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Thursday, 22 May 2025

Tag, You’re Dead


Tag, You’re Dead
by Kathryn Foxfield (Scholastic), RRP $19.99 Young Adult ISBN 9-781761-642326

Reviewed by Susan Hancy

One hundred teenage competitors in a virtual reality game of tag have taken to the streets of London after dark, vying for £100,000 and the coveted honour of joining the inner circle of the game master – social media superstar and multi-millionaire, Anton Fraser. Fans of his games adore him, but Anton hasn’t been seen in public for over a year. He went underground after the suspicious death of his beautiful accomplice Rose at one of his alcohol and drug-fuelled house parties. Now he’s back on the social media scene and this game of tag has been hyped as his relaunch. Unbeknownst to him, three of the competitors he’s allowed into the game – Erin, Charlotte and Grayson – are playing for more than just the money and a prospective job. But when the ghost of Rose takes control of the game, they’re all playing for their lives.

Told in sequence from the points of view of Erin, Charlotte and Grayson, Tag, You’re Dead had me hooked from the start. It’s a classic whodunit thriller/mystery meets The Hunger Games set in the world of online gaming. Ultimately, as the reader we want to find out who killed Rose. Was it her pathetic ex-boyfriend, Grayson, who is still obsessing over her after having been dumped for Anton months ago? But Grayson has no connection to Anton and had certainly never been invited to Anton’s house nor one of his parties.

Was it Charlotte, the younger stepsister of one of Anton’s remaining accomplices? Charlotte is an online blogger who fantasizes about being Anton’s girlfriend and she hated Rose with a passion. She was at the party that fateful night and when Anton passed out drunk on her shoulder, she willingly provided him with an alibi, even though she couldn’t account for him at the time of the murder.

Or was it Erin, the online influencer who’s desperate for the prize money to be able to break free of her possessive, gambling-addicted mother? Nude photos of Erin that she’d sold to pay her mother’s debts had made their way into Rose’s possession and the two had argued shortly before Rose’s death. Or was Rose’s murderer one of the remaining inner-circle accomplices of Anton who have been helping him run the tag competition and have been equally blindsided by the ghost of Rose?

Overall, the narrative from the three points of view keeps the story face-paced and exciting. Often the point of view switch happens mid-action scene, and occasionally I had to re-read parts to remember who was doing what. But the character motivations are well setup and the plot kept me guessing to the end. I highly recommend to anyone from 13 years and up as your next page-turner.

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