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Rieden Reece and the End Game: A Middle-Grade Sci-Fi Adventure
279 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication July 28, 2026
About the author
Matt Guzman
8 books15 followersMatt Guzman is somewhat spoiled. The residents of beautiful San Diego, CA allow him to live there, and they barely complain about it. After managing restaurants for twenty years, he made a drastic decision. Quit. And use everything he learned the hard way about leadership and communication to help children. He’s obsessed with emotional health and storytelling. Combining these two passions, Matt crafts sci-fi stories for his twelve-year-old self—still hiding inside his adult brain. He once won an honorable mention from the Writers of the Future Contest. That went straight to his head and now there’s no stopping him.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy
4 stars for the series as a whole, 5 stars for this book
This has been a wild ride, and it's been cool watching the author get better with each book. I will be honest--I did NOT like Rieden Reece in the first book. He was anxiety-ridden, which is not the issue, but it was coupled with an act of bravado that made him think he was more knowledgeable than the people around him and if they would only listen to him, he wouldn't keep getting into trouble. I didn't like the way he talked to his "best friend" Brian, nor how he treated Shelley, who liked his brother Rob before Rob disappeared. But I kept trying with this series, and slowly, you can see Rieden learn how to think before he acts or says something, and to apologize when warranted. You can see this especially in this book and the last. He also starts to learn that people are complex and he should not make snap judgements about people. In particular, I liked Rieden Reece and the Virtual Girl, where he ended up in a game for 10 years with several of his classmates, including his bully tormenter, and he takes the time to get to know their strengths and weaknesses and to realize many of them are hurting the way he is, for their own personal reasons.
I do NOT want to spoil anything in this book by saying anything, but I do love the remaining uncertainty about whether all of this has been in Rieden's head or if aliens really have been interfering with his world. That said, I love the exploration of reality and will, and whether there is an objective reality or if reality is perception by whoever is present. In many ways, this is a really deep book, maybe too deep for most middle schoolers, but some people do tend to live in their heads, and that includes middle school children.
A recurring theme throughout this series has been mental illness, and how a person suffering from it might cope with it. As I've mentioned, some might look at this story in a superficial manner and just say, "Rieden made all of this up. This is all in his head and his friends and family are just humoring him." Or maybe he's not interacting with anyone at all, and he's locked up in a mental institution dreaming all of this. I choose to think that he had a mental breakdown triggered by the loss of his brother, BUT there is still something hinky going on in his town. The great thing is that kids get to read this story and decide for themselves. I do like how this book does refer to past events in the first 6 books as a way of helping us recall them but also reframing them in a way that they all seem to fit together into a big whole. Is this a bit much for a middle school book? I can see how some of my students might be confused by this book. But that's more of a function of some of my students being readers and some decidedly not. Honestly, I find it refreshing that Guzman writes this book as if middle school students are capable of deep thinking.
Overall, I would give this series 4 stars, partly because I didn't like the first 2 books as much as the rest of the books. But this is a strong ending for what has been quite an adventure, and I'm hoping that this series will get more widespread attention.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from BookSirens. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This has been a wild ride, and it's been cool watching the author get better with each book. I will be honest--I did NOT like Rieden Reece in the first book. He was anxiety-ridden, which is not the issue, but it was coupled with an act of bravado that made him think he was more knowledgeable than the people around him and if they would only listen to him, he wouldn't keep getting into trouble. I didn't like the way he talked to his "best friend" Brian, nor how he treated Shelley, who liked his brother Rob before Rob disappeared. But I kept trying with this series, and slowly, you can see Rieden learn how to think before he acts or says something, and to apologize when warranted. You can see this especially in this book and the last. He also starts to learn that people are complex and he should not make snap judgements about people. In particular, I liked Rieden Reece and the Virtual Girl, where he ended up in a game for 10 years with several of his classmates, including his bully tormenter, and he takes the time to get to know their strengths and weaknesses and to realize many of them are hurting the way he is, for their own personal reasons.
I do NOT want to spoil anything in this book by saying anything, but I do love the remaining uncertainty about whether all of this has been in Rieden's head or if aliens really have been interfering with his world. That said, I love the exploration of reality and will, and whether there is an objective reality or if reality is perception by whoever is present. In many ways, this is a really deep book, maybe too deep for most middle schoolers, but some people do tend to live in their heads, and that includes middle school children.
A recurring theme throughout this series has been mental illness, and how a person suffering from it might cope with it. As I've mentioned, some might look at this story in a superficial manner and just say, "Rieden made all of this up. This is all in his head and his friends and family are just humoring him." Or maybe he's not interacting with anyone at all, and he's locked up in a mental institution dreaming all of this. I choose to think that he had a mental breakdown triggered by the loss of his brother, BUT there is still something hinky going on in his town. The great thing is that kids get to read this story and decide for themselves. I do like how this book does refer to past events in the first 6 books as a way of helping us recall them but also reframing them in a way that they all seem to fit together into a big whole. Is this a bit much for a middle school book? I can see how some of my students might be confused by this book. But that's more of a function of some of my students being readers and some decidedly not. Honestly, I find it refreshing that Guzman writes this book as if middle school students are capable of deep thinking.
Overall, I would give this series 4 stars, partly because I didn't like the first 2 books as much as the rest of the books. But this is a strong ending for what has been quite an adventure, and I'm hoping that this series will get more widespread attention.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from BookSirens. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy
this was a strong seventh entry in the Rieden Reece series, it had that overall concept that I was looking for and enjoyed in this type of book. It continued the story and the world perfectly and was engaged from the first page. It had that scifi fantasy element that I was looking for and was invested in what was going on with the concept and characters. The characters were written well and felt like they belonged in this universe and continued the story. Matt Guzman wrote this perfectly and am glad I got to read this.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews