The Wilde Trials

November 15, 2024
A wilderness challenge with a big prize brings out bad behavior. Wilde Academy's so elite that a dozen students compete for the title of Champion rather than mere valedictorian. Partial scholarship student Chloe Gatti needs the $600,000 prize to help her family; her younger sister has cancer and mounting medical bills. Chloe is selected along with Hayes Stratford, her ex-boyfriend, some friends she lost in the breakup, and a few cartoonishly snobbish classmates. Someone is blackmailing and undermining Chloe from the start. The trials aren't terribly thrilling--think riddles and trivia--until the blackmailer moves on to dangerous levels of sabotage. Chloe also ends up back in the orbit of handsome, privileged Hayes, seeking the truth of the trials three years prior, when his beloved older brother died in what Hayes believes wasn't an accident. The duo, who are cued white, end up in a tentative alliance that's ripe with unresolved romantic feelings. Chloe is economically disadvantaged and described as being taller, curvier, and heavier than the other girls (although her size goes unremarked upon by the characters). The vagueness of the portrayal of her identity undermines the effectiveness of the representation. Other forms of diversity in the cast also lack complexity, and the characters' motivations are generally weak. The plot relies on heavy suspension of disbelief, head-scratching logical leaps, and lapses of common sense that are sure to frustrate readers. The predictable ending leans into theatrical indulgence. An interesting premise marred by plausibility issues.(Thriller. 13-18)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 14, 2024
At Wilde Academy, an elite New Hampshire boarding school, 12 graduating seniors have the opportunity to compete in the grueling Wilde Academy Wilderness Competition, or the Wilde Trials. Eighteen-year-old Chloe Gatti, the school’s only scholarship student, intends to win the competition and use the $600,000 cash prize to pay for her younger sister’s cancer treatments. Though Chloe expects hostility from her rich and ambitious peers, she
is shocked when she’s targeted by increasingly threatening blackmail and sabotage attempts. Further complicating matters, one of Chloe’s rivals is her ex-boyfriend Hayes Stratford. As she scrambles to discover her blackmailer’s identity, Chloe is forced into an uneasy alliance with Hayes, who entered the competition to uncover the secrets surrounding his brother’s
mysterious death during a past trial. Sparks fly as the duo’s previously smothered attraction roars to life amid a tangled web of hidden motivations, shocking betrayals, and unchecked ambition. Via Chloe’s lively first-person POV, Reed spins a fun, action-packed mystery wrapped in riddles and scavenger hunts, while lightly touching on themes of class privilege and academic pressure. Chloe is described as having “olive-toned skin”; Hayes cues as white. Ages 13–up. Agent: Amy Bishop-Wycisk, Trellis Literary.

January 1, 2025
Grades 9-12 Every year, 12 seniors at Wilde Academy are chosen to undergo a competition designed to represent the values of the institution, offering a generous monetary grand prize. One of the Challengers, Chloe, is determined to win the money to help with her younger sister's cancer treatments. To her dismay, her ex-boyfriend Hayes is also one of the 12. This is puzzling, as his brother Hunter died when he participated in the Trials a couple years before. But Hayes has Hunter's journal and believes his death was not an accident. After they arrive at the crumbling ancestral Wilde Estate, Chloe gets blackmailed and sabotaged, although she is not the only one, but ultimately she decides not to drop out, instead forming a cautious deal with Hayes. As the Trials begin, intrigues abound. Reed maintains suspense and mystery admirably, making it difficult (but not impossible) for the reader to pick through the clues. Chloe is pragmatic and stubborn, the perfect foil to the brooding and fastidious Hayes. This is an engrossing read that will keep mystery fans on their toes.

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March 28, 2025

Gr 9 Up-Each year, elite boarding school Wilde Academy hosts a seniors-only wilderness competition in which 12 challengers compete for a $600,000 cash prize on the grounds of the founder's abandoned estate. Chloe Gatti, a scholarship student, needs to win in order to pay for her younger sister's cancer treatments, even at the cost of driving a deep wedge between herself and ex-boyfriend Hayes Stratford, whose older brother Hunter died in the Wilde Trials during a previous year. As the Trials heat up, Chloe discovers that the competition itself may be the least of her worries: an anonymous blackmailer threatens to expose her as an academic cheater, and the discovery of Hunter's journal suggests his death may not have been an accident. Chloe and Hayes are forced together in their joint quest to survive the Trials and piece together Hunter's story, despite the tension that still simmers between them. Like the author's earlier The Rosewood Hunt, this book offers an engaging premise that mixes mystery and high-stakes competition among wealthy teens. The haunting setting of the abandoned Wilde Estate is well-conveyed and memorable, although the central mystery falls somewhat flat and the Trials themselves lack excitement and tension. VERDICT An acceptable, if not outstanding, addition to the popular boarding-school-mystery subgenre, recommended for purchase where similar titles fly off the shelves or where The Rosewood Hunt found an audience.-Elizabeth Giles

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