Publishers Weekly
★ 05/06/2024
Former attorney Copeland stuns with this audacious debut thriller about the extremes to which some people will go to protect the ones they love. In 2019, Stella Parker is dissatisfied with the life she’s built for herself in the D.C. suburbs, having traded her law career for marriage and motherhood. Her ennui turns to terror after her neighbor, Gwen, drops her phone in Stella’s driveway while limping down the block one evening. When Stella picks it up, she sees messages suggesting Gwen may know one of her long-buried secrets. In a parallel story line set in 1987, high schooler Julie Waits hopes that making the cheerleading squad will provide a distraction from her mother’s string of abusive relationships and the chaos that ensues whenever she decides to end them. Gradually, Copeland teases out the connections between Stella and Julie and unveils the grisly truth about Julie’s mother. With expertly timed reveals and plenty of thorny insights into the causes and consequences of gender-based violence, this first-rate suspense novel thrills and provokes in equal measure. It’s a must-read. Agent: Christopher Schelling, Selectric Artists. (July)
From the Publisher
"A rager of a psychological mystery about toxic men, murderous women and the art of constructing fake realities… as audacious as it is intricately plotted." — New York Times
"With expertly timed reveals and plenty of thorny insights into the causes and consequences of gender-based violence, this first-rate suspense novel thrills and provokes in equal measure. It’s a must-read." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A riveting and suspenseful debut. Copeland’s contemporary take on the balance of power in relationships, and the desire for control, is not to be missed.” — New York Times and #1 International Bestselling author, Karin Slaughter
"With elaborate plotting, richly drawn characters, and razor-sharp social commentary with a fresh take on the perils of being a woman, Our Kind of Game is a wholly engrossing, and darkly mesmerizing suspense! I couldn't put it down!" — May Cobb, author of A Likeable Woman
“If the brains behind Ginny & Georgia and The Feminine Mystique had a baby, she would look a whole lot like Johanna Copeland's Our Kind of Game. Copeland explores the many ways marriage, motherhood, and generational trauma shape women via a wild vigilante fantasy that will keep readers guessing until the incredible, jaw-dropping end.” — Colleen McKeegan, author of The Wild One
"Johanna Copeland’s Our Kind of Game is at the same time a dark, compelling thriller and a nuanced examination of the roots of female rage. Stella Parker’s life may look perfect from the outside, but Copeland deftly reveals the hollowness of suburban privilege even as Stella faces how far she might have to go to save her family. Most of all, this novel is a daring and perceptive look at motherhood and caregiving: its anxiety, its loneliness, and its fierce and savage strength." — Polly Stewart, author of The Good Ones
"Our Kind of Game is a twisted romp through the perils and pleasures of privilege. From the confines of a defanged suburbia, Stella Parker starts to see cracks in her lacquered life, hints of the childhood she outran. Getting to safety this time may require blowing the whole thing up. Because when the past comes calling, it isn't always neighborly." — Jenny Milchman, USA Today bestselling author of Cover of Snow and The Usual Silence
