This book got off to a slow start, but it wasn't too long until I was dying to know what this group of mean girls had done to Ava that pushed her over the edge and filled her with the single minded purpose of revenge. By the time it was revealed, I couldn't wait to find out how Ava's plan to get even would play out. If you have ever had a revenge fantasy you will likely enjoy this guilty pleasure.

Everyone does bad things when no one is watching...

A revenge story that's told from Ava, who is the main character. It's also told through Ava’s point of view. Mel, Saanvi and Cass are the villains and they are just terrible, cruel girls that you just love to hate. This story goes from the past to the present, which can be a little confusing if you don't pay attention to the details. I thought this was a great read filled with suspense and gasping moments that slowly build up as you read on.

Thank you to #NetGalley and Harlequin for an advance copy of #TheSpiteGame.
Pub Date: 30 Oct 2018

“That’s the thing about people. They don’t care if they hurt you. They’ll only notice if you hurt them back.”

If you were tormented by mean girls at school but never got (or even considered) revenge, this book is for you.
It’s great to live vicariously through Ava as she plots and carries out revenge on the three girls who ruined her high school years.

The story wouldn’t be complete if it were simply a tale of revenge without any justification to back it up. Ava’s flashbacks paint a clear picture of how awful her high school experience was thanks to her bullies and show us the depth of her psychological scars. Ava desperately wanted to fit in with and be accepted by Saanvi, Cass, and Mel and they let her in just enough so that they could humiliate her even further.

The feelings of shame and isolation Ava suffers due to the bullying and manipulation by those three girls are so realistic that it hit a little too close to home for me but that just intensified the satisfaction I felt when she finally got even.

I really enjoyed this book. The main character, Ava , was easy for me to relate to because she was bullied like I was. She becomes obsessed with getting revenge on the mean girls who ruined her lives, and it plays out in interesting ways. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy in exchange for review. For Anyone who enjoyed Snoekstra’s book Only Daughter this novel is even better.

5/5 stars

Thank you Harper Collins Canada for my advanced copy of this psychological suspense YA read in exchange for an honest review. This book releases October 30.

Just in time for Halloween, this book has the perfect amount of creep and spook.

Ava just wants to fit in with the popular girls in high school (Mel, Cass and Saanvi) and every time she gets closer to achieving this goal, she’s thrown to the wolves by these vicious girls. Until one day she reaches her limit of being ridiculed and decides to plot her revenge against her vicious predators.

Ava becomes obsessed with getting back at the girls that have made her last year in high school a living hell, and she makes it her mission to have the last laugh, but will history repeat itself and will Ava be the one laughed at again!? You’ll have to pick this one up to find out.

Told from Ava’s POV, this story jumps from the past to the present frequently so tread carefully through this one so that you don’t miss a beat. This was the perfect YA read filled with suspense and gasping moments that slowly build up as you move through the story. It’s a slow to start build-up but the end result is well worth the wait. Revenge in this one is served icy cold!

A quick and engaging read with short chapters, this was my first Snoekstra book, and definitely won’t be my last. I’d compare her caliber of writing to that of B.A. Paris, but on a YA level, so do your TBR list a favor and add this quick and fun read, you won’t regret it.

My Rating: 4/5

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

I had forgotten what this book is about and i just started reading it. I would not call this a psychological thriller. The protagonist's story was all over the place (time wise) without any warning or written timeline and i found that a tad frustrating.

it was an alright story. What happened to her was awful but not worth what she was doing to the her "friends". I feel like she was a girl that needs it to be all about her. She was a tad annoying. On another note, we all make mistakes and whatnot but (without giving anything away) what the "mistakes" that the other girls did were severe and odd that this specific group all made this morally unacceptable things. ah well...

Very good psychological suspense. It is not an easy read - lots of rather abrupt shifts in time and it took me several chapters to get my reading feet under me so I could follow ‘when’ in the story I was. Even once I got the hang, the quick shifts were unsettling. This is not a bad thing in a psychological suspense book, where an off-kilter feeling adds to the thrill. Highly recommended for fans of this genre.

****4-4.25 stars****

The Spite Game by Anna Snoekstra is darker, more vulgar version of Mean Girls and I couldn't put it down. I flew through this read and just flat out loved this book. These girls are literally "the worst" to Anna growing up in school but yet she wants to be friends with them and finds herself going to extremes to friend them. She also obsessed over what they did to her and could never forgive and move on in life. I wouldn't say there is a lot of mystery or unknowns in this read but the writing style and story line just work. Highly recommend, great read!

Special thanks to Netgalley and MIRA for allowing me an advance read copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book I've read by Anna Snoekstra and it was kind of...meh. The synopsis intrigued me and I thought it would be a darker Mean Girls type book, which was definitely not the case.

This book is about Ana, who after becoming friends with the "popular" girls in school realizes they aren't really her friends and becomes the subject of bullying. Fast forward to her adult years Ana is determined to exact revenge on the girls who made her life hell in high school, in ways that go beyond what normal people would call revenge.

One of the main reasons I didn't really care for this book was because to me it seemed like Ana was stuck in high school days. Most people that get bullied in high school would look for revenge right away, not wait for years afterward and hold a grudge for that long. Overall just not a great book and I didn't really enjoy it.

Thank you to Harlequin for providing me a copy of this book for my honest review.

A mixture of a book, written in both the past and present (it goes back and forth) the main character has been bullied at school and is taking her revenge. I liked the premise but unfortunately, didn't really enjoy the book.

Ava is an irritating character who can't move on from issues in her past and, although I had some sympathy, it soon went and the characters were a tad one dimensional. However, as a YA read, this might hold more readers? Just not for me as I found it too confusing a read (it jumps about a lot) and with no real depth of storyline.

Thanks to Harlequin and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview.

A big applause to Mira Books and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read The Spite Game before it’s released to the general public. Ava, the narrator, is very flawed. Years after high school, she can’t forgive the three girls who bullied her there. Her entire life’s ambition is to extract her revenge or spite and make them pay for what they did to her. She watches Saanvi and learns about her life before she decides on the best way to ruin her. The way that Ava could hear everything people were saying from far away kind of blew my mind and decreased the believability of the plot. Ava has big plans to shame Cass, but at the last minute, Evan, who she wants to be with, stops her.

That leaves Mel, the ring leader of the three bullies. I’ll let you read this for yourself and decide if she got what was coming to her. It was difficult to find anything to like about the main females in this novel, which is why I gave it four stars, and also because the spying was difficult to believe. Still, it’s a good read and I didn’t figure out the ending.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this early in exchange for an honest review. I really liked this book. The telling of the story took a little bit to get used to going back and forth past and present trying to decipher between what was going on but once I got past that I really enjoyed it.I like the fact that Evan and her got to know each other and in the end he helped save her from doing something she shouldn't have done and I like the fact that Bea knew what was going on but she never said anything in the end especially the cop telling her what she did. She gave her absolucion and told her not to worry about it basically it was kind of like mean girls coming to an end they all deserved everything they got in the end it was just a game to them except for Ava she took it to heart. Read this book!

The Spite Game is the first time I’ve read a book by Anna Snoekstra. This book follows Ava who tries to befriend a trio of popular girls in high school, but soon realizes they aren’t her friends and that they bullied her. As she grows up, she decides to take revenge on each of them. Overall, this thriller reminded me of a sad want-to-be twisted and messed up version of “Mean Girls”. I couldn’t get into it. All the characters were way too weird and unlikable to me. I think that the transitions from past to present could be smoother. The current ARC makes it confusing where you need to reread the previous paragraph to get an idea of the timing. There were also egregious spelling and grammar mistakes which I hope they fix when they release book. I would recommend skipping this book as there are other great thrillers to read. The book releases on Tue 10/30.

Disclaimer: I received a free advanced digital copy of this book from Harlequin in exchange for my honest opinion. This has no effect on my opinion, review or rating.

Very disturbing and a little twisted. A girl bullied in high school, trying desperately to fit in, Ava just wants a bit of revenge.while this story flip flops from past to parent and back again, I found it very easy to follow. I did have trouble getting into it at first but I sure am glad I kept on reading.

This is a compulsively readable, twisted story about terrible teenage girls and what one of their victims might do in the name of revenge. It's not a secret that some young women are really, genuinely, awful to others in the middle and high school years, and there are plenty of books about these bullies, but Anna Snoekstra wrote a wickedly good take on this story. Ava is bitter but fierce, damaged but determined, and she works hard to find insidious ways to take down her former tormentors. Reading the high school set parts is cringy at times, and Ava had a high level of tolerance for awful treatment in the name of fitting in with these awful girls (it's not worth it, it's never worth it). Her obsession post high school is strange and fascinating as she stalks and plots against them. I read this one fast to find out what she'd done and what the consequences would be.

The Spite Game is Mean Girls all grown up without Lindsay Lohan’s prom speech when she gives pieces of the tiara to people. Ava was desperate to join the cool girls in high school until they embarrassed her one night at a party. Years later - she gets her revenge. Snoekstra’s writing kept me wanting to know what’s going to happen next the entire time.

I have really enjoyed previous books by Anna Snoekstra and this one jumped out at me and I couldn't wait to read it. It did not let me down, although it wasn,t as good as her previous book Little Secrets. It was a fun, fast but at times disturbing read with some very nasty characters.

We all know the mean girls at school. These 3 girls were just hideous! But at school Ava wanted nothing more than to be friends with them, the popular girls. Time and time again she let them make fun of her and bully her. We learn about this time at school through flashbacks. Ava is unable to put the past behind her and sets out to get revenge.

Thanks to Harlequin - Mira and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

In high school Ava wants nothing more than to be part of the popular group of girls. Even though she sees how cruel they are, it doesn't diminish her desire to be best friends with Mel, Saanvi and Cass. Then one night at a party the torture goes too far and Ava can't recover from it. Years after they graduated she is still plotting revenge, determined to make each one of them pay.
This was one of those books that you can't put down, but at the same time leaves you feeling like you need a long hot shower to feel clean again. I kept wishing Ava would just let it all go and allow herself to be happy, but at the same time I had to keep reading to find out what lengths she would go to in order to exact her revenge. If you are a fan of thrillers, I would recommend you check this one out.

The Spite Game was a good story. I'm not going to lie, it took me a bit to get into it, but once I was, I couldn't put my tablet down. It was a good, fairly quick read.

I don't blame Ava for needing revenge - I probably would have too. This is why you never try to move up in the social hierarchy; eventually all the people who became your "friends" will knock you off your pedestal and throw you back in the dirt where you started. Popularity never pays off, people.

Four stars, due to the slow start. Be forewarned, though - you will, at some point, get sucked into this tale and then have to sleep. Or not. Either way, enjoy.

This was the first book I have read by Anna Snoekstra.
This book took place in the past and in the present. It was a very intense read. I at first felt sympathetic for Ava, but the more I read the more I felt disgusted by her.
She was bullied in her younger years, but still held that grudge into her adult years. She couldn’t have a normal relationship, because of her past. This book felt like a young adult book, instead of an adult read.
I’d still recommend it to others.