Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | June 23, 2026
MrBeast wants to take over the world. This is no hyperbole. The nightmarish YouTuber, born Jimmy Donaldson, has made his plans to become a billionaire media mogul clear from the moment he found a way to game the algorithm and become an inescapable star. Unsatisfied with torturing people into doing dangerous stunts for the chance to win some money, he's moving onto the world of literature. And who better to aid him in his writing career than the MrBeast of the publishing world: James Patterson.
The pair revealed the plot for their, uh, novel, The Most Dangerous Games (in bookshops on September 1st), and it's basically just, "What if Jimmy's rip-off of Squid Game actually killed people?"
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. Across brutal environments and relentless challenges, players are pushed beyond every limit as the stakes escalate -- and survival becomes the only rule.
Will Monsieur Bête be the villain of this piece? Or the benevolent hero who everyone loves and who definitely doesn't look dead behind the eyes? Will this book also feature a slew of lawsuits filed against the creator's companies related to poor treatment of contestants and basic labour law failings? Only time will tell.
Ol' Jimmy admitted that he used to think books were "boring" but that changed when he "realized I was just reading the wrong books and they can be exciting if it's the right match." I'd usually not have a problem with such a statement if it were coming from an actual human being and not a ceaseless branding machine who releases slop and bribes his tween audience into buying it.
My big question is, Who actually wrote the book? Jimmy can't read. Patterson notoriously only writes the outline then hands it over to his assembly line of co-authors, who are typically credited on the cover but only he's named here. Patterson's cottage industry of co-writers has long been criticised but he also has a decent reputation for paying, crediting, and collaborating with those other authors. That's not the status quo in publishing. But forgive me for being cynical about this collaboration of the century. I don't sense much in the way of altruism or creativity from a professional IP farm and a grown man who, by his own admission, seldom engages with the written word (unless it's lawsuits.)
And yes, I'll review it if someone pays me to do so (subscribe to my newsletter!) I survived E.L. James. I can take this one.
