Their Vicious Games -- Joelle Wellington, Hardcover

A Black teen desperate to regain her Ivy League acceptance enters an elite competition only to discover the stakes aren't just high, they're deadly, in this searing thriller that's Ace of Spades meets Squid Game with a sprinkling of The Bachelor.

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 competition, 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.

Author: Joelle Wellington
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 07/25/2023
Pages: 416
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.90w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9781665922425
Age Range: 13-17

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2023
Publishers Weekly 06/05/2023
Booklist 07/01/2023 pg. 68