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.
The Spite Game ping-pongs back and forth over a 10-year period between 2008 and 2018. Snoekstra drops hints about what has transpired across the timeline, giving readers plenty of opportunities to speculate. The narrator is a woman named Ava, who, after the present-day Prologue, begins recounting her experience as a high school senior ... This is a book that many readers a few years removed from high school will be able to identify with, but don’t be surprised if it finds a high school audience on its own.
In high school, Ava was bullied by a clique of girls who pretended to be her friends, then betrayed and humiliated her. Since that time, the focus of her life is systematic revenge ... Snoekstra’s latest is another fast-paced, exciting read, featuring a protagonist who chooses to stoop to the level of her tormentors. The result is a sinister revenge fantasy laced with jaw-droppingly creepy moments, both in the harassment Ava endures and the punishment she doles out in return. The Spite Game is ideal for readers looking for a fresh take on the twisty psychological thriller featuring unpredictable (and unreliable) female leads.
One night in 2008, high school senior Ava, the narrator of this entertaining if flawed thriller from Australian author Snoekstra, wakes up in her bedroom in a Melbourne suburb to find a man standing over her bed with a baseball bat. The intruder leaves without harming her, but the police fail to apprehend him. The incident fundamentally changes Ava: 'Something wrong had happened, and no one even seemed to even expect for it to be put right except me.' ... Some unbelievable moments won’t stop readers from turning the pages.
