The Assassin Game

Please tell me y'all remember that game everyone (everyone but me--boo) in high school, The Assassin (that's what we called it, but apparently there's other names: Killer, Gotcha, Battle Royal). Where you were assigned a "target" to "assassin" with a water pistol (again, that's just what my school used), but you had to be careful, because while you were off "killing" someone, someone was off "killing you". The last person/team alive after all of the different rounds won.

Except this one (version of the game in this book: "The Assassin Game" by Kirsty McKay) is set at an old/creepy boarding school on a middle-of-nowhere island off the Welsh coast (did I mention that the school used to be an insane asylum?).

["Who will be left after lights out?
Tag, you’re it…
It’s 4:00 a.m. when they come for me. I am already awake, strung out on the fear that they will come, and the fear that they won’t. When I finally hear the click of the latch on the dormitory door, I have only a second to brace myself before—

At Cate's isolated boarding school, Killer is more than a game—it’s an elite secret society. Members must avoid being “Killed” during a series of thrilling pranks, and only the Game Master knows who the “Killer” is. When Cate’s finally invited to join the Assassins’ Guild, she know it’s her ticket to finally feeling like she belongs.

But when the game becomes all too real, the school threatens to shut it down. Cate will do anything to keep playing and save the Guild. But can she find the real assassin before she’s the next target?"]

I made the mistake (yes again, sue me) of starting the book before going to bed (stayed up a little too late and made it halfway through the book before I told myself I had to go to sleep, even thought I was a little on edge about...everything). At least I went to bed when I did, because it only got scarier. 

I literally fell for every. single. one of the red herrings (all of them--and there were a fuck ton), so I didn't correctly guess the Killer (the real one or the game one). Can you do better?

Trigger Warnings: stalking, blackmail, misuse of power, hazing, psychological warfare, murder, poisoning, violence, attempted assault

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