About the Book
-
Author:
- Anna-Marie McLemore
- Genres:
- Girl-Girl Romance
- Horror
- Suspense
Cover Story: Shine Bright
BFF Charm: Caution
Talky Talk: McDreamy
Bonus Factor: LGBTQ+ Representation
Factor: Sisters
Relationship Status: Nice to Meet You?
Cover Story: Shine Bright
Although this cover is very pretty, there’s something ominous about the dripping gold. Very fitting for the story within.
The Deal:
When Isla and Renata Soler arrive at the Alarie Girls finishing school, Isla immediately senses something is off, and leaves the night they get there. Renata stays, but she’s a completely different person when she returns home after completing her courses. And then she disappears in the night.
To figure out what happened to her sister, Isla must return to the school. But will she be able to keep from means losing herself, too, in the process?
BFF Charm: Caution
Although she always tells the truth, Isla feels like an unreliable narrator because of the uncertainty of the plot. I liked her a lot, but I never felt like I could fully trust her. I commiserate with her confusion—there’s so much about the Alarie Girls and the school that confounds—but she also frightened me. Were I at the school, I likely would have wanted to be her friend. But me attending a finishing school is a hysterical notion, so I doubt we’d have ever crossed paths.
Swoonworthy Scale: 2
When Isla meets Paz, she’s taken aback by the other girls’s louche nature and masculine ways. Paz doesn’t fit in with the rest of the girls at the school, but she’s given free reign to do as she pleases, something that confounds Isla; the rest of them are forced into tight little boxes of decorum, and yet Paz can wear trousers and slouch in chairs. The two have a connection but it’s overshadowed by the larger plot. The two could be something more given time and space, but in the book their relationship takes a backseat to the mystery.
Talky Talk: McDreamy
McLemore’s books are hard to describe to anyone who’s never read them. Part fever dream, part Southern gothic horror, Flawless Girls continues that trend. I both enjoyed and was unsettled by the story and had to sit for a while after finishing to try and sort it out in my head. (Was I successful? Remains to be seen.) I do love their characters, though. They’re always such fully realized individuals with all that comes along with being a flawed human being. Paz was particularly great in this novel; she’s such a breath of fresh air amongst all of the other “proper” folks in the book.
“She never did get it,” Paz said. “But she took down a lot of ships trying. Any guesses as to the moral of this story?”
Isla took another step forward. Her foot hit a slick of gold. She lost her balance and started to slide.
Paz’s arm flew out. Her hand grabbed Isla’s forearm hard enough that it steadied her.
No fear showed on Paz’s face.
“The moral,” she said, “is that spite can do immensely powerful things.”
Bonus Factor: LGBTQ+ Representation
Isla is intersex and spends much of the book trying to hide her “different” body from the rest of the “normal” girls at Alarie House. But by the end of the novel, she’s realizes that it’s her differences that make her the person she is, and just because her body doesn’t exactly fit the standard set by society, it doesn’t mean she’s lesser or strange. McLemore always has such great queer inclusion in their books, and Isla’s yet another example of this important work.
Factor: Sisters
Isla spends much of the novel trying to get out of the shadow of her older (prettier, smarter, more poised, better in every way) sister, Renata. But no one’s put her there except Isla herself. Watching her come to that realization is both difficult and fist-pump worthy.
Relationship Status: Nice to Meet You?
I can’t say I fully enjoyed our time together, Book, because you gave me anxiety in a very nebulous way. (Which, if you’ve ever experienced anxiety, can often just make it worse.) That said, I think I liked you, overall. It can be good to get out of one’s comfort zone.
Literary Matchmaking
When the Moon Was Ours is the first book I read of McLemore’s and the book that made me fall for their writing.
April Genevieve Tucholke’s Wink Poppy Midnight is another dreamy novel with mysterious sisters.
Rose Szabo’s What Big Teeth is also a gothic horror featuring people who might be monsters.
