The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Brodeur, Adrienne. Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019.

In Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me, 14-year-old Adrienne became entangled in her mother, Malabar's, love affair with their family friend Ben Souther during a family vacation in Cape Cod. So desperate to win her mother's affection and approval, Adrienne agreed to keep her mother's secret. Though Malabar insisted that she did not want to hurt her second husband, Charles, she was desperate and determined to begin and continue her new relationship with Ben. In order to preserve her loyalty to Malabar, Adrienne had to lie to Charles, Ben's wife, Lily, and even her older brother, Peter.

As Adrienne finished out her high school career, Malabar and Ben's relationship carried on. The two agreed that they would not make any definite declarations or decisions about their romance until after their ailing spouses had died. Plagued by guilt, Adrienne became desperate to leave home. During her gap year, she traveled the country with her new boyfriend Adam. Though physically distant from Malabar, Adrienne continued to keep in touch with her mother. During each phone call, Malabar relayed the details of her affair, and guilted Adrienne for being so far away for so long. When Adrienne returned east, she was happy to see Malabar, but quickly became frustrated again with her mother's antics. She was grateful she would begin school in the fall.

However, when Adrienne moved to Columbia for university, Malabar guilted her again. Adrienne felt badly for not being able to make her mother happy, but hurt that her mother perceived her college career as a form of abandonment. One summer after Charles died after a complicated surgery, Malabar orchestrated a vacation with Ben's family in the Bahamas. During the trip, Adrienne met and began an affair with Ben's son, Jack. She felt empowered by the relationship, as if she were finally able to keep up with her mother's exciting romantic life.

Eventually, Adrienne moved to California to be with Jack. In the midst of their relationship, Lily discovered the truth of her husband's relationship with Malabar. On the phone, Adrienne was stunned to hear how apologetic Ben was, never mentioning his deep love for her mother. Jack remained calm and understanding, but insisted that what they had done was unacceptable. Despite the unrest between their families, Adrienne and Jack decided to get married. When they traveled east for the wedding, Adrienne was anxious and upset, guilty for the pain she had helped cause Lily. Malabar, however, showed no signs of remorse. Instead, she used Adrienne's wedding as an opportunity to prove her beauty and desirability to Ben. Just two years later, Lily would die, and Margot and Ben would marry.

In the months following Adrienne and Jack's wedding, Adrienne fell into immobilizing depression. She became withdrawn from every facet of her life. With the help of her father's girlfriend, Margot, her longtime friend, Kyra, and her psychiatrist, Dr. B., Adrienne eventually began understanding the true impact of her mother's behavior on her psychological and emotional state. Finally able to perceive the life she wanted for herself, Adrienne separated from Jack and moved to New York City, where she began a career in the literary world. Though Malabar disparaged Adrienne's life, consumed with her own marriage to Ben, Adrienne was determined to make a new life apart from her mother.

Eventually she divorced Jack, established herself in the editing and publishing world, and married Nick. With Nick, she began a family. Through her new role as a mother, Adrienne learned how to reconcile herself with her past, and how to love her children in ways her mother was never able to love her.