Flawless Girls

February 26, 2024
Determined to turn them into polite society girls, the grandmother of Latina sisters Isla, 17, and Renata, 20, enrolls them at Alarie House, a prestigious finishing school. While Renata is impressed by her poised and pastel-dressed housemates, Isla senses “something off” and leaves. After Renata returns home unrecognizable, threatens Isla, and runs away, Isla endeavors to win her sister back by becoming an Alarie girl. Though Isla makes friends with queer rule-breaker Paz and Carina she struggles to perform through feelings of self-doubt relating to past bullying and constant comparison to Renata, which highlights the differences Isla (who is intersex, according to an author’s note) sees between her own body and those of the other girls. As she creeps closer to the secret violent nature of the house, Isla receives terrifying visions (“Her mouth was a geode, broken open and filled with crystals”). McLemore (The Mirror Season) expertly layers dreamlike descriptions (“like a drop of gilded rain”) to craft the otherworldly, gothic atmosphere in which this sensitive portrait of an intersex person unfolds. Mixing horror and fantasy, the deftly woven plot simmers to a satisfactory if perfunctory conclusion. Supporting characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 13–up.

March 15, 2024
Grades 8-12 The Alarie House is famous around the world for turning out the most elegant, polished, and refined young ladies who go on to live brilliant and successful lives. But when the Soler sisters, Renata and Isla, arrive at the storied school, it takes less than 24 hours for Isla to flee in the middle of the night. When Renata returns home upon graduation, she is a perfect lady--but not the elder sister Isla knew. After a violent outburst, Renata disappears, and Isla must return to Alarie House to try to piece together the mystery of what happened within its bejeweled walls. But the dark seduction of the house seems to mesmerize all who step foot within it, dancing them ever closer to disaster, and Isla will need all her wits to save the girls, her sister, and herself. As eerie and twisted as a delirium dream, this dark academia from award-winning author McLemore explores the pressures put on women to be perfect and what happens when those pressures become too much.

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March 15, 2024
Isla and Renata Soler, outcasts in high society, attempt to polish their reputations at finishing school, but the cost of perfection might be too much. Seventeen-year-old Isla and 20-year-old Renata were raised by their abuela to be fierce and independent. In their era, which evokes the early 20th century, girls wearing trousers are frowned upon and being from new money brings sneers. Abuela believes that world-renowned Alarie House will give her brown-skinned granddaughters the social clout they need. Their first night at the finishing school, Isla sees something deeply unsettling and, wounded by Renata's skeptical response, flees for home. When Renata returns from Alarie, she's eerily changed, like "a girl written for the stage instead of real life," alarmingly vacant but with terrifying glimpses of rage beneath the artificial veneer. Then Renata vanishes, and Isla embarks on a quest to discover what happened to her sister. This novel, which has a strongly gothic mood, gets off to a strong start. Soon after Isla returns to Alarie in search of answers, the novel makes an abrupt shift in tone into surrealism, with worldbuilding that sophisticated readers will understand offers overarching metaphors for femininity. The book also has excellent representation of an intersex character, an element that further interrogates "what it means to be a girl, much less the right kind of girl." A chaotic fever dream that will evoke strong responses from readers. (author's note) (Horror. 14-adult)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2024

Gr 9 Up-McLemore delivers an evocative but not-quite-flawless YA novel. Isla and Renata Soler are brazen, carefree sisters being raised by their strong-willed grandmother. She hopes to introduce her granddaughters to society, hoping they can make long-lasting connections despite their brown skin and nouveau riche status. The young women are sent to Alarie House, a prestigious finishing school that has produced princesses and first ladies. However, Isla runs away the first night after a disturbing experience, and Renata comes back changed-a shadow of her former self and filled with rage. When Renata disappears, Isla returns to the menacing house to uncover the horrible secrets that led to her older sister's eerie transformation. The novel's setting is never clear but the text hints at a late 19th- or early 20th-century time period. A Gothic feel permeates the narrative, and McLemore's entrancing writing is on full display here. However, some readers may get lost in the lyrical language and extended metaphors. This tale is a mix of horror and magical realism and doesn't always find its footing. But its discussion of beauty, gender, class, and race will draw in readers. Plus, the depiction of an intersex protagonist is complex and nuanced. Patient readers will be rewarded with a profound and unresolved conclusion that offers a fascinating look at the definition of girlhood. The sisters are Latinx. VERDICT Give this to fans of books by McLemore and Nova Ren Suma.-Shelley M. Diaz

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2024
In this novel set vaguely during the mid-twentieth century, new-money sisters Renata, almost twenty, and Isla, seventeen, have a reputation for making waves. To solidify a future for them, Abuela pulls strings to get them into the Alarie House, a mysterious finishing school that churns out untouchably sophisticated young ladies. Isla is certain her grandmother and sister also hope that the school will validate Isla's femininity: she is intersex (though the term is not used in the world of the book). Isla barely lasts a night in the strange house and returns home, but when Renata later comes back uncannily changed after graduation and flees into the night, Isla quickly returns to Alarie House, determined to find out what happened to her sister. What she discovers is more terrifying -- and nuanced -- than she could have imagined. In between somnambulant nightmares and surprising kisses with an aspiring lapidarist (a gem-cutter), Isla reflects on feminine ideals and her own identity. McLemore's heavy use of metaphor -- is everything jewel-like, or is everything a jewel? It's hard to tell -- creates an unusual tale that drips with twisted glamour. An author's note explains how McLemore relates to Isla's character through their own experience of gender identity and Latinidad and argues for larger discussions surrounding differences of sex development. Unsettling and packed with sparkly detail, this book is perfect for gothic-literature and period-piece fans who are eager for a much-needed update in representation. Monica de los Reyes

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2024
In this novel set vaguely during the mid-twentieth century, new-money sisters Renata, almost twenty, and Isla, seventeen, have a reputation for making waves. To solidify a future for them, Abuela pulls strings to get them into the Alarie House, a mysterious finishing school that churns out untouchably sophisticated young ladies. Isla is certain her grandmother and sister also hope that the school will validate Isla's femininity: she is intersex (though the term is not used in the world of the book). Isla barely lasts a night in the strange house and returns home, but when Renata later comes back uncannily changed after graduation and flees into the night, Isla quickly returns to Alarie House, determined to find out what happened to her sister. What she discovers is more terrifying -- and nuanced -- than she could have imagined. In between somnambulant nightmares and surprising kisses with an aspiring lapidarist (a gem-cutter), Isla reflects on feminine ideals and her own identity. McLemore's heavy use of metaphor -- is everything jewel-like, or is everything a jewel? It's hard to tell -- creates an unusual tale that drips with twisted glamour. An author's note explains how McLemore relates to Isla's character through their own experience of gender identity and Latinidad and argues for larger discussions surrounding differences of sex development. Unsettling and packed with sparkly detail, this book is perfect for gothic-literature and period-piece fans who are eager for a much-needed update in representation.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)