What I liked about the book: the richness of the language and the complicated system of roles and reversals that kept me reading. What I disliked: literally everything else. The attempt at Holocaust imagery is absurd, the love story completely overshadows the setting and the threats, and the characters are completely forgettable and ordinary. The author is also a TERF and you can see it in the way that the final reveal is played out. Honestly want my money back.

The premise of this sounded like I book I would find ideal, but while I was intrigued, I was constantly frustrated, sometimes to the point of anger, at this book. The big plot reveal at the 80% mark made me literally get up from my chair and yell, it was so oddly placed and confusing. This book goes between a “present time” 1930s in an unnamed European country (meant to be France? Somewhere French-speaking? Somewhere where French culture was just copied and borrowed from?) and flashbacks to when the main character was attending the school, told with diary entries. I most looked forward to the diary entries, but I had to keep reminding myself that the narrator was 19-20 at the time of writing and not somewhere between 14 and 17, which is how I personally think the students seemed to act. The side plot with the Rat seemed like such a random addition that it almost felt out of place for most of the story. Also, maybe it’s because I hadn’t read the book this one is based on, but it was so frustrating to me how the Grand Jeu is never properly explained. I didn’t know it had something to do with music until like 20% in, but there’s also some kind of dance involved? Also math?? They say it’s meant to be worship, but they’re never clear on WHAT they are worshipping with the game. I’m good with a sense of mystery, but the whole time I had no grasp on this main piece of the plot.

My main issue, though, is the allusion to Holocaust-style religious prejudice, complete with having to have a symbol on your clothes to indicate you belong to a certain “other” religion — for the most part, this was Christianity. That subplot and its necessity makes NO sense to me and was uncomfortable, especially with it being set just a decade before WWII began (even though there is no confirmation that this story takes place in a universe where that war happens). I was here for the slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance, and the rest of the time I was left reeling about the plot points and character decisions.

I have hardly ever felt this conflicted about a book. I loved it, sometimes; I hated it, sometimes — and so I’ve averaged it out to three, because I truly don’t know what to think.

I remember loving The Binding. Sure, it was very slow-paced at times, and I found it hard to keep going; but the characters had me invested, I cared about the story and where it would go, and I wasn’t disappointed. The Betrayals has been a mixed bag. I certainly wasn’t expecting the twist; I wasn’t expecting it, and I didn’t love it.

The fact that Claire and Aimé were separate characters for so much of the book meant that I learned to dislike Claire for her shortcomings (though not as much as I disliked adult Léo, to be fair) and to love Aimé, or at least who I thought Aimé was, from Léo’s descriptions. I also couldn’t help but feel a little cheated, since the homosexual romance turned out to be no such thing at all. I keep thinking of that meme, name something that’s gay and homophobic at the same time…

Beyond that, the fact that Christians are the oppressed collective in an intensely vague worldbuilding that shared objectionable resemblances to deeply traumatizing historical events that affected other religious communities was also very iffy to me; perhaps if we ever learned what the Party was actually doing, or what Purity Laws truly stand for — but like I said, the worldbuilding is intensely vague. Perhaps focusing on Montverre and its inner, closed-off world — since that’s clearly what Collins wanted to write about, anyway — would’ve been more successful.

The whole time I felt like the book was building up to something, only to never really take me anywhere. I guess it betrayed me, too.

Honestly, if it weren't for my curiousity in what the Grand Jeu was and how to play it, I would have DNF'ed this book. The twist/surprise only really caught me because I had also spent the 300+ pages before it trying to piece together the game. And all of that was to ultimately never get a complete answer.

I do appreciate a slow paced book, but there are points where it is so slow that I put it down and didn't pick it up for a couple weeks. There are 4 different pov:
- The Rat: her point of view doesn't really matter until the end of the book though you did get to see her grow with it starting in her pov and ending in it.
-Léo (in the past. His journal from when he attended school): probably the pov where you see the most growth. It was typically the only pov I looked forward to because it actually built the story.
-Léo (present day): a man who is so self absorbed he can't see 2 inches past his nose

to realize he is being set up in a trap. I get there was a tragedy where it could have stopped his growth at the end of his journal and into present day him, but that being said, seeing him grow in the journal only to be so ignorant in present day was frustrating. He held records. Played this complex game that was worthy of an elite school (the one he attended). With all of this, I would hope that he would be smart enough to realize that him being forced into quitting his job and return to his old school to "rekindle his love of the Grand Jeu" isn't just that...

-Magister Ludi: One of the heads of the school Léo attended/was forced to return to. And don't forget that SHE must do it alone because SHE is a WOMAN and SHE is going to be the future of the Grand Jeu because women aren't allowed to play but SHE worked for it. Did I mention that the Magister Ludi is a woman? This pov gave me "written by a man" energy. It felt like there wasn't an understanding of being a woman actually, but every time this pov came up, it was overly emphasized.

I don't know if it should be called miscommunication, but that is about the closest thing to describe this whole background of the problem in the book. One character was purposely left in the dark by another. Another character took their understanding of Léo's journal and ran with it in a total opposite direction than the original meaning. It's a journal but in this character's mind, they could have been purposely misleading (like the purpose of a journal is for other people to read).

Before I got to the twist, I was weirded out by the fact Léo went from having feeling for Carfax to having feelings for Claire. After it is revealed she is Carfax, it makes sense, but it just wasn't something that sat right with me.

I know Bridget Collins has another book, and I've seen good reviews for it, but I don't have hopes for it and won't be picking it up any time soon after this book.

This book is just stunning. It has all of the dark academia vibes but it’s also an adult fiction piece. We follow the story of 3 different main characters: the Rat, Léo and Magister Ludi. The story takes place at a boarding school called Montverre where student train in this thing they call grand jeu. Martin Léo is banished by the Party to the school he used to go to 10 years prior where Magister Ludi teaches and where the Rat is hiding. With time we get to know what happened when Léo used to go to school and why Magister Ludi hates him so much. 

Léo made many mistakes in his life and he’s not… very likeable to me. He’s low key misogynistic – he believes that women are inferior to men, that their place is at home, not at school. We learn that the Party he is a part of is introducing those “Purity Laws” that are highly nationalistic and especially anti-Christian and anti-Communistic and everyone that defines them.. disappears. Léo is lucky, because even tho he went against what Party wanted of him “Old Man” (head of the Party, he’s only mentioned a few times) likes him, so he was banished. 

Magister Ludi, fist female Magister at Montverre as we learn later is also aware of what happened at school when Léo attended it and she knows more than anyone would expect. 

And this book has the biggest plot twist at the end that I’d never have expected. Now that I think about it, it was hinted here and there but I never expected THAT! 

I did not expect Claire (Magister Ludi) to not only be Carfrax’s sister but also the fact that it wasn’t the real Carfrax, who Léo fell in love in when they were at school but it was Claire. And while the real Carfrax did indeed commit suicide – the Carfrax that Léo knew, his love, Claire was alive.

 

I would love to give it 5 starts but to be honest.. I’ve missed something in it. Not sure why, it’s just the feeling I got.

This book sounded really intriguing and I had pretty high hopes for it. I loved Claire as a character,  it couldn’t care about Léo. He was just annoying;, but I also get that it fits the vibe of the setting, yet still .... Also, I found myself very underwhelmed by the actual plot. I was like: Is this it? At the end of the book I was still  confused about many things. It had so much potential, also with the concept of the grand jeu, which I really liked, but this book just fell short. 

While Collins' prose is as dazzling and intricate as ever, I will admit I did not love this book quite as much as The Binding. Keeping some bits of a story's magical realism to the imagination is a great device, but in the case of the book I became frustrated that the game around which everything hinged is never properly explained. I understand that is part of the appeal, part of the intention, but it made it difficult to be immersed in the book for me at least. I also struggled to really connect with the main character's arc - given the "party" was such a vague picture of any oppressive regime and his motivations within it never really became clear. Still, the plot and relationships were carefully and beautifully developed, and overall it was a stunning portrait of what it is to want something so desperately. 

This book is an absolute masterpiece! When I picked it up, I was uncertain, because though I loved her first adult novel, The Binding, I was worried that this one would be a little too complicated, and that I would abandon it before getting fully into it. It doesn’t help that the last two books I read this past week -both of which I had really been looking forward to- disappointed me, and I just needed something to stop me sliding into a slump. I can absolutely say The Betrayals did that and more! 

The book follows serval threads; The Rat, a shadowy figure living her life in hiding in the dark corners of Montverre, Léo Martin in the present, Claire Dryden in the present, and Léo’s journal from when he first attended Montverre ten years before the current events take place. All of these string together so beautifully, and actually the structure of the story made me think, by the end, of the grand jeu, the game the characters study and perform in their school. The book opens with a point of view from The Rat, and this was the perfect way to draw me into the world, because her narrative is immediate, simple; she is a young girl struggling to survive in a place she should not be, so she has become something that will slip beneath people’s notice: a rat. Despite this though, the Rat is intimately connected to Montverre, and through this unique perspective I was hooked. I enjoyed her chapters, and also really appreciated the fact that, apart from being just another perspective, her narrative thread was woven through that of the other characters, too. 

Then there are the alternations between Léo and Claire, and this strange world of the grand jeu. It took me a long time to even begin to understand what characters might be describing when talking about it. They mentioned music, maths, movement, and I honestly still don’t entirely understand, but I gather that it’s something performed, something that they often refer to as worship, and something that creates metaphors to view the world with. In an author’s note at the end of the book, Collins says that ‘The Betrayals was in part inspired by Hermann Hesse’s brilliant novel The Glass Bead Game (also known as Magister Ludi),’ which I have not read and know nothing about, so I might investigate and see if that brings more to light for me. But not understanding this central element of the story didn’t take away from my enjoyment, because the way Collins describes it throughout the novel is so full of life that I can picture it in the abstract. 

It’s hard to talk about this book without giving things away, because there are some achingly good twists in it. Essentially, though, the story follows Léo as he is banished to his old school Montverre after opposing a new bill being passed by his Party, which is currently moving the country towards a ‘pure’ society, eradicating religion and all foreign influence. At Montverre he meets Claire, who is the first and only woman ever to be appointed Magister, and though they have never met there is something familiar in their interactions, and they play a dance of power and information throughout. Despite the twists, the whole narrative has this great sense of inevitability in it, and the characters all feel as if they are spinning towards something inescapable. Collins is really skilled at creating this background tension, especially by using the contrast of past and present, so that even during scenes where the characters are full of joy, you can feel the next disaster looming. It makes for very emotional reading, and I loved the way it tugged at my heartstrings. 

What Collins also does very well is longing. Each character wants something, and in some cases it is one of the other characters, and it can be hard to write pining and mutual pining in a way that isn’t repetitive or overwhelming, and I think The Betrayals (and The Binding, for that matter) does it perfectly. There is a sense of longing even in the ending, which can also be hard to do, but I was happy with the way it was executed. The final pages left me wondering, and in some ways wanting to see more, but I was also satisfied with it. 

I’m so glad I decided to pick this up; I read it in just over a day and I’m sure I will be thinking of it for many more to come.