Book Summary and Reviews of The Dating Game by Ally Zetterberg

Reader Reviews

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Catherine_S

Worth the Read
Starting out, it's hard to like such an unlikeable character as Tilda who unremorsefully exhibits such bad behavior. As the story progresses, however, the author provides insight to readers so that might see Tilda as a more sympathetic character. She is painfully honest and direct and sees the world so differently than do others. Much of her behavior – although truly unorthodox and maybe psychopathic – is in response to others' bad behaviors.

Tilda is a game designer; over the years she has gained extensive experience successfully developing all types of board games and uses her skills to create a well-organized plan for her games: Friendship, Love, Endgame, and Revenge. Her inspiration for these games comes from her own new experiences with a handful of characters she tries to befriend and date. As her efforts with friendship and love are thwarted, she turns to the final endgame – revenge.

No matter how you feel about Tilda, the book is intriguing. We learn about board games and how they are engineered to satisfy the consumer base. We learn about Monaco and the people who live there. And then there are the bad dating behaviors -- easily relatable to many. To me, the most entertaining aspect of the book may be the impressions that Tilda has in making her way through life. Painfully direct and honest, she says whatever she thinks and the inner conversation is delightfully refreshing.
This book is worth a read – it's different, it's fast-paced and (darkly) funny at times, and ends with a bit of salvation for the characters. The author provides a tidy ending with a Post-Revenge wrap up. It might be suitable for a book club discussion if readers can get past the initial impressions of Tilda.

Charity_M

Wickedly hilarious
The Dating Game is a hilarious tale of murder and board games. I found myself laughing out loud over and over with this one.

Tilda is a delightfully terrible person, and I found myself cheering her on even in her most awful moments. Her approach to dating, while misguided in part, certainly has some merit.

I greatly enjoyed this one!

Becky_D

A mystery with humor, what's not to like?!
The story was told in first person by Tilda, the main character. She explains her idiosyncrasies and misdeeds (actually felonies, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers!) in a neurodivergent humerous sort of way. And yes, I did laugh out loud several times.
It is really difficult to explain much about the plot line and how it affected my thoughts on the book, without using spoilers. What I am going to say is that the only character I liked was the maid Melita. She was open and honest and eager to help, up to a certain point. It seemed as if all of the other characters had their agendas and it was usually to someone else's detriment.

Yes, it did have gaming (I think board games as opposed to video ones)
but I found how the author wove them into the story line somewhat confusing.
I usually don't try too hard to figure out who the guilty person is (the one stalking Tilda) but my mind kept going back to one person. I ended up being right but I would not have wanted to bet on it.

Nathan_G

Life is a Game, for Tilda
The Dating Game is an unusual novel, written from the perspective of a female boardgame designer,Tilda, age about 30. She is from Britain, living in Monaco.

Many times, perhaps all the time, Tilda puts real life planning in terms of rules of a boardgame, which is certainly a novel approach. As a frequent boardgame player, I find the name-dropping of various real games and publishers to be a nice touch.

Whether Tilda is typical young woman trying to make her way in the world, or or a ruthless killer is left to the reader to decide.

The book itself I very much enjoyed, but perhaps there was what is probably a major editing mix-up of some sort that soured things for me.

At one point, a police officer (Francois) visits Tilda, and was about to take a look at security footage. He leaves, saying he shall see Tilda again. Then he vanishes from the story entirely. He is mentioned in passing a few times much later, including that someone may have helped her out of this potential jam, as if we had already learned this before, but it seems a major thing to gloss over.

The story jumps right from Francois departing to being on a second date with a woman (Madeleine) we've never met before, and are never introduced to during the story. Considering the degree of detail given about all other individuals we meet in the story, and the large amount of thought and planning she puts into all interpersonal encounters, something has likely been left out.

This might have been a 5-star review if not for what seem to be significant missing portions of the book.