The Contest, Jeff Macfee
The Contest, Jeff Macfee
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Contest

Author: Jeff Macfee

Narrator: Jasmin Walker

Unabridged: 8 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 04/08/2025


Synopsis

Once a child prodigy of puzzles and logic games, Gillian Charles now barely ekes out a living in Los Angeles. With her sick mother facing eviction from her care facility, Gillian can’t say no when her childhood nemesis, Tommy, shows up at her apartment with a $50k offer. All she has to do is return to the place where it all started, where she swore she’d never set foot again: Miscellany. Miscellany is a place of wonder and enchantment—a Disney World for puzzle lovers, and one that quickly owns the lives of those who stay too long. Tommy is running the park’s latest big game, and he’s convinced someone is leaking the answers. With investment and expansion in the cards, Miscellany can’t afford a scandal. As a former puzzler who kept her distance from Miscellany for twenty years, Gillian should find it easy to investigate while avoiding Miscellany’s charms and entanglements. But when Gillian arrives, she discovers things aren’t so straightforward. Her turncoat ex-friend Martin Ellsberg holds the security reins, Tommy’s estranged wife Evelina spins PR webs around the park’s machinations, and the manipulative park founder Sebastian offers her the financial security and intellectual future she always wanted. With her mother’s circumstances growing more dire, and under pressure to sweep the accusations under the rug, Gillian finds childhood games all the more treacherous for adults. Miscellany is offering Gillian the life she always wanted. But at what price?

Reviews

Goodreads review by LordTBR on February 21, 2025

The Contest by is one of the most absorbing, mind-expanding stories I've come across. Take all of the best parts of The Queen's Gambit and Squid Games, throw them in a blender, and you might come close to Macfee's Rubik's cube of a sophomore novel.......more

Goodreads review by mrsbookburnee on February 06, 2025

This was such an exciting book to read, I loved the world building of the competition, complete Hunger Games vibes. Gillian was a fantastic character to follow, both as a child and adult, I was shouting at her to carry on at the river, but as we meet her later, it shows that she is just a genuine per......more

Goodreads review by Jamedi on February 26, 2025

Review originally on JamReads The Contest is an intriguing thriller novel, written by Jeff Macfee, and published by Datura Books. An original premise that plays with a well-constructed worldbuilding, a wild competition with which our main character, Gillian, has a shared past that she tried to fl......more

Goodreads review by BiblioPeeks on February 13, 2025

"She enjoyed being put together as much as anyone, maybe more than most, but at this moment she needed to feel free and unencumbered. Confronting Sebastian was a game, and like any game, she needed agility more than style." This was such an original premise and just what I needed! As a child, Gillian......more

Goodreads review by Heather on January 31, 2025

Loved the beginning.......more