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Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington

41 reviews

adventurous dark tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Preposterous plot but a fun read anyway. 

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challenging dark mysterious tense

This was intense. Vicious doesn't even begin to describe the games or the people.  I immediately got "Ace of Spades" vibes and then it got weird with the whole Bachelor-ish situation. I was on edge through so much of this and didn't trust anyone. I'm glad that there was an epilogue and we were able to see what happened after, but this story was just shocking overall and I needed a few days to process before I posted a review. 

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Squid Games meets The Bachelor? Sign me up! ... To read about. Not to compete in. This fast-paced young adult thriller takes "eat the rich" to a whole new level. 

Adina is a Black teenager who was about to secure her future through her scholarship to Yale. Her plans are ruined once an incident at school causes her to lose that well-earned scholarship. The only way to get it back is to enter the Finish--a competition where young women prove themselves worthy of being a part of the wealthy Remington family through three different events. It is not long before Adina and the other girls in the Finish realize that the stakes are higher than money and power. It's life or death. The younger Remington boys say they're trying to change the system, but are they? Being one of the only girls who didn't grow up in the rich world the Remingtons live in, Adina realizes she has to either change herself or change the Finish to survive. 

Though the characters may seem superficial at first, each one has their own motivations and moments of reckoning. Wellington's commentary on race and class and what people will do to achieve and maintain power is fascinating. She certainly doesn't attempt to make the reader comfortable, and there are many times I had to remind myself that I wanted Adina to get out and not to conform to the Remington way. 

This novel challenges social structures and typical tropes, and it was just a damn good book with a satisfying ending. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Readers will be left in a state of shock and horror (in all the best ways) after finishing Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington. This is a fast-paced novel that is packed with thrills and chills, and readers won’t even begin to imagine the terrors that will unfold within its pages.

There are so many amazing strengths to consider when talking about this book. Two (2) of the biggest things that stood out to me were the brilliant world-building and meticulous character development. All of the characters in this book are used with purpose. Some of the side characters we do not see much of, but when you do read about them, you know they have been placed with thought and intention. Readers will also be able to see the world of this book unfold as they read as if they were watching a movie. The Remington Estate, the clothes, the expressions on the characters' faces. Everything is painted so vividly and clearly through Wellington’s alluring prose.  

Another aspect of this book that Wellington handles so well is the impact that classism and racism have on the characters and society that run rampant through the upper-class New England community where the prestigious Edgewater Academy resides. There are many barriers that Adina faces throughout the book - barriers built from the materials of systemic racism and classism. This book is set in a fictional New England world, however, readers will likely be able to see connections to socioeconomic and racial injustices that are happening in our world today. This is definitely a heavy read, but it is also a read that is packed with traditional horror characteristics and creates a modern twist on the “final girl” trope.  

It was difficult to pinpoint a weakness in this well-crafted punch of a novel. One thing I would say is that readers might be a bit off-put by the quick-developing attraction from the female characters to the male characters, Pierce and Graham. It’s clear from the beginning of the competition that the money and power the Remington family carries has a lot to do with the motivation for many of the girls’ attraction to Pierce, but the attraction between Adina and Graham seems to develop within a page or two, making more of a quick-combustion attraction that does not have much backing. 

Their Vicious Games is a book that I would highly recommend to readers who enjoy fast-paced thrillers that leave them feeling utterly shocked, especially if they like books that intricately weave together themes of race and class with classical horror tropes. I would likely recommend this book to older teen readers due to the fact that some of the content in this book is fairly intense and there is strong language used throughout. 

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark mysterious tense
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Almost DNF’ed at the out of nowhere kissing in the woods in the beginning but I’m glad I stuck with it. The book really picked up when the games actually began (I mean, obviously, haha).

One thing I loved about this book was that I was unable to predict the ending. The stakes were high and the odds for a good ending felt very unlikely. Does she win the games? Will she survive? Will she somehow get out of it? Those questions really kept me engaged and excited to read how it would end.

I could’ve done without any romantic subplot but it wasn’t horrible. 

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