The Payback Girls
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Why get over your cheating ex when you can get even? John Tucker Must Die meets One of Us Is Lying in a gripping, page-turning debut young adult thriller.
Senior year was supposed to be about dreams, not damage control.
Meghan’s got everything going for her: top of her class, basketball star boyfriend, future Ivy League plans. Then one pep rally changes everything. Nate—her charming, untouchable boyfriend—has been dating two other girls. At the same time. And none of them knew.
Bria and Robin are furious. So is Meghan. But when Nate turns up bloodied and unconscious in the locker room after the big game, all three girls suddenly become suspects. Who knows more than they’re letting on?
Now it’s a race to figure out what really happened that night, while navigating a fragile alliance built on betrayal…and Megan’s growing feelings for her former rival. With the police, classmates, and their parents all watching their every move, Meghan, Bria, and Robin must figure out who to trust—and how far they’re willing to go for the truth.
For readers who crave high-drama mysteries with fierce, flawed female leads and page-turning tension, The Payback Girls delivers a powerful punch of sisterhood amid betrayal and suspense.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After Black high school senior Meghan Landry discovers her popular, self-described biracial basketball star boyfriend Nate Walker has been secretly cheating on her with field hockey captain Robin Ellison and student government president Bria Kelly—the only two other Black girls in their grade—the three team up to teach him a lesson. But the trio become prime suspects when a vicious attack in the boys' locker room leaves Nate bloodied and unconscious in the hospital. Then an anonymous social media account starts spilling the girls' secrets. As more about Nate's checkered romantic history comes to light, Meghan, Robin, and Bria must find a way to put aside their differences and trust one another if they want to find his attacker and clear their names. In this edgy thriller riff on John Tucker Must Die, Travis (The Only Black Girl in the Room, for adults) briefly touches on themes of racism, economic inequality, queerness, intimate partner violence, and PTSD. Despite surface-level characterization and somewhat implausible plot twists, the dramatic tragicomedy's soapy atmosphere and the execution of Meghan and Robin's developing romance prove entertaining. Ages 14–up.
