Their Vicious Games

May 15, 2023
A teenager enrolls in a lethal competition to salvage her reputation and repair her broken future. As the valedictorian of Edgewater Academy, 18-year-old Adina Walker planned to attend Yale University and escape the predictability of suburban Massachusetts, where old money, classism, and casual racism are as ubiquitous as Brooks Brothers. Fortunately, Adina has her best friend, Toni, who is one of the few other Black students on campus. After a long-simmering conflict between Adina and queen bee Esme Alderidge turns physical, Adina's Yale acceptance is rescinded. Just when all hope seems lost, Adina is invited to participate in the Finish, a high-pressure, exclusive contest sponsored by the town's ruling blueblood family, the Remingtons. But soon after Adina arrives at Remington Estate, she learns this competition isn't a test of feminine etiquette--it's a battle for survival. In this debut thriller that calls to mind the Japanese dystopian film Battle Royale (2000) and the American horror film Ready or Not (2019), power and privilege are depicted as twin evils that decimate empathy and corrupt morality. Adina's outsider status amplifies the desperate greed and calculated sociopathy of the upper crust. While the worldbuilding is thin in some places, particularly around the dark traditions of the Remingtons and the unquestioning compliance of their sycophants, readers are rewarded with heart-stopping reveals. A twisty chronicle, filled with equal parts glory and gore, of an outlier who transforms into a modern "final girl." (Thriller. 14-18)

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June 5, 2023
Black 18-year-old Adina Walker—valedictorian of Edgewater Academy, a school for the affluent, largely white, population of Massachusetts’s elite—thinks she has her future at Yale all planned out. Then she gets into a physical altercation with classmate Esme Alderidge, a mean and powerful socialite. The event results not only in Yale rescinding Adina’s acceptance, but in Adina getting blacklisted from every other Ivy League college. Desperate to get back into her dream school, Adina befriends Pierce Maxwell Remington IV, the second son of the most influential family in New England, who purportedly invites her via letter to enter a prestigious competition called the Finish. Along with 11 other girls, Adina must compete in three mysterious challenges: the Ride, the Raid, and the Royale. But what she assumed would be events based around “upper crust manners” turns out to be a vicious game of life or death. Slight worldbuilding occasionally causes confusion that saps tension from perilous, high-stakes scenes. Nevertheless, through Gossip Girl–inspired drama that interrogates the ability of power and privilege to corrupt, debut author Wellington delivers a spine-chilling thriller. Ages 14–up.

July 1, 2023
Grades 9-12 Wellington doesn't hold back in this explosive debut novel. After a falling-out with the school's resident mean girl, Adina loses everything: her offer to Yale is rescinded, and she quickly becomes the school's pariah. In a last-ditch effort to get her life back on track, Adina corners Pierce Remington IV, the youngest son of a wealthy and powerful family, for an invite to the family's annual competition for young women. The Finish pits girls against one another for a chance to advance socially and move in circles that once were closed to them. Adina enters the competition assuming that she'll spend time learning how to properly hold a fork and be a good hostess, but she quickly learns that Finishes are more desperate---and bloodier--when a Remington boy is looking for a bride. While Adina's plight will keep readers breathless, readers sensitive to intense violence might want to take care. Wellington humanizes each girl, even the ones who seem irredeemable, which makes the stakes even higher. Anyone desperate for a Hunger Games-esque adventure will devour this debut.

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Starred review from September 1, 2023

Gr 10 Up-As one of the few Black students (and, by far, the poorest) at her prestigious prep school, Adina has always had to work twice as hard to achieve success. So when a bathroom brawl with one of her classmates results in her acceptance to Yale being rescinded, Adina seemingly has no options after graduation. Her only opportunity to restore the future that she had dreamed of is to win the Finish, an annual competition for young ladies of quality given by the incredibly wealthy and powerful Remington family. But when Adina arrives at the Finish and realizes it is actually a viciously deadly battle for a Remington son's hand in marriage, she discovers that she is fighting not just for her academic dreams, but for her very life. Wellington's debut novel is a scathing satire against the uber rich. A genre-bender that is part thriller, part horror, and part contemporary fiction with a splash of romance, this is a truly unique and creative story that teens will be unable to put down. The characters are nuanced and grow throughout the story, and the fast-paced action will keep teens guessing at what new horror might be just around the corner. But it's the commentary on extreme wealth alongside subtle and outright racism and classism, that ensure that this story is not only relevant and timely but also one that will stick with readers long after the book's dramatic final confrontation. VERDICT Unhinged violence abounds, so this is recommended for high school collections.-Chelsey Masterson

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