e-Audio, 12:21:40
Narrated by: Ariel Blake
Release Date: July 25, 2023
Published by: Simon & Schuster Audio
Read from: July 14-16, 2023
Stand-alone
Source: Libro FM
TW: Murder, Death, Poisoning, Gun Violence, Racism, Sexism
For Readers Interested In: Thriller, Contemporary, Horror, YAA 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.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I started this as soon as I got it in April, but I just couldn’t get into it. I was even reading it as a buddy read, but I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe it was because it was a physical copy and those are just taking a lot longer for me right now, but whatever the case was, I was getting frustrated with it. But just like when I read the Hunger Games, a friend who had already read it said, “Just get to the games.” And so I did. And AGAIN, I’m so glad I listened. It turned 100% around after that.
So one thing about me, I DO NOT LIKE SLOW BURNS. And that includes them in thrillers and mysteries and dystopians. All of them are terrible lol I need things to move quickly. I’m already a character driven reader so I attach to them. But if the story isn’t moving, the character doesn’t have much happening besides dialog with other characters because nothing is usually happening to them yet. And that”s what i felt like was happening here. It made for a kinda boring first half of the book.
Now at this point I told my friend, “Idkkkkk….” So she says, “Just get to the Games.” So I said ok and stuck it out till then. It’s then that the plot picks up and it went from eh, Idk to WTF IS GOING ON. Y’all I say this with each book I read, but I should really do a synopsis refresh before i start reading it. I didn’t remember what this book was about, so when I tell you I was like WTF lol I did not see that coming. And the comparaison they gave was pretty spot on. I really need to learn how to pay attention.
The characters in this book are terrible. No, I’m so serious, I only liked like 4 people. And when it all came down to it I felt totally vindicated because of this. But also this aspect of the book scared me tho. i knew shit was about to hit the fan when they started removing lines of communication. And the all the rich people? Can we say UNHINGED?! Literally all of them had too much pride, too much audacity, and too much of just everything. Rich people are crazy. Because why is the Finish even a thing? And the controversy between the two brothers? Just crazy. LITERALLY ALL OF THEM WERE NUTS.
It wasn’t perfect, but it was still good. I know if someone was watching me they would watch my mouth drop open in slow motion. Because I know I started it with a regular face and it dropped open as it goes on. If you’re going to read this, get through the beginning and then clear your schedule when you get to the end. You will need it. Because that ending will throw you for a loop lol
Overall, I give this
I gave it 4 on Goodreads and a 3.5 on Storygraph.