Alexander Larman
For Spectator readers not familiar with the cultural figure known as MrBeast, his real name is Jimmy Donaldson and he is best known for taking over YouTube and making himself a multi-millionaire in the process. And now his work can be discovered in a literary, rather than streaming, sphere. It has been announced that MrBeast will be collaborating with the bestselling thriller writer James Patterson to publish a novel entitled The Most Dangerous Games in September.
It does not, in truth, sound like the stuff of high literature, or even particularly distinguished page-turning trash. The plot synopsis suggests that “In a world on the brink of collapse, one hundred players face off in a ruthless, high‑stakes competition with everything on the line. The reward? The chance to save humanity – and one billion dollars. The stakes couldn’t be higher.”
If this sounds an awful lot like The Hunger Games, mixed with a bit of The Running Man, you would be right. But the book’s literary merit is considerably less important than what the publicity calls “THE BOOK EVENT OF THE YEAR: An unprecedented blockbuster collaboration between MrBeast, the world’s #1 creator with more than a billion followers, and James Patterson, the world’s #1 bestselling author.” This is not a book, but an “unprecedented blockbuster collaboration,” and is being marketed – and sold – purely on that basis.
