Gotcha!

by Shelley Hrdlitschka

When a grad game gets out of hand, Katie must find a way to end the game while trying to win at all costs.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, High School, Canada, Friendship, Teen

270 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Shelley discovered her love for children’s literature while teaching school. This inspired her to write her own books, and she is now the author of eleven novels for teens, all published by Orca Book Publishers.

Shelley lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia. When she’s not reading or writing she can be found hiking, snowshoeing, practising yoga, Zumba dancing or hanging out with the grizzly bears at the Grouse Mountain Refuge for Endangered Wildlife.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

disgusting. It read like it was written by a 2nd grader. The characters were horrible inconsistent and underdeveloped, and constantly did things that made you go "where the heck did that come from?" They would suddenly do something terrible and blame it on the "Gotcha Gods." I hated it and was so mad that I had to read the whole thing so i could see how it ended. The part that also rubbed me the wrong way was the supposedly "touching" part where this kid in a wheel chair told them how playing a different kind of game had got his legs run over because he was hiding under a car and waiting to ambush his friend. You have to a moron to hide under a car that you no someone is going to drive away in and why didn't he ambush his friend, or let him know he was under there. the whole book gave me a stomachs ache and i was glad when I finally read the ending (which made a pitiful attempt at bringing some nonexistent depth to the book).

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Steph for TeensReadToo.com

Katie is a senior at Slippery Rock High. At SRH, it's a tradition to play Gotcha! -- a game where each student gets a bead on a string and the name of a classmate to tag and steal their bead. Katie, however, isn't very interested in the game -- especially not after what happened the previous year.

But because she's part of the grad council, and everyone else wants to do it, she plays along.

Friendships are ruined and relationships are formed when this potentially dangerous game gets under way. And if the drama of the game wasn't enough for Katie, she also has to deal with her father, who moved out, and her mother, who sits around and eats all day.

Shelley Hrdlitschka writes an interesting book that looks at what adrenaline and competitiveness can do to humans, how it can change them. The book has many plot twists that keeps the reader engaged and wanting more.

[Kayla · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise of this book really appealed to me. Sadly, however, the book was poorly written. Really poorly written. It used every cliche known to YA novels (the absent father, the popular best friend, emails using every 'teen' shortcut available (c u l8r), etc.). The cliches were bad, but the dialogue was worse. It sounded like a middle age adult trying to sound like a teen. She never had me believing that a teen was speaking - I was all too aware of the author, which made it impossible to let go and escape into the book.

[Nova Zaiden · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, this story is about a game called Gotcha being played in high school for the seniors. It's basically a gigantic game of tag, but it's also dangerous because people break into others houses. And through all this craziness, a girl named Katie is peerpressured into playing, despite knowing that it's wrong.

It's really not a book I would've chosen on my own. I'm not very good when it comes to choosing books, because I choose one genre to always circle. But, my teacher told me it was going to be a quick read and also that it seemed interesting.

I found out that apparently the events are real (for the most part) and they happened in Vancouver, which isn't actually all that far from me in Toronto. That was kind of why I read it.

Anyway, to the review. I was really conflicted by the time I was done. It only took me an hour to read because it's such a tiny book.

What I liked was the idea, but technically it really wasn't the author's "idea" per-se, just because she's writing it off real events so it's just like journalism or writing an article, but you're doing it in story format. I don't think that this book actually reflects off on the author's talent, not that I've read her other books... not that I really want to...



I can imagine my friend popping out of nowhere, screaming this...
Another pro was the author's writing style. I don't know if it was like AHMAZING, but I do know that I breezed through the book easy and there really was no moment where it was like "no, I can't keep reading... it's too bad!" It was simple to read and before I knew it, I was at the back cover.

Cons? Well, there are a lot of them, so brace yourselves.

Number one is that the story opened up to a series of emails between Katie and her father. The thing is that Katie uses "text talk" like "OMG" "enuf" "brb" etc.. Anyway, I loathe that kind of talking, so that nearly dissuaded me into reading the actual book. Of course, I got over it and skipped those parts, even though they were kind of vital to the story.

Also, in the beginning, the emails being exchanged made Katie look like a complete brat. I didn't know what was going on, but the conversation was that her father was apologizing about something and Katie was telling him where to go, if you know what I mean. It let me judge Katie before ven reading the story and I had her characterized as a stuck up brat, but she surprised me.

In terms of a first impression, this story didn't really have a good one.



But I still admired the idea and the way it was executed, for the most part. The story didn't go too fast or move too slow. The story's pace was good, but I felt like some of the events were far too fast. For an example, in chapter 1, Katie had a best friend and in chapter 3, her best friend hated her guts or something like that.

It was easy to ignore, but still makes for a bad story.

After all that is said, I still can't help but love the story. It had an amazing meaning with values of not doing stupid things, despite "tradition". People can seriously get hurt from things that started out with games and I know this because I, myself am in school.

Gah, I don't want to review anymore or I'll be more biased.

So I give this book 3 stars because pros minus cons equal middle ground or... 3 stars.

[Vicky Voronina · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the book "Gotcha," a senior tradition is banned, but that isn't stopping the students at Slippery Rock High from playing the banned game, in which you start out with one bead, and tag others to gain more, while making sure you don't get tagged yourself. Instead, the game goes underground, making it even more popular than before. However, there was a reason the game was banned, and Katie, the protagonist of the story, finds herself losing friends as she plays the game. At home, Katie's mom is working a low-paying job, and so is Katie, trying to make ends meet so that Katie can pay for college. Katie appreciates the effort, but it doesn't seem like her mom is truly trying to help her, and she still can't understand why her dad, who is traveling and looking for a new job (and possibly life), left her alone. She, at first, joins the game just for the money, but quickly gets sucked into all the drama, but when the game becomes dangerous, she realizes just how much she has to lose, and why she must put an end to the game as soon as possible, preferably by winning. This game really shows that some things are stopped for a reason, and it teaches readers the important message of not taking something so seriously that you don't notice when you're hurting the ones closest to you.

[Alison Jog · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy enjoyable read with a decent plot.

[jule · Rating 2 out of 5]

i liked the plot and the whole idea but i really didn‘t like the characters! :(

[Liane Vaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love a good long-game. Well written, witty, sarcastic, and relatable.

[Wiki ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

She’s so mean to her mom tho

[CarlyK_D2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gotcha! is about a high school game that is similar to an elaborate version of "tag". The main character of this book is a girl named Katie, who has to figure her way through regular high school dilemmas, such as relationships and friendships. However, she also has to cope with the tension of being in the game and wanting to win the prize money. You would like this book if you enjoy reading realistic fiction.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably never would have picked this book up on my own. Anna talked about it in book club and I realized that the story line pretty closely followed an actual incident at Raleigh Charter High School earlier this year, although nothing bad happened as at the end of this book, and I decided to read it. At Raleigh Charter, so I'm told by a student there who's in my Sunday School class, some people decided to play a game, simply referred to as "the game" in which everyone paid $5 to join and then was given a target, another player, to mark with a red marker. There were immunities that changed from day to day, such as pinning your baby picture to your shirt, that made you safe from the person hunting you as long as you were wearing it. These immunities were posted on Facebook each night. The rules were very similar to those of Gotcha!, with a few differences: first, it was mainly carried on at school; second, the teachers had to idea what was going on (the students just said it was a "Facebook thing"); and third, so far as I know, no one got all that mad about losing. My friend actually got really far in the game, and although she was upset she got tagged, she wasn't about to kill anyone.

So, what do I think of the book? Well, first of all, the drama is a bit too exaggerated. Katie and Paige react way too strongly to things: Katie when she decides she really wants to win Gotcha as well as when she realizes she's been tricked into losing (but she still gets what she wants, so why is she so upset?), and Paige when Katie snaps at her. I know not a single person in real life who would hate her best friend for ever after just for saying something like that. Then there was the whole issue with all the things gone wrong from Gotcha, from the kid in the wheelchair to what the mob did to Warren; I don't think most people would ever get that angry over a class game, and I don't think life-devastating mistakes would happen very often at all. I also disliked Katie for trying to make money off of money she's supposed to be protecting, plus what kind of person believes it when people say their money is guaranteed to triple if they invest it with them? However, I don't want to make it seem like this book is terrible and all I have to say is bad stuff. It had a pretty good story and was what I call a "chick flick novel", basically an easy read with plenty of fluff but a bit of substance to balance it out a bit. It doesn't really bring up any relevant issues, so it's definitely not the kind of book that makes you want to be a better person after reading it, and it's neither dense nor difficult to understand. This book would probably be good for girls who like other chick flick novels like Beastly. Unfortunately I'm not at all interested in chick flicks, so even though I don't like this book that's not to say it's a bad book. It's just not my style.

[Canadian Children's Book Centre]

As a member of the grad committee at Slippery Rock High, Katie feels she has no choice but to participate in the bead game “Gotcha” – an annual ritual played by the graduating class. Banned as an official school activity by the teachers, the game goes underground, and quickly spins out of control, becoming more dangerous than Katie ever could have imagined. Based on a game played in her eldest daughter’s school, award-winning author Shelley Hrdlitschka spins this idea into a fast-paced and thrilling read for older teens, looking closely at the idea of mob mentality, and how even the smartest of people can get swept away with the crowd. What makes this story particularly effective is the first-person narration from protagonist Katie. Her observations are detailed, honest and reflective, and readers will immediately empathize with her everyday teenage problems. The author also does a fantastic job in demonstrating how easily the other students, as well as Katie, are transformed by the game, raising some interesting points for discussion. When the mob turns on Katie, and nearly causes her serious harm, she is horrified by their actions, and firm in her belief that she could never behave like them. However, when the student mob again gets out of control turning on another student, she does not immediately take action to stop it. More than just a superficial read, Gotcha! would also work well being paired with a novel such as Todd Strasser’s The Wave, a story about a high-school social experiment, designed to show students how the Holocaust was allowed to happen. By examining how easily “Gotcha” became more than just a game, students can gain a better understanding of history, and other examples of mass genocide in the world today.

Reviewed by Rachel Steen in
Summer 2008 VOL.31 NO.2

[Alaska Rue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fun read. At times, I thought the protagonist too full of herself and extraordinarily immature in dealing with her mom, but I thought the way she found out about her dad's gambling problem and internalized it was very realistic and heartbreaking. It can absolutely wreck you to feel taken advantage of by someone you thought you could trust. I would not have been as forgiving as she was with her dad.

What was also very interesting was the gang mentality thing that happened because of the Gotcha game. Everyone suddenly turned into ferocious wolves, went batshit crazy. It's disturbing, but I suppose that explains riots like the one that erupted after the Stanley Cup finals in 2011. I was a little disgusted by the way the main character's friendship dissolved with Elaina, so quickly, so rapidly, and turned into a series of backstabbing catfights. I think both parties are to blame, but anywhos. It was a fun, easy read and I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book was written by an author in North Vancouver, pretty close to where I live! Sweet!

I actually found this book in the teen shelves in the Nelson library, before the Shambhala festival. At the time, I didn't know you could borrow out books from other libraries in BC, and by the time I returned to Nelson after the festival, the book had been borrowed out. Borrowed it in VPL instead and read in all in one sitting.

[Audiaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - I was really interested by the concept for this book. I think similar games are played at a lot of schools and for the most part these games don't get out of hand; however, it's easy to see how they might. In this story, high school seniors take part in a game called Gotcha! They each get a bead and the name of a student, and the goal is to tag their victim and claim his/her bead. The game continues until there is only one winner. There were a few parts that I found really obvious and felt like they weren't really integrated into the plot and those parts really took away from the story for me. The first was when a the beginning, the main character was ganged up on by other players in the game and then later on she became part of the gang. I had a hard time believing that she really would have felt so strongly that someone else deserved to be ganged up on like that after experiencing a smaller version of the same thing herself. The second was her father's gambling addiction. I could tell from the first mention of the money that she would give it away and then lose it. Her father's addiction just seemed to be tacked on, and while gambling addiction can be a serious topic, I don't think it was explored enough here. Overall, I did enjoy reading the book and would recommend it for a quick YA read.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Katie’s grad class has been banned from playing Gotcha, the traditional bead-stealing game grade 12 students have been playing at her school for years. The grad council takes the game underground, and over 200 students sign up to play the game. Every student gets a bead and the name of another student, whose bead they have to steal by tagging them. The game has been banned because it tends to get out of hand and students have been hurt playing it before.

Katie doesn't want to play Gotcha, but she gets pressured into it because she is the secretary on the grad council and the whole council is putting on the game. When her ankle gets sprained and she can't work, she gets a bit desperate for money and lets her recently estranged father invest the Gotcha prize money after he promises to triple her savings in a matter of days.

This book had me screaming at it for a few reasons. First, there's a spelling error on the very first page. Second, Katie writes emails to her dad in netspeak. Third, Katie, why?!?!? I got over the first two reasons and got pretty invested in the story. Katie makes the kind of errors in judgment that has always made me write people off as being unworthy of my time. Still, I found the book compelling and I liked that not everything was fixed in the end.

[Word Revel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel explores the lengths to which people would go for money or glory. Set in high school, where grad students take part in the game "Gotcha", each player is given a bead to represent their life in the game. Each student has a name of a victim whose bead and next victim they need to obtain. The last person standing wins the money. Overall, the premise of the book is simple. What I liked was how Katie's personal life was interwoven with the game and how friendships were affected by the game. Shelley Hrdlitschka did well in adding twists which weren't all that predictable while reading. This definitely helped sucking me into the plot, especially when it came to parts where I was horrified at what some students were willing to do just to win.

I did have a gripe though and that was the email exchanges between Katie and her father. She wrote to him in net lingo which I found a little annoying to read and was also extremely bratty in her replies and that didn't exactly reflect the general maturity of her character. She did lapse in that though, seeing how 17-year-olds are far from perfect, so perhaps the frustration towards her father when he left her family had to be demonstrated somehow as well.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gotcha! is the story of Katie, a high school senior, and the "bead-snatching" game Gotcha that is played by her class shortly before graduation. The game causes tensions between friends, and in the past has even resulted in violence, causing it to be banned in school this year, but students have taken the game underground. Throughout the book, Katie struggles with problems caused by Gotcha as well as problems at home, where her dad has recently left her and her mother. There are a lot of cliches about friendship and family, but the themes still resonate. The writing could also use work; it prevented me from getting absorbed into the story for quite a while. In the end, I did enjoy the book, though.

[Shawn Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hrdlitschka impressed me with this one. Following in the footsteps of The Wave and The Chocolate War, we explore a school game that goes too far. The narrator's voice was realistic, the interactions were believable. The only false note for me was with the emails sent between Katie and her dad. Katie's excessive use of juvenile text slang, seemed not to reflect the intelligent and strong student she is portrayed as in the rest of the book. Had the notes been back and forth between peers, her UR and C U's would have been appropriate; with her father they seem stupid. Katie is smart enough to know how to write properly to an adult. Nevertheless, there are layers here that provoke conversation. I would recommend this one to my students.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book and thought that it wasn't that good. Then I completely got sucked in, and read it in one evening. It's the story of a Grade 12 class who are participating in a game that involves stealing beads from other class members. Katie, the main character, enters the game somewhat unwillingly. She sees how friends become paranoid and stab each other in the back as they try to gather each other's beads.

This was a very realistic and fast moving story, and I was sucked in because I had to know what happened!

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book last year when I was a junior in High school and I was not too impressed with it. I mean it was alright but at the same time it seemed a little unrealistic. Thinking back I feel the main character was a little whiny and bratty. It was like any problem that was thrown at her was a major crisis that ruined her life. I feel like you can't really appreciate this book until you are a senior and you are dealing with the same "drama", but at the same time it is for more of a "younger" reading level so...

[Lys · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea of this book was really appealing, but the execution of it was lacking. I couldn't get really absorbed into the book, maybe it was writing style (very cliche, especially the c u l8er type emails) or maybe it was that i didn't relate to the character at all.
It also seemed a little sudden, the main characters atitude about the game changed from "Oh, this is a stupid game." to "OMG, he has to die!" It wasn't a smooth transition.

[Luna PenDragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one. I read it as a member of White Pine 2009. I really like the whole game called Gotcha. It sounds pretty fun and dangerous at the same time. The issues with the Father are very serious, although none of the problems with him are resolved in the end. I liked the "GROUP-THINK" scene near the end of the novel. The poor guy did do something terrible but did not deserve what they did to him. They were a little extreme but that's how group-think works.

[Carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very believable narrator takes us through her senior year in British Columbia, where the senior class plays a game called Gotcha!, in which each player tries to win the most beads by tagging their fellow students off-campus. Social pressures, conformity, the embarrassment and dismay caused by parents, the betrayal or worse, the casual indifference, of friends...these characters and their social hierarchy felt very real. Nominated for a 2011 Stellar Award (B.C.'s Teen Reader's Choice).

[Alisha Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this while I was in highschool and forgot how good it was! Book is about this graduates game called Gotcha, which is pretty much an organized version of tag! Everyone is given a bead and a name and you have to tag that person to get their bead, and the name they have. Game continues until someone has all the beads. Sounds fun in theory... but what will people do to win? Especially if money is involved.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 Sterne
Ein relativ spannender Jugend-Roman.
Die Idee mit dem Abschlussspiel "Gotcha" finde ich echt sehr interessant, und vor allem wie so ein Spiel sich zwischen den Schülern auswirken kann.
Jedenfalls finde ich paar Sachen, die hier passieren etwas unrealistisch und etwas weit hergeholt.
Schreibstil ist zwar nicht das Beste aber trotzdem relativ okay.
Alles in einem ein gutes Buch für zwischendurch.

[Karina Tavarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a girl named Katie who is in 12th grade with her friend. A game called gotcha is a tradition that all the twelve graders play. Katie and her friends decide to play it out of school since it got banned from playing soon the games brings a lot of problems. The major problem is that Katie lost the prize cause her father had a gambling problem.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure whether or not I'd like this one. Surprisingly, I did, despite it not being a 5 star. The characters were bland but still intriguing, as I was hoping the entire time that I'd get more of a chance to get to know them...it honestly, was the PREMISE that made me like this book so much. It was so much unlike the other books in this genre, just the PLOT. I really liked it.

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book! It makes me wish that my own grad class had done a game like this one! Even though there was some problems that Katie had along the way with the game, I just thought that the whole book was so cute. Joel was by far my favourite character because he reminded me of someone that I know. I reccomend this book if you're looking for a quick, fun read!

[Gillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

YA

I enjoyed the development of the characters and the budding romance. I was a little taken aback by how quickly the protagonist thought that things were getting out of hand. I felt that the build wasn't quite there. I was totally on board by the "party incident" but before that I needed a little more.

[Missy · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times this book was hard to follow since it's set in a Canadian High School. The characters often use what I am guessing is Canadian slang so sometimes I was a little lost. Overall, the book is great for girl reluctant readers.