Magical imagery!

17yo Isla and her 19yo older sister Renata are sent to the well known Alarie House finishing school by their grandmother, who insists that the school’s reputation will set them up for life. Isla leaves after a day but Renata stays and when she returns home, Isla notices how different she is acting and it frightens her. Renata runs away, so Isla decides she’s going back to Alarie House to find her. When Isla arrives at the finishing school, everyone raves about Renata to her but she’s nowhere to be found. What Isla does find is haunting.

Likes/dislikes: I enjoyed the analogy between jewels and people where flaws make us better and more beautiful. The author handled gender situations with tact and compassion and from personal experience. I liked Isla’s determination and intelligence.
Mature content: PG-13
Language: PG for 6 swears, no f-words.
Violence: PG-13 for bloody stabbing.
Ethnicity: mixed with Latina main characters.

I'm always here to try out a book where the synopsis gives off Gothic or dark academia vibes. I enjoyed a good part of what I read, but at the 30% mark this book began to drag and get too repetitive for me. Anytime it takes me almost a week to make a 10% progress jump on a book I have to consider jumping ship to avoid putting myself in a slump.

I did like the writing and I enjoyed the start of what seemed to be an extended metaphor that was going to carry throughout the rest of the book. I was interested in our protagonist and the plot of her missing sister, but the rest of the story seemed to lack the substance needed to keep it going.

I'd consider reading something else by this author in the future because I really did like her prose, but this one just wasn't for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Flawless Girls follows the Soler sisters, whose experiences at the mysterious Alarie House finishing school draws them into a twisty mystery.

Anna-Marie McLemore's latest is a mystical literary venture that, for me, was so much more about vibes than anything else. The book examines womanhood and femininity in some really interesting and engaging ways, and though its metaphors can be heavy-handed at times, I did find this approach incredibly thought-provoking. McLemore always breaks down gender in interesting, nuanced ways, and I feel like that skill is on full display in Flawless Girls. This, combined with the overall brief length of the book, made for a quick read which, though flawed, will be one I think back on frequently.

FLAWLESS GIRLS is a hard book to rate and review. It's a mish-mosh of Mona Awad weirdness and cultural commentary wrapped in a package that originally read as YA thriller. With better labeling, this could have been a real smash hit for me. I initially went into this thinking it would be one thing and got something completely different. This is not always a bad thing, but there were several moments where this book leaped away from reality and left me a bit confused and made it hard to digest what I was reading. I love a strange and warped book, but when I don't know what I'm getting it becomes less compelling. This is by no means McLemore's fault and rather her publishing team for not advertising this book for its true nature. I think YA needs to start getting weirder a la FLAWLESS GIRLS! What I did enjoy about this book was the overall messaging, deep dive into gender, and pushback on the roles women/girls fill in society. The ending was perhaps the best piece of this book where the Alarie House girls are giving into their true selves. Brilliant work there that was unfortunately overshadowed a bit by a lack of clarity at the beginning. I'm interested to see what else McLemore has in store, and I am truly thrilled to see some depravity creep into the YA genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel and Friends for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Rating: 3.5/4 stars

This turned out to be a much more thoughtful YA book than I expected, the description didn’t do it justice. It’s a coming-of-age magical realism thriller. This is a book that gets you to think about what it means to be feminine in society, what is deemed socially acceptable for your gender, being authentic to yourself, and what that all means when you don’t fit in.

I love the use of gemstones to convey how flaws are as beautiful, if not more so, than being flawless. Becoming flawless in society means to hide parts of yourself that are deemed socially unacceptable. To become whole, you must embrace your flaws.

*Provided a DRC (digital review copy) from the publisher for review. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 4.5/5 Penguins (rounded down)

Quick Reasons: #ownvoices; richly detailed, gilded purple prose; I felt as if I could swim in these words; intriguing, interesting world building; glittering glamor with a subtle hint of something festering; a coming of self story for the ages

HUGE thanks to Anna-Marie McLemore, @macmillanusa , and @netgalley for the title! My review is voluntarily written and in no way altered or impacted by this gesture.

This was a poignant, gorgeously faceted look into the ways society raises girls (to be perfect, to be flawless, to be diamond bright) and the many ways those pressures breathe, shape, and reform through the years. From the first page, there is something lurking just out of sight-- something festering, simmering, waiting. This was a whirlwind read, the prose almost as shining as the girls in the finishing school. This read chokes with the unknown, begging readers to dig beneath the pretty and unearth the raw truth.

This read is not for the faint of heart, Penguins. It will make you face things you do not wish to; it will make you unravel what you've ever learned, been told, told others. The prose is vividly purple, a trench in which some readers will flourish and others will tip. If you're brave enough, you'll find the heart of the story beating... but you must push for it. These characters and their motivations are wholly believable, the mystery of the paranormal well crafted and honed just right to weave a tale of perfection.... and perfection's flaws.

I definitely recommend to lovers of the paranormal, readers who long to uncover decades of secrets, and those who question the price perfection costs. This book will leave you questioning and breathless, Penguins. The crack is widening; are you ready to break through?

Flawless Girls by Anna-Marie McLemore is a wonderfully written, beautiful YA novel.
This book really captivated me from beginning to end.
It was cleverly written with excellent plot development, interesting characters and a story that kept me glued to the pages.
The characters McLemore created are well constructed and have a lot to add to this brilliant novel.
An intriguing read that keeps you on the edge of your seat making it impossible to put down.

Thank you NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Flawless Girls is engaging, disturbing, and in the end satisfying read about what it means to be a girl. I really enjoyed the author's note. You could tell how much care was put into this book! And i really enjoyed the intersex representation of our main character. I was really interested in the relationship between the sisters and the ties between the other characters. The best way I can explain this book is that it's kinda like a fever dream, it's very heavy handed with imagery and related metaphors, it could have been a little less but it was still enjoyable! I'm looking forward to reading more books by Anna-Marie McLemore! Thank you Turn the Page Tours, Anna-Marie McLemore and Feiwel & Friends for sharing this book with me!

Rounded up from 3.75!

Flawless Girls was a wild ride. It felt like the first step into converting contemporary YA readers into thriller lovers! I was on the edge of my seat from the moment Isla stepped into Alarie House and with every turn and reveal I became more enamored with the house, the school, and the girls.

Anna-Marie McLemore is a beautiful writer who provides lifelike descriptions of the setting to aid the reader as we follow Isla, desperate to try and find out what happened to her sister.

To top it all off, while trying to save her sister, Isla is trying to navigate being different. She's a girl, but not a carbon copy of every other girl at Alarie House. The stress she carries adds another layer of tension to the novel, and it is important Intersex representation.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! Anna-Marie McLemore just has the best way with words. All of her stories always have me completely enraptured (sometimes confused) with the magical feel of her worlds, characters, and prose. Flawless Girls is a wonderful examination on gender and femininity and society's expectations on women that while set in the past still reflect many of the expectations in today. This was an excellent read that I highly recommend.

Flawless Girls is a mysterious, suspenseful, almost bordering on thriller story about a finishing school. It's about the confines of womanhood, of the cages girls are trained to inhabit. All the ways society will enforce our obedience, our empty gazes, and complacency. The myriad of ways we have to learn how to be a girl. In many ways, I loved Flawless Girls for its themes. For the ways McLemore examines and explores this specific image of girlhood, being unmoved, un-opinionated, and 'flawless'.

After a promising, engaging start to the book, it devolved into madness. Though gothic horror is definitely a genre, this work needed a smidge more reality on which to hang its gothic fever dream. It just became too bizarre.

3.5 stars
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Flawless Girls has a lot going for it, and depending on what you’re looking for, I think you’ll really enjoy it. Having recently finished Bridgerton season 3 part 1 (and gone back started rewatching), I really liked the way this book explored a similar concept of extreme femininity and the pressure put on a “finished” girl to be a proper lady, especially when you don’t fit in, for whatever reason, including falling outside the gender binary (something that the show lacks thus far).
While I can’t say I was super invested in the characters, I did like the exploration of gender, especially with the MC being intersex. And the relationships between the girls at Alarie House intrigued me in their own way.
The writing is quite beautiful and engrossing, and the story itself is rife with symbolism. I admit it was a little more literary and metaphorical in places than I expected, but it was balanced by short chapters which kept the pacing going.
While this was kind of a mixed bag, this is still an objectively good book, and I’d recommend it to readers interested in a literary historical-horror that explores queerness and gender identity.

I've always enjoyed Anna-Marie McLemore's books, and this one is no exception. Flawless Girls is a masterpiece, offering a glimpse into the theme of the mind in the act of disintegration along the lines of Sylvia Plath's "The Yellow Wallpaper." The story centers on two sisters, Isla and Renata, who have to make it through finishing school in order to temper their reputation for being, ahem, a bit uncouth. But Isla soon learns that the Alarie House is hiding some very sinister secrets and that the house itself is affecting the girls in horrifying ways. Especially Isla's sister Renata, who is all but unrecognizable after she graduates, returning as a sickeningly polite and sadistic verson of her former self. When Renata vanishes without a trace, Isla decides to return to Alarie House to find out what happened to her sister. But she ends up learning much more than she bargained for. Overall, this novel offers poignant and impactful metaphors explicating how perfection is a silent killer, slowly chipping away at our well-being in ways we don't often realize. Even more importantly, it epitomizes the way we often feel we have to hide the "unacceptable" pieces of ourselves in shadow. Because ultimately, Isla will have to unravel the mystery behind Alarie's horrors without getting unhinged herself--a very relatable balancing act for us all. My only caveat is that this book could have been a bit more plot-driven, but as a literary work it is flawless. Highly recommended for any and all library shelves.

This book was not what I thought it was going to be. While the writing was beautiful, it was hard to follow at times and I really struggled getting through each chapter. I'm not the ideal reader for this book, but I can see many others enjoying it.

Anna-Marie McLemore is one of my favorite contemporary YA authors. I snagged a giveaway copy of When The Moon Was Ours back in 2016 and, ever since, I’ve been hooked. McLemore writes with such lyrical prose and such loving care, and, although Flawless Girls didn’t soar to the heights of their previous novels for me, I still consider it a really enjoyable book and one I would recommend.

Flawless Girls is the story of two sisters: Isla and Renata. The two of them are more than close: they’re a “matched set,” a complete pair. Sent to Alarie House, an eerie finishing school, to finish their education, younger sister Isla runs away on the first night, abandoning her older sister Renata behind. It’s the first time in their lives they’ve been apart, and the diverging paths the two of them will take begin at this juncture. When Renata returns home, she is prim, proper, and may be harboring a secret violence. And then: she disappears, leaving Isla to return to Alarie House in an attempt to piece together what exactly happened to her sister in an attempt to understand her motives and, hopefully, piece together the clues of where Renata has disappeared to.

I want to stress that, although three stars may seem like a low rating, I did like this book! McLemore has a dreamlike way of writing that may not be for everyone, but I find the fever dream quality of their prose lent itself well to the plot of this book. The intersex representation was great, and from reading the author’s note, it’s clear that this is something McLemore cares deeply about — which comes through in the character work.

As for what I didn’t like - the metaphors, at a certain point, were just too distracting. I get what the point was, but there’s really only so many references to diamonds I can take before I start feeling like I’m in Bridgerton. The writing, while beautiful, can sometimes feel distracting. I can definitely see how this would bother some readers who are more interested in plot and character development. I’m someone who appreciates great prose and even I found myself growing a little frustrated with the language by the end of the book. I also think characterizing this book as “ romance” is doing it a disservice. While I wasn’t expecting capital-R Romance given the synopsis, readers who are in the mood for gothic romances might find themselves disappointed by the contents of the book.

However, as I mentioned, and as I want to keep mentioning, I enjoyed this book! McLemore is a standout in the YA space for their lyrical, dreamy prose (much of YA, at least in my experience, is more focused on storytelling than story craft; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing given the age demographic, but, still, it’s refreshing to see!). All-in-all, I would still recommend anyone intrigued by the premise to check this out.

2.5 stars

What the heck did I just read?

This is a YA horror book about Isla, whose sister, Renata, comes home from finishing school a totally different person. Isla suspects something happened there, so she enrolls herself to investigate. I appreciated the subtle creepiness of the school and its descriptions, but there was so much figurative language and dreams/hallucinations that it was hard to tell what was and was not real. Not much actually happened in terms of plot. While I appreciated the overall message being a critique on the patriarchy and the gender binary, along with some pretty descriptions, overall I had a hard time staying focused while reading. This book was not for me. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

As always, McLemore’s writing is beautiful, and I think that gave me a better impression of the book overall than I might have had otherwise. It’s a pretty quiet story, without much physical movement, but there’s a lot of really nice “grotesque” imagery and quite a lot of unexpected turns in the story. I kept thinking I knew what was happening until something changed and the cycle repeated.

Where this really falls short though is the relationships between characters. I didn’t feel like we understood Renata, Paz, or Carina - but Isla was enough to get us through, especially with the writing style.

I had high hopes for Flawless Girls and I’m not entirely sure if they were met? The writing was beautiful and the story started out just as good, but about halfway through I began to feel like I was being strung along on someone else’s adventure.

It is more of an unsettling horror as opposed to a more outright “traditional” horror theme, which I also enjoyed. Overall I think I would recommend this to someone who enjoys atmospheric literary fiction and is looking to dip their toes into the horror genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book!

I may not be the ideal reader for this book, but I really struggled to get through it. The premise sounded awesome, but then the vast majority of the story felt like one descriptive metaphor after another with little progression in the story. I appreciate the message that all people should accept who they are despite social expectations and constraints on gender, etc., but I do not think my high school students would make it through more than a few chapters of this before putting it down.