Book 1 in the Wicked Games series Reviewed by CJ | Rating: 3.75/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 📖
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Phantasma yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
OPENING HOOK
A gothic manor that teleports to new locations to host a death game run by demons, a necromancer looking for her runaway sister, and a phantom love interest with amnesia hiding a MASSIVE secret. Phantasma throws a lot at you, but the surprising part is that it works.
THE FULL STORY — SPOILERS INCLUDED
We start with Ophelia Grim having just inherited her family’s necromancer powers upon her mother’s death. On top of grieving, she finds out that the family home is under a debt she didn’t know existed, just as her younger sister Vivi (Genevieve) runs away. Ophelia tracks her to Phantasma, a traveling, roaming gothic manor that pops up in different locations and runs a life-and-death style competition. Mind games, hauntings, sabotage among competitors, and all of it run by devils and demons. The winner gets a favor, but people die in this thing on a very regular basis so the stakes are as high as they can get.
Ophelia goes in looking for Vivi and immediately teams up with Blackwell, a phantom she’s not sure she can trust but ends up allying with anyway. The setup is that players have to clear a few levels before the different groups get combined, so Ophelia’s whole early game is just trying to survive long enough to get to a place where her sister might be. But it’s not just environmental hauntings keeping everyone up at night, it’s player-on-player sabotage, because taking out your competition is a legitimate strategy.
Throughout the grueling competition rounds, a fellow contestent named Cade is going above and beyond to make her life miserable. That dickhead spends a good chunk of the book trying to outright torture and kill Ophelia, and it’s so very satisfying when he gets what’s coming.
The twist I did NOT see coming: Salemaestrus and Blackwell are the same person. His memory resetting every time Phantasma relocates was such a clever way to hide that — I didn’t put that together until embarassingly late in the game, but once you do, it recontextualizes every scene between he and Ophelia.
BEST PART OF THIS BOOK
The Blackwell/Salemaestrus reveal. The memory-loss being the actual reason you can’t see it coming is such a smart structural choice because it’s not just a twist for shock value, it’s fundamental to how his character works throughout the book.
Also, the narrator. I love Laura Horowitz and I think she was perfect for this series (that’s right, she narrates book two as well!). I bounced back and for the between three formats on this one – the paperback when I was able to sit with it, audiobook when I was working on easy tasks that allowed me to listen, and ebook when I only had a few minutes here and there.
WORST PART OF THIS BOOK
I had some genuine confusion at points trying to track what was going on with the trials and rules of Phantasma itself, but that said, it felt purposeful. You’ll figuring it out alongside Ophelia, who’s just as lost as you are, so it feels more intentional than sloppy plotting.
THE STEAM RATING BREAKDOWN
🔥🔥🔥🔥 Spicy.
- Yes, there’s on-page steam between Ophelia and Blackwell
- Romance is a real thread here but doesn’t overtake the survival/mystery plot
- Content warnings: on-page death, violence, sabotage/attempted murder between players, psychological warfare, mind control/altering, and more.
THE ENDING — SATISFIED OR DISAPPOINTED?
Satisfied, with the caveat that confusion was felt at times until things clicked. Once the Blackwell reveal lands, everything tightens up and it’s a good payoff.
THE CHARACTER WE LOVED TO HATE
Cade. A certified dickhead. Should’ve been stabbed way sooner than he was.
WOULD WE REREAD IT?
Maybe. No hard yes, but no hard no either. It was good, the characters were great, and I’m already half way through book two.
WHO IS THIS FOR
For girls who love a dark, gothic, high-stakes read with demons, devils, and determined women who fight for what they want.
WHERE TO GET THIS BOOK
📖 Physical Book Amazon | Bookshop.org
🎧 Audiobook (Narrator: Laura Horowitz) Audible | Libro.fm
📱 Ebook Amazon
🎁New to Audible? Get 3 months free (US)
🎁New to Libro.fm? Get 2 free audiobooks
📚 More from the Wicked Games series
- Book 1 — Phantasma | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 3.75/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
- Book 2 — Enchantra (Vivi’s story) — Coming Soon
Ready for more reviews from CJ? Find More Here
Plot Twisted. 🔥 📖 | Series: Wicked Games Book 1 | Genre: Dark Fantasy/Romantasy | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥