contemporary

Wicked Games by Sean Olin

young adult contemporary thriller published by Katherine Tegen Books on 10 June 2014

To all the locals in the small beach town of Dream Point, Carter and Lilah seem like the perfect It Couple-but their relationship is about to brutally unravel before everyone’s eyes.

Carter has always been a good guy, and while Lilah has a troubled past, she’s been a loyal girlfriend for the last four years. When smart, sexy Jules enters the picture at a senior-year bash, Carter succumbs to temptation. And when Lilah catches wind of his betrayal, she decides that Jules needs to pay.

By the end of the summer, the line between right and wrong will be blurred beyond recognition. Blood will be shed. Nothing in Dream Point will ever be the same.

This juicy summer read will keep readers turning pages until the shocking, nail-biting finale.

THE RATING

Wicked Games is one big cliché of a book. First off, it misled me into thinking it’s going to be steamy hot. It wasn’t. I also thought it was going to be nail-biting except we all know what happens to psychos ninety percent of the time, I worked past that because I thought it was going to be shocking. It ended with a twist alright, but then the epilogue killed it. Lastly, there were some cringe-worthy moments where Lilah does some really ugly stuff. However, it also made me roll my eyes because Carter couldn’t handle Lilah and Jules was so scared and paranoid that it was plain annoying.

There’s obviously something wrong with Lilah because she goes into periods of intense depression where she hurts herself. It has severely affected her current, as well as future, life. In her various failed attempts to hold on to Carter, she actually manages to push him away further. And oh, she’s got the I’m-going-to-keep-following-you-to-the-edge-of-the-world-until-you-realize-how-much-you-need-slash-love-me routine perfected to a tee.

However, the cheating aspect is downright stupid and wrought with oh-please-don’t-give-me-those-lame-excuses-about-how-Jules’s-so-beautiful-but-Lilah-but-oh-well-fuck-it. The thing where he doesn’t want to leave Lilah because he’s afraid of what she’ll do to herself is nullified in that moment, because you really do not have the integrity Jules think you do. So you know your girlfriend is disturbed and I get that you’re too annoyed at her to care, but going skinny dipping with an almost stranger is bound to end up the way it did. And then there’s Jules who’s had this big crush on Carter since their freshman year which is supposed to justify his sudden interest in her? Just… no.

Lilah’s instability is obviously a plot device in the book which I feel wasn’t handled all that well. She was smarter than Carter and Jules combined despite her mental insecurities and is probably the best character in the book. She’s just fixated on being with Carter no matter what and that’s much more admirable than Jules daydreaming about how Carter is such a gentleman. Aw shucks.

I don’t have anything against characters that are hard to like because of the things they do and that is never something that makes me hate a book. Why I had such a problem with Wicked Games is because how stupid Carter and Jules act. Carter has been in a four year relationship with Lilah and one night he just ups and stop caring about her despite knowing she’s going through series stuff? That is not okay. Then he tries to help her on his own which is idiotic at best. On the other hand, Jules is made to seem like she’s sexy, smart and artsy but in reality she’s just not that much of a nice-girl victim she’s seems to be.

In short, Wicked Games is one big no-no and that’s just sad. I’m just happy that it was a quick read because I wanted it all to be over. I also actually couldn’t stop reading it because I was intrigued. Then I figured out what was about to happen and it went down from there. I guess if I didn’t have so many expectations from it, I’d have enjoyed it more but then I’m not so sure. Oh well.

THE QUOTES