Ratings16
Average rating3.7
You must work twice as hard to get half as much.
Adina Walker has known this the entire time she’s been on scholarship at the prestigious Edgewater Academy—a school for the rich (and mostly white) upper class of New England. It’s why she works so hard to be perfect and above reproach, no matter what she must force beneath the surface. Even one slip can cost you everything.
And it does. One fight, one moment of lost control, leaves Adina blacklisted from her top choice Ivy League college and any other. Her only chance to regain the future she’s sacrificed everything for is the Finish, a high-stakes contest sponsored by Edgewater’s founding family in which twelve young, ambitious women with exceptional promise are selected to compete in three mysterious events: the Ride, the Raid, and the Royale. The winner will be granted entry into the fold of the Remington family, whose wealth and power can open any door.
But when she arrives at the Finish, Adina quickly gets the feeling that something isn’t quite right with both the Remingtons and her fellow competitors, and soon it becomes clear that this larger-than-life prize can only come at an even greater cost. Because the Finish’s stakes aren’t just make or break…they’re life and death.
Adina knows the deck is stacked against her—it always has been—so maybe the only way to survive their vicious games is for her to change the rules..
Reviews with the most likes.
Liked the idea of the games; the beginning felt like a mix of The Selection, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I think this would be much better if it was a TV show (felt very Freeform) or if it was written for adults. The love triangle was my least favorite part of the book. It felt forced and out of place. I wanted more action, less romance.
Joelle Wellington's ‘Their Vicious Games' is a gripping page-turner that kept me hooked from start to finish. The suspenseful plot, coupled with the uncertainty surrounding the main character's fate, made it an intense read. The narrative's exploration of racism, misogyny, and classism adds depth to the story, creating a brutally beautiful portrayal of societal issues. Despite the challenges, the satisfying sliver of justice in the end provides a poignant closure.
So... young women from influential families were dying/going missing after participating in the Finish at the Remington estate for centuries and their families were accepting of this?????? Like did no family get suspicious at all when they never heard from their daughter/sister???????? And the worst part of it all, the girls were fighting to death to marry a man and could leave in body bags or emerge the victor. bombastic side-eye from me
This book is... not good at all. The adults during the Finish failed the girls, and the Royale “game” at the end was horrendous. Adults were hunting kids down and kids were fighting each other to their deaths. The kids were failed by the adults and everyone was annoying AF. I could not handle how some off the names of the kids were a huge tragedeigh. The only upside of this was Adina was wise enough to ghost Graham once she got out.