Was not a fan. The book was slow and I just didn't like the plot or characters at all. I just wanted the book to end and I almost gave up on it but pushed through at a tortuously slow pace.

The title is excellent and the bones of the story are promising— a mysterious, elite boarding school where everyone knows something our protagonist doesn't— but the execution is lacking and thoroughly baffling.

Anne Merchant is a new junior at Cania Christy, a boarding school on a remote island off the coast of Maine. She is comically hideous, as evidenced by her wild blond curls and single snaggle tooth (the others are apparently fine), though no one else agrees since every other female character is instantly jealous of her and every male character wants to bone her. She is an incredible artist and is also really smart, including spouting Hegel quotations. In other words, I found her altogether intolerable.

Other objections:
-the tone wavers between a weird take on Mean Girls (epitomized by the dance-off) and Silent Hill. Maybe it could work, but it doesn't work here.
-while I don't think YA books need to be didactic in nature, the number of grown men lusting after teenage girls is nausea-inducing
-there's some serious slut-shaming here— most of the other female characters in the book are portrayed as strumpets

Favorite quotes:
- "But could Pilot Stone, son of a senator (albeit a sex addict), see beyond my crooked tooth and wild hair? Something in the way his eyes sparkle when he laughs with me makes me believe I could."
- "And I must get happy with the idea of being lucky to have, at best, the disappointing son of a would-be president as the man of my dreams."
- "Before she adopted the life of a librarian and a mortician's wife, long before she and my dad welcomed me to their family, she was a beautiful, leggy ballerina."
- "Panic sets in. Is Ben some sort of witch dentist?"
- "'Maybe it's because you're an artist. Or a genius. I don't know.'"

This had all the elements of a great story but failed to keep my interest. It wasn't the most feminist of books, which is why it got on the wrong side of me I think.

A well-written and enjoyable book, I am glad I requested this title and will be more than happy to pass the title along to my fellow library purchasers.