Book description
A trio of friends from New York City find themselves trapped inside a mechanical board game that they must dismantle in order to save themselves and generations of other children in this action-packed debut that's a steampunk Jumanji with a Middle Eastern flair.
Nothing can prepare you for The Gauntlet...
…
Why read it?
2 authors picked The Gauntlet as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I love the Jumanji series and how it has been brought to the big screen. How imaginative is it to incorporate time travel through a board game! The mysteries revealed, the friendships that build romance, the treachery.
The twist here is that the author does this with a Middle Eastern flair and builds a whole different imaginary world…
From Mary's list on fantasy adventure novels intertwined with romance.
Farah and her two best friends get sucked into a Jumanji-inspired mechanical board game called The Gauntlet of Blood and Sand and it’s up to them to defeat the villainous architect of the game and save themselves and all those trapped inside. This fantasy story set in a Middle Eastern and Bangladeshi-inspired world is nail-biting to say the least and Karuna Riazi’s lush prose with descriptions of taste and smell transported me straight into the story and deadly game (and also left me very hungry!). Besides, when there are red scorpions, grease monkeys, and sand cats who wouldn’t want to…
From Payal's list on children’s fantasy with South Asian representation.
If you love The Gauntlet...
The Twins of Auschwitz
This is the Inspiring true story of a young girl surviving Mengele’s hell. This is an incisive, harrowing, and touching memoir of Eva Mozes Kor and her twin sister Miriam, who are sent to Auschwitz only to be torn from their parents and given to Josef Mengele, "The Angel of…
Want books like The Gauntlet?
Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Gauntlet.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,395
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like The Gauntlet, you might also like...
The Afterlife of the Party
An interdimensional mixer with angels and other beings brings unexpected trouble for Malachi and his friends in this smart and uniquely funny second book about the squad of teens from hell.
When an angel comes to his home to deliver a message, Malachi immediately knows what’s going on. The seraph…
My Real Name Is Hanna
“Hanna’s story...uncovers an astonishing, rich vein of hope in a world gone utterly dark. Both timeless and timely.”
—Elizabeth Wein, New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Verity
Hanna Slivka is on the cusp of fourteen when Hitler's army crosses the border into Soviet-occupied Ukraine. Soon, the Gestapo closes…
