Review by Lois L. K. Chan
Simon & Schuster, July 2023
410 pages, Paperback, $26.99 CAD, 978-1-6659-3685-9
Young Adult, Ages 14+
Horror/Thriller, Fiction
“Suburbia sticks to you, like the chemical sugar of Yankee Candles and Bath & Body Works, even though you left the store hours ago. For years I’d be able to disguise the scent under borrowed Dior perfume and by sticking close to the shadows of girls who winter in Aspen. But one slip and the smell had surfaced.
Suburbia is forever.
But the Finish looms in my life like the last life raft. I know if I don’t try—no, if I don’t demand otherwise—Suburbia will be my forever, roll credits.”
High school senior Adina Walker wants it all. In fact, she’s worked hard for it — considering her scholarship at Edgewater Academy, a school for the ultra-rich and white (of which Adina is neither), and her early acceptance into Yale, a promise that she’ll escape her suburban life and the future of mediocrity it promises.
One violent fight to defend her best friend Toni’s reputation whisks that promise away, along with all of Adina’s other university acceptances. Unable to watch her wealthy classmates go on to Ivy Leagues without her — when she was the only one who worked hard for it — Adina sets her sights on gaining an exclusive invite to the elusive Finish. Rumoured to be a competition of skill for young women organized by the Remington family, the founders of Edgewater Academy, the Finish promises a lifetime of success for the winner, with the support of the Remingtons’ money and connections.
But the Finish is revealed to be an attempt to see how far a girl would go to get what she wants. If she’d even be willing to kill for it — and for the Remingtons.
By taking the reader through the three culling stages of the Finish — the Ride, the Raid, and the Royale — Wellington increases the stakes of the story as characters reveal their darker sides and the number of competitors accordingly drop. She uses the Repartees, evening events between each stage, to establish the relationship dynamics between the characters, including a love triangle between Adina and the Remington brothers, Pierce and Graham.
At the centre of the story, Adina is a fascinating character that doesn’t demand you to like her, but to understand her motivations. Still, it’s impossible not to admire how her stubbornness in holding onto her dreams translates into loyalty toward others and upholding her own dignity. As the story progresses, we see Adina negotiate her anger for the system of class, race, and gender disparities that the Finish represents, and with the violence it encourages her to participate in. Adina’s character arc shows that while her nature hasn’t changed, her way of understanding and navigating the world has.
Though she is separated from them in the Finish, Adina’s love for her parents and Toni shines throughout the story, contrasting with her “love” for her hypothetical future away from Suburbia. Yet their minimal presence in the story leaves room for potential in examining how relationships between Black individuals are troubled by their existence in white patriarchal systems of class — especially through Charles, Toni’s twin brother and Pierce’s best friend, who straddles the boundaries like Adina, but only appears briefly in three chapters.
Overall, Their Vicious Games is a dark, heart-pumping thriller reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Ready or Not, one that takes the reader through a gut punch of betrayal and danger at every turn. Joelle Wellington crafts an insightful take on race, class, and gender relations through the perspective of the cunning powerhouse that is Adina Walker, survivor.
Lois L. K. Chan is currently a Creative Writing major at UBC. She predominantly writes fiction, owns too many short story collections, and was once compared to an “antique store”. Her stories have been published in Yuzu Press, Gingerbread House Literary Magazine, and Soft Star Magazine.
YOUNG ADULTING 