Published by Mira on October 30th, 2018
Genre: Thriller
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Pages: 320
Goodreads
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Everyone does bad things when no one is watchingI love a good revenge story, and The Spite Game delivers. It wasn't without its flaws but if you're looking for a compelling voice in adult thrillers, this is your book.
Mercilessly bullied in high school, Ava knows she needs to put the past behind her and move on, but she can’t—not until she’s exacted precise, catastrophic revenge on the people who hurt her the most.
First, she watches Saanvi. Flawlessly chic and working hard at a top architectural firm, Saanvi has it all together on the surface. But everyone does bad things when they think no one is watching and Ava only wants what’s fair—to destroy Saanvi’s life the way her own was destroyed.
Next, she watches Cass. She’s there as Cass tries on wedding dresses, she’s there when Cass picks out a cake, she’s there when Cass betrays her fiancé. She’s the reason Cass’s entire future comes crashing down.
Finally, Ava watches Mel. Mel was always the ringleader and if anyone has to pay, it’s her. But one tiny slipup and Ava realizes the truth: Mel knows she’s being watched, and she’s ready to play Ava’s games to the bitter end.
I think the biggest obstacle an author has when writing about revenge is to make the reader hate the person the MC is getting even with. If you make them too soft or sympathetic, you'll fail; but if you make them into too much of a caricature, a cartoon villain, it all seems silly. Snoekstra struck the perfect balance in this book. I hated these girls from the get-go. Ava was not particularly sympathetic as an adult, but that doesn't even matter when you look at how horrible Mel, Saanvi, and Cass could be. I wanted them to pay for what they did.
I didn't find the plot itself to be particularly twisted and surprising. We know from the beginning that Ava is in a police station preparing to confess to something, we just don't know what she's confessing to. From there she gives us her story with the three mean girls, how they became "friends" in high school and how everything went terribly, terrifyingly downhill. This is definitely a story about bullying and it's pretty upsetting if you've ever been on the receiving end yourself. What I didn't understand, though, was why Ava was going to confess. By the time we reach the end, Ava has basically declared herself a psychopath, says she's incapable of feeling things like love, guilt, or remorse. So I don't understand her motive for turning herself in. It doesn't make any sense to me.
My favorite parts of the book were when Ava was exacting her revenge. The author knows how to ramp up the tension to the perfect degree; my heart was pounding. The ways Ava got back at her bullies were so clever, particularly Saanvi's demise. I was on the edge of my seat each time Ava was almost seen, almost caught, almost called out. Another surprising aspect that I liked a lot was Ava's incredibly slow burning relationship with Evan. When the time finally came for them to be together, I was actually swept up in Evan's moment and I don't know how it happened. You certainly don't expect that in a thriller, even less so when the main character is so detached from humanity.
All in all, while I wish this had more surprises and more twists, and I wish I had a better answer for why Ava was going to confess to everything, I still found this compulsively readable. In a time when the reading slump is really getting to me, I practically flew through The Spite Game. I thought Ava's voice was compelling and sharp, and her revenge plan, while obviously evil, was enough to have me on her side against some really terrible, awful people.
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