The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (2020) – Book One of Three

This book somehow made it onto the short list of our Cousins Book Club this year, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I’m glad I read it apart from my kids, because it’s another woke Trojan Horse and one I don’t want them reading.

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Brief Summary of The Inheritance Games

The story opens with Avery Grambs, a hard-working albeit homeless high schooler whose excellent grades make her school administration suspicious—though such opening scenes of her acing an exam have no bearing on the story and we never hear about her wits again. Avery is good friends with her sister Libby (who lives with her abusive boyfriend) and a girl named Max whom we only met via text and who fake-cusses every time she speaks. It’s annoying.

One day at school, Avery meets an unexpected visitor and gets whisked away to a will-reading of a dead billionaire who leaves nearly all his $42 billion to this unknown girl. The initial mystery is: Why her and not the man’s daughter or grandsons? The further mystery is: What secrets does this dead grandfather hope to reveal about his family?

I hated this sappy high-school romance so much that I don’t care about spoiling it—the lynchpin to the mystery is a secret lesbian romance that led to another girl’s death. I waited through to the end for that fetid nugget. Color me disappointed.

I’m Not the Intended Audience

Of course, I understand that this series wasn’t written to please a 43-year-old Christian dad. Barnes likely had teenage girls in mind for this bisexual Twilight series without vampires, but she’s got other readers to contend with too (namely parents), and we’ve got a voice. Thankfully I read it before my kids had a chance, and also thankfully, I’ve got an audience to steer as well.

Totally Lacking in Real Mystery or Thrills

This book sells itself as a puzzle thriller with “mysteries upon mysteries and riddles within riddles”, but it doesn’t engage the reader. There are no puzzles to solve or riddles to unravel (apart from the “1018” which is already revealed on the cover), and there’s no way the reader could possibly try to figure things out on her own, making any surprise or twist head-scratching rather than thrilling.

Here’s a case in point. The key, most important character in the mystery is the lesbian sister of the dead girl, about whom we hear nothing until the book is nearly finished.

Here’s another: Avery was selected at random simply because of her birthday. Now books 2-5 might reverse that information, but I don’t care. The only intriguing bits were those two mysteries mentioned above, and neither gets answered with any degree of satisfaction. The author strung me along to think her identity actually mattered, but no. Random homeless girl gets $42 billion because a grandfather wanted to tell his grandsons that he knew their secret, which itself wasn’t even that big of a secret. Terrible plotting.

A Word on Woke Vehicles

Puzzle books are great, which is why The 39 Clues was such a hit. But if Barnes is trying to ride that popular publication train, only with a series made for teenagers, she even fails in this. It’s not simply her poor plotting but also her attempts to be crass and edgy, as if that’s what turns a book for kids into a book for teens.

The Inheritance Games includes multiple instances of totally pointless underage drinking. The language is borderline PG-13. There’s Libby’s inability to tear herself from an abusive relationship (until the boyfriend is arrested for attempted murder, apparently). There are even references to teenage sexting, which makes Max angry that her parents would ground her by taking away her phone, but not at all remorseful for treating her own body so dishonorably.

Beyond all this, which adds nothing to the plot, there’s the totally unnecessary “Progressive” inclusion of bisexuality and lesbianism, yet another voice screaming the minority message that such aberrations are to be celebrated as normal or even sacred. I’m sick of it. I get enough of this crap in the news and entertainment. I don’t need it in my kids’ library books too.

Conclusion

Call me intolerant, I don’t care. I speak for the silent majority that’s tired of having this trash forced into our kids spongy, pliable minds from all directions. It’s come to the point where we can’t even hand them a well-praised book without having to screen it first ourselves. I don’t have the time or energy for it.

Looks like it’s time to stick to the classics (in this case, “classics” means anything pre-Woke, so 2016 or earlier) or to Christian publishers only. I’m done trying new things and expecting different results.

©2026 E.T.

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