Their Vicious Game

Wellington, Joelle. Their Vicious Game. 2023. 416p. ISBN 9781665922425.

Adina has always played her cards right. A Black scholarship student at the prestigious Edgewater Academy where the overwhelming majority of students are White, Adina has received early acceptance at Yale, her favorite school, and she sees her future traced before her. Going to Yale means escaping suburbia, where her parents, faculty members at Edgewater, built a comfortable but unassuming life. For Adina, Yale is her means of leaving her scholarship status, meaning being poor in the eyes of her classmates, behind. 

But her best friend Esme, who also applied to Yale, does not get in, and in a careless moment, Adina lets it slip that Esme's family is being investigated for insider trading and Esme is about to be poorer than Adina. Jealous at Adina's admission and furious that this family secret is out, Esme takes it out on Adina by having her parents pull strings, and Adina finds her admission to Yale rescinded. With her carefully constructed future crumbling, Adina turns to the Finish, a competition held by the Remingtons, the wealthy family that donated the school and its land. Every year, twelve girls of merit are invited to participate in games to determine which one will receive a full scholarship to any college of her choice, as the Remington's name can open doors anywhere.

The Finish, however, is different when a Remington boy graduates from high school. Pierce Remington, a classmate of Adina, is also graduating this year. Adina is admitted in the Finish, only to discover that the girls are competing to be Pierce's future wife. She's even more dismayed when she discovers that this competition is to the death, and the Remingtons have the power to make bodies disappear and stifle any questions parents may ask.

Now faced with the deadly possibility that she will not make it out, Adina must find a way to survive the Finish, especially since Esme is also participating, and she wants Adina dead. Plus, Adina does not love Pierce and she does not want to be his prize. With her roommate Saint's help, and with assistance from Graham, Pierce's older brother who is also enammored with Adina, she must succeed at three deadly events: the Ride, the Raid, and the Royale. In a deadly game, Adina soon discovers that sometimes one needs to change the rules to triumph...

An excellently written parody of dystopian books where teens compete in a deadly game for the one position available, Their Vicious Game is a quick read that is both entertaining and still manages to raise some important questions. How far would someone go to secure their future? Fans of might also enjoy the following: Arena One, Starters, Maze Runner, Ship Breaker, Reboot, Not a Drop to Drink, Birthmarked and Divergent.