If it was socially acceptable, I would quit my job tomorrow and spend the rest of my life standing at street corners handing this book to every person crossing my path. Alas, I am but a humble (and broke) human so this review will have to convince you to read this book.
Foul is Fair follows young Elle Jade who, together with her coven of popular and powerful friends, rules LA. The world at their feet, there is little these girls can do that would lead to trouble.
On the night of Elle’s sixteenth birthday, they decide to crash a party that will change the trajectory of their lives. Drugged and raped by not one but four golden boys who drip privilege down their snotty noses, Elle decides to make them pay. Not just for herself, but for every girl that came before her. She will be the last girl these boys ever touch without consent. And she will be the last face they see before they die. They have picked the wrong girl to cross. Jade is relentless and angry. After having control stripped from her in one of the most crucial moments in her life, she will do anything to get it back. To move from the status of victim, beyond the survivor narrative to something else altogether: Avenger.
With a powerful, bomb-shell attitude, a new name and look, and her coven of friends who would do anything for her, Jade changes schools to attend St. Andrews and infiltrate the group of friends for one reason and one reason only: to annihilate the people who violated her. With the help of the supposed “golden boy” of the St. Andrews royalty, Mack, and her devoted friends, Jade embarks on a carefully orchestrated path of revenge, to take the boys down one by one.
I don’t know how to do this book justice with words because all I want to do is scream into the void in my heart because this story was exactly what I needed. Foul Is Fair is a revenge story. There is nothing pretty about it. It, quite like its protagonist Jade, is ruthless and full of wrath and by god, I could not put it down.
There is not a lot of exposition or flowery description and it works perfectly for this novel. You don’t need to know every single detail about a person’s appearance or their home to connect with them. Capin excels at putting you into Jade’s shows, at making you feel the frustration and the armour she puts on herself, the denial and the urge to bring justice upon those who have wronged her. The writing is compulsive and draws you right in, there are no lull moments in the plot—this is a story driven by emotions and it will keep you flipping the pages with the sheer power behind that anger and determination. Certainly, there is a level of suspension of disbelief that you need to have to go into this story, to accept that this will not be pretty. That there will be blood and that this girl manages to unravel this group and get people to murder for her within the span of fourteen days. That these are the people with powerful families that have lawyers waiting to get murder charges thrown out before the gruesome homicides ever cross the newspaper headlines. But once you start that story, you cannot stop until you finish it because you need to see what happens to those who tried to destroy Jade and failed. And now have to pay for it.
This is a polarising book. People are either going to love it or hate it, I don’t think there will be much middle ground. And in a way I think that comes down to what you have experienced in your life or who you know in your circle of loved ones who may have lived through this. For far too many women (and men!), sexual assault and rape is at the forefront of their minds. There are far too many situations we find ourselves in where this is the possible outcome, and sometimes we can escape it and sometimes we don’t. It is inhuman, it is frustrating, it is disgusting and horrible, and five thousand other words that will never make others understand the sheer terror we feel in those moments. We feel powerless, we feel like the victims, we are coddled with empty words or left stranded but in Foul Is Fair, one of us takes the power back. One of us picks herself up off the ground and gets the payback so many of us would love to have but perhaps never will.
An unapologetic, addictive tour de force that will leave readers entranced and empowered, a fantastically grafted story with an inevitable ending that you won’t soon forget. Perfect for fans of Euphoria, Cruel Intentions, Nikita, and Killing Eve, this is for everyone who ever needed the hope of being avenged.
Foul Is Fair is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of February 18th 2020.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Elle and her friends Mads, Jenny, 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. 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.
Foul is Fair is a bloody, thrilling revenge fantasy for the girls who have had enough. Golden boys beware: something wicked this way comes.
