled in an IRL version of board games, created by the enigmatic and now-dead Louisiana Veda's series of 'Darkly' board games which enjoy a cult following”. 

If (as in my case) you struggle understanding the rules of Settlers of Catan, Pessl's novel will potentially leave you as confused as a 21st century neo-Luddite's introduction to Excel. A “strictly for the fans of board games consisting of witches, unnerving librarians, ghostly hounds and Knights Templar-esque antagonists come-to-life” disclaimer should appear on the beautifully crafted cover.

Dia, described by herself as “the girl who runs an antique shop ... My best friends in the world are Basil Stepanov and Agatha Sweeney, both over 75, with cataracts. My ideal wardrobe consists of cloche hats and box-pleated skirts”, applies for an internship à la the Louisiana Veda Foundation calling on high-school students worldwide to participate in an inaugural summer internship program. Very little is divulged of the nature of said internship, but Dia — being the diehard Darkly fan that she is — applies. The success of the candidates depends on the following ominously worded question: “What would you kill for?” 

And et voilà — this unusual teen from small-town Missouri is off to the UK, alongside Poe Valois III, Franz-Luc Hoffbinhauer, Cooper Min, Torin Kelly, Everleigh Arradóttir, and Mouse Bonetti. It's fairly clear that there's something rotten in the state of Darkly-mark when the adolescent septet aren't taxied to a residence in Central London within walking distance to the foundation's HQ but to a desolate island: “The fog thinning around it as if in deference, turning its dark face toward us, as if sensing intruders — the Darkly factory.”

It's at this intricately designed destination where the stupefied seven are tasked with solving the mystery of 15-year-old George Greenfell, a “smiling boy with blond hair and freckles”, who overnight vanished from his bed. The award of one million pounds and exclusive ownership of an original Darkly of their choosing isn't nearly as intriguing to Dia as the revelation that a copy of an original, unreleased Darkly game called Valkyrie was stolen from the factory's vault at Darkly's 15th anniversary party.

Enter a plot where Dia et al. are subjected to the perils of the factory, unravelling mysteries surrounding Louisiana's life and death, attempts to uncover the truth about George's disappearance, deceit, secrets, puzzles, lies, distrust and many, many in-person Darkly games while racing against a clock (natch). 

Think Jumanji-meets-teen-thriller as Pessl takes the reader on a befuddling labyrinthine narrative journey where even Theseus might not have been able to reign victorious. Strictly for the board game boys and girlies in our midst, an extra star is awarded for a plot reveal as the novel draws to its conclusion. 

A win on Pessl's front for writing a novel which gamers will glory in, yet left this noob thinking “game over” from the get-go.