Welcome
AreBooksGood started as a site for short book reviews and I just kept building.
Pets
The pet system is the heart of the site. You hatch a creature, raise it, gear it up, and take it into battle. It also follows you around the site, waters your crops, and gives you passive bonuses at the casino.
Three evolution levels. Your pet starts small. Feed it coins and it evolves, getting bigger and unlocking new abilities. Each evolution costs more but the bonuses scale up with it.
Dungeon raids. Take a party of three creatures into type-locked dungeons with multiple waves of enemies. Eight dungeons across three difficulty modes: Normal, Hard, and Brutal. Enemies have elemental types, your creatures have base stats that scale with level and tier, and turn order is determined by speed. First-clear a dungeon on Brutal and you unlock an alternate skin for that creature.
Gear system. Enemies drop gear in four rarities (common, uncommon, rare, epic) across three equipment slots. Each piece has random sub-stats. You can equip, unequip, and sell from a 50-slot inventory. Higher dungeon difficulties drop better gear.
Farm AI. Your pet doesn’t just sit there. On the farm page, it autonomously walks to crops, harvests them, waters growing plants, and interacts with farm buildings. Each creature type has farming bonuses too: cats sometimes auto-replant, dragons speed up crop growth, and robots auto-harvest when crops are ready.
Alt skins. Clear dungeons on Brutal difficulty to unlock alternate sprite sheets for your creatures. Toggle between default and alt skins from the pet shop.
Visit the Pet Shop to get started, or head to the Dungeons if you’re ready to fight.
The Farm
An idle farming game that runs across the entire site. Plant crops, wait for them to grow (or let your pet water them for a speed boost), harvest, and sell for JackBucks.
JackBucks (JB) are the farm currency. You earn them by selling crops and materials. You spend them at the Silk Road, on tower defense investments, and you can convert them to casino coins through the currency bridge.
The farm grid has gathering stations (lumber, quarry, mine, fishing, livestock) and processing stations (mill, kitchen, forge, loom, and more). Raw materials go in, processed goods come out at higher value. Everything unlocks progressively as you upgrade your farmhouse.
Farmhouse. Five upgrade levels. Each level unlocks new buildings, new crop plots, and stacking bonuses: better sell prices, faster crop growth, auto-watering, and rare seed drops.
Tower defense. A full tower defense game integrated into the farm economy. Eight tower types, three maps, three difficulty levels, endless mode, and a hero unit powered by your active pet. Earnings from tower defense convert to JackBucks.
Silk Road. The black market shop. Buy seeds, farming upgrades, exclusive cosmetics, and sell back materials. The merchant has opinions about everything you buy.
Check out the Farm, try the Tower Defense, or browse the Silk Road.
Games
A casino and a collection of browser games. All playable directly in the browser, no accounts needed.
Casino games: Poker, Blackjack, Slots, and Casino Wars. All use the shared coin wallet. Your pet gives passive bonuses depending on its type and evolution level.
Arcade games: Flappy (your pet is the bird), Doodle Jump (your pet bounces), and Trebuchet.
Puzzle games: Wordle, Sudoku, and Chess puzzles with multiple difficulty levels.
Everything is at /games/.
How everything connects
The site has two currencies and they flow between systems.
Coins are the casino currency. You earn them by playing games. You spend them on pet eggs and evolutions. Pets give you passive casino bonuses, which earn you more coins.
JackBucks are the farm currency. You earn them by selling crops and materials. You spend them at the Silk Road on seeds, upgrades, and cosmetics. You can also invest JB into tower defense runs for extra starting cash, or convert JB to coins through the Silk Road’s currency bridge.
The loop: play games to earn coins, buy a pet, your pet helps you farm, farming earns JackBucks, JackBucks buy upgrades that make farming and combat better, dungeon gear makes your creatures stronger, and stronger creatures give better bonuses everywhere.
Getting started
If you’re new, here’s a reasonable order of operations:
- Play a few hands of poker or blackjack to earn some coins.
- Head to the Pet Shop and hatch your first creature.
- Visit the Farm and plant your first crops.
- Try a dungeon raid once your pet has a few levels.
- Sell your harvest at the Silk Road and start upgrading.
Or just poke around. Everything is accessible from the nav bar.
FAQ
Do I need an account?
No. Everything is stored in your browser’s localStorage. No accounts, no servers, no sign-ups. The downside: if you clear your browser data, your progress is gone.
Is any of this real money?
No. Coins and JackBucks are fake currencies that exist only in your browser. You cannot deposit, withdraw, or lose real money.
Which pet should I pick?
They’re all viable. Each type has different strengths: one refunds casino losses, another earns bonus coins on wins, and the third provides insurance on bad beats. They differ on the farm too, with bonuses like auto-replanting, faster crop growth, or auto-harvesting. Pick whatever sounds fun.
Can I have more than one pet?
Yes. You can own all three types. Only one is active at a time, but you can switch between them in the pet shop. Each pet keeps its own level and evolution progress.
How do JackBucks work?
JB are earned by selling crops and materials on the farm. Spend them at the Silk Road for seeds, upgrades, and cosmetics. You can also convert JB to casino coins at a 1:5 exchange rate through the Silk Road’s currency bridge.
What's the tower defense thing?
A full tower defense game on the farm page. Place towers, kill waves of enemies, earn SamBucks that convert to JackBucks when the run ends. Three maps, three difficulties, an endless mode, and your pet fights as the hero unit.
Do the book reviews have anything to do with the games?
No. The reviews are just reviews. They were here first.