Hannah Capin is the author of Foul is Fair and The Dead Queens Club, a feminist retelling of the wives of Henry VIII. When she isn’t writing, she can be found singing, sailing, or pulling marathon gossip sessions with her girl squad. She lives in Tidewater, Virginia.
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Genre: Young Adult Thriller
Release Date: Feb. 18, 2020
Purchase Link: Amazon
My Rating: 4 BOLD Hearts
*With special thanks to Wednesday Books for an arc of this book via Netgalley
Foul is Fair is a bloody, thrilling revenge fantasy for the girls who have had enough. Golden boys beware: something wicked this way comes.
Synopsis:
Elle and her friends Jenny, Mads, and Summer rule their glittering LA circle. Untouchable, they have the kind of power other girls only dream of. Every party is theirs and the world is at their feet. Until the night of Elle’s sweet sixteen, when they crash a St. Andrew’s Prep party. The night the golden boys choose Elle as their next target.
They picked the wrong girl.
Sworn to vengeance, Elle transfers to St. Andrew’s Prep. She plots to destroy each boy, one by one. She'll take their power, their lives, and their control of the prep school's hierarchy. And she and her coven have the perfect way in: a boy named Mack, whose ambition could turn deadly.
Review:
In the past year or so, I've expanded my reading boundaries to include genres I've previously shied away from like Young Adult. And the rewards have been tenfold! I've discovered amazingly talented authors spinning fantastic tales in the genre, and as a matter of fact, one of my favorite books of 2019 was of the Young Adult genre. Go figure! lol So to say Foul Is Fair is out of my reading wheelhouse is a gross understatement. So why did I love it so much? I honestly can't say other than it spoke to me on a deeper level, sparking a dying flame. And I'm happy to say it rewarded me with another Young Adult favorite author and book!
Hannah Capin's rendering of Foul Is Fair is BOLD, brutal, violent - with inspiration drawn from a teen Macbeth, no doubt. Through edgy and daring prose and first person point of view, the story of Elle and three of her closest friends is told. Drugged and gang raped at a Prep Party at the age of sixteen, Elle is the banner-child for the old saying, "Don't get mad, Get even!" And heaven help me, I cheered for her all the way as she and her friends methodically planned and served up vengeance to the boys who violated Elle in such a despicable way. I'm not going any deeper into the story or plot lines, but I will say that the author's brilliant writing sucked me into this story much more than I anticipated. However, beware the trigger warnings of rape, language, and extreme violence as it is prevalent in this book.
Author Hannah Capin takes on real world issues faced by girls and women in their daily lives in Foul Is Fair. Through a dark narrative, she spotlights the good-old-boy mentality as people's willingness to turn a blind eye to the violence often perpetrated against girls and women is prevalent. This story also features the issue of a bullying mentality often found among students as they seek to climb the social ladder and reign supreme over their school mates, holding court with their own little clique of friends. Issues of class, race, and sexuality often dictate ones place in the hierarchy. The fact that I felt empathy and actually pulled for Elle and her friends during their reign of terror and deliverance of vengeance to her abusers is simply amazing. I kept thinking I should find their brutality revolting...but I didn't. I can only credit that to the amazing story telling abilities of Capin. She sold me this story hook, line, and sinker. Could it have been told in a lighter, less violent manner? Maybe, but there's little doubt it wouldn't have had the same dramatic impact as Foul Is Fair. Raw, dark, and gritty, this story sends a warning to bullies and abusers who manage to elude justice - Beware...we're coming for you. You picked the wrong girl this time. Or should I say the right girl? A fantastic read in the genre! Highly recommended!
My Rating: 4 BOLD Hearts
Hannah Capin's rendering of Foul Is Fair is BOLD, brutal, violent - with inspiration drawn from a teen Macbeth, no doubt. Through edgy and daring prose and first person point of view, the story of Elle and three of her closest friends is told. Drugged and gang raped at a Prep Party at the age of sixteen, Elle is the banner-child for the old saying, "Don't get mad, Get even!" And heaven help me, I cheered for her all the way as she and her friends methodically planned and served up vengeance to the boys who violated Elle in such a despicable way. I'm not going any deeper into the story or plot lines, but I will say that the author's brilliant writing sucked me into this story much more than I anticipated. However, beware the trigger warnings of rape, language, and extreme violence as it is prevalent in this book.
Author Hannah Capin takes on real world issues faced by girls and women in their daily lives in Foul Is Fair. Through a dark narrative, she spotlights the good-old-boy mentality as people's willingness to turn a blind eye to the violence often perpetrated against girls and women is prevalent. This story also features the issue of a bullying mentality often found among students as they seek to climb the social ladder and reign supreme over their school mates, holding court with their own little clique of friends. Issues of class, race, and sexuality often dictate ones place in the hierarchy. The fact that I felt empathy and actually pulled for Elle and her friends during their reign of terror and deliverance of vengeance to her abusers is simply amazing. I kept thinking I should find their brutality revolting...but I didn't. I can only credit that to the amazing story telling abilities of Capin. She sold me this story hook, line, and sinker. Could it have been told in a lighter, less violent manner? Maybe, but there's little doubt it wouldn't have had the same dramatic impact as Foul Is Fair. Raw, dark, and gritty, this story sends a warning to bullies and abusers who manage to elude justice - Beware...we're coming for you. You picked the wrong girl this time. Or should I say the right girl? A fantastic read in the genre! Highly recommended!
My Rating: 4 BOLD Hearts
Cross My Heart . . . xxx
♥Sandra♥
Book Excerpt:
Jenny
ran back out barefoot in her baby-pink baby-doll dress and flung herself into
the back seat across Summer’s lap, and Mads was out of the lot and onto the
road, singing through six red lights, and everything was still slow and foggy
and almost like a dream, but when Jenny threw the box onto my knees I could see it diamond-clear. Hard black Cleopatra bangs
on the front and the label, spelled
out plain: #010112 REVENGE. So I said it out loud:
REVENGE
And
Mads gunned the engine harder and Summer and Jenny shrieked
war-cries from the back seat and
they grabbed my hand, all
three of them, and we clung together so tight
I could feel blood under my broken claws.
REVENGE, they said back to me. REVENGE, REVENGE,
REVENGE.
So in the bathroom, an hour later
and alone, I dye my hair
revenge-black, and I feel dark wings growing
out of my back, and
I smile into the mirror at the girl with ink-stained fingers and a silver sword.
Then I cut my broken
nails to the quick.
Then I go to bed.
In the
morning I put on my darkest lipstick before it’s even
breakfast time, and I go to Nailed
It with a coffee
so hot it burns my throat. The beautiful old lady with the crooked smile gives me new nails as long as
the ones they broke off last night,
and stronger.
She
looks at the bruises on my neck and the scratches across my face, but she
doesn’t say anything.
So I point at
my hair, and I say, This color. Know
what it’s
called?
She shakes her head: No.
I say, REVENGE.
She
says, Good
girl. Kill him.
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