Their Vicious Games

By: Joelle Wellington

Narrated by: Ariel Blake

Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

“A brutally honest and haunting cautionary tale…exposing the lie that is meritocracy and the unrelenting toll that being a final girl takes. A bloody tale spun masterfully…a dark delight.” —Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, New York Times bestselling author of Ace of Spades

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 “spine-chilling thriller” (Publishers Weekly).

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.

©2022 Joelle Wellington (P)2022 Simon & Schuster Audio

What a great debut!!

As a person over the age of 35 i will admit that this isn’t my normal genre. Going in blind with no expectations, i was pleasantly impressed with the plot and story of Adina. Felt like Hunger Games meets Mean Girls. I literally spent the entire day listening it’s 9pm and I’m still in my pjs! I could totally see this book being made into a limited series. And i would watch it even knowing what happens. I wasn’t sold on the narrator at first feeling like she sounded too old for the character but within a few chapters i quite enjoyed her and since she’s a new narrator to me I’ll be excited to look for more of her work.

Fun read!

Entertaining and fun! The narrator spoke sad and depressively the entire time though, but because I tandem read (kindle and audio) it didn’t effect the story for me!

Great story, narrator okay

The story is fast paced and fun, it kept me on the edge of my seat and wanting to listen to it. I personally didn’t enjoy the narration since I felt she was very monotone and kind of depressing even when the characters should’ve had more passion.

great story

really enjoyed the story. Had a grip on me since the beginning, such relatable themes!

So much fun.!

This book was truly such a fun read. I went into not with no expectations although I will say that I was hoping to love it. And much to my satisfaction I did love it. This book was such a fun adventure. I was so invested in the main characters journey, so invested in all of the games and very very invested in the love story that started to brew. This book was fun and intense and I enjoyed every minute of it. I hope based on the ending that this story isn't going to end here but if it does I definitely will be tuning in to read it one more time.

Literally so good.

10/10 would recommend Their Vicious Games. Beautifully written, masterfully witty, amazing performance, just… amazing!

I LOVED IT (slight spoiler)

I reallyyyy loved this book! A part of me wanted a different ending for Graham and Adina but I understood how psychologically it was not realistic given his own decisions. This needs to be a movie or a show!

Where’s part 2??

This is by far one of the best books I’ve listened to! Please write more books!!

Uh… wow

Squid games+ Ready or Not+ who knows what= this book. It’s insane. But was also so very good.

Loved it!

I didn’t know what to expect, but someone’s description of “the hunger games meets mean girls” had me hooked. It was exciting, not simply written like YA, and character development was superb. I’ll be looking for more from this author. Well done.