I enjoyed the overall plot and general mystery of it all, but then something was definitely going on in a literary/metaphor type of way the entire time with all these jewels and whatnot (or I just made all that up). I got a little confused a few times, and once it happened chapter after chapter I never really regained my footing on what was happening. I thought Isla was a pretty cool character to read and follow. And I absolutely LOVE the setting -- it was giving an even more bourgie look at the dance academy in Suspiria.

I was very excited to see what McLemore would do with a book that leans towards horror and I quite enjoyed it, even if it is a bit heavy-handed with the imagery and how that ties into the themes.

Flawless Girls follows two sisters who have always been close and a "matched set" so to speak. They are sent to a finishing school to hopefully polish their rough edges. Isla runs away on the first night, leaving her sister Renata behind. But when her sister graduates and returns home, she is not like herself in disturbing ways, and then she disappears. In an effort to understand what happened to her sister, Isla returns to the school and begins to go through this process herself...

I've seen people compare this to a fever dream, and it does kind of have that quality. It's horrific at times, but using metaphor to unpack assumptions of what it means to be a woman or what it requires. I love how it's dealing with intersex identities, as well as people born as girls who don't fit into expectations of femininity. It's engaging, disturbing, and ultimately satisfying. Though as I said, it does kind of hit you over the head with the imagery and related metaphors. It could have been a bit more subtle, but I liked it. Interested to see how people feel about this one! I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

I have was very excited for this book, it had a very interesting premise. However, I couldn't get into the writing style and found the story overall kind of clunky. Though I wanted to find out what was going on, I couldn't resonate with the characters as it felt kind of disjointed - maybe it was just working so hard to keep secrets from the reader to reveal later? I feel terrible but I just couldn't get into it

I loved the premise of this book! The finishing school was a great setting for this mysterious and ominous plot. I loved the family dynamics between the grandmother and her granddaughters, as well as the sisters themselves. They were a great foil to one another. I also loved the intensity of this story and the tight prose that kept me interested throughout!

Flawless Girls is beautifully written and creepy, on the verge of horror. The imagery of the jewels and how they play into the finishing school is fascinating. I loved the fact that the main character was intersex and how that played into her psyche. I wish I could have seen more of her sister and their relationship and I do like my stories a little more grounded in reality but it is a strong piece of work by Anna-Marie McLemore

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

While this was an interesting premise, it didn’t hit all the points for me. I liked the metaphors and messages. I liked how the point was that not every girl is the same and there isn’t a perfect way to be a girl and you can’t create one. Isla and Paz were interesting as our rebel girls and I liked their characters. After the diamonds and jewels and gold for introduced to the story I was so confused. Like what did that even mean?

The cover is eye catching and I really want to read more Anna-Marie Mclemore because their stories seem so interesting. I just can’t find ones that I’m heavily invested it.

I'm not certain that any review I write will do Flawless Girls justice. It's the kind of book you need to read without reading reviews. It's a fever dream and a half that probably seems like it doesn't make sense while reading it. I think that's what makes it so easy to keep turning the pages.

I started reading Anna-Marie McLemore when they released Lakelore and fell for the way they write. Every word means something. It hurts and it heals and it still blows my mind days later. Honestly, it was so atmospheric that I'm pretty sure I dreamt about it after I finished the book. I definitely have a new appreciation for stones and gems now.

I would be remiss not to mention the representation in Flawless Girls. The FMC is an Latina, intersex, girl in a world that is ripe with expectations of what femininity is and isn't. It's extremely powerful.

This book was creepy and suspenseful. I enjoyed the characters and atmosphere. Would love to read more from this author

Flawless Girls follows Isla, who is trying to find her sister. After leaving her older sister at a finishing school, Renata comes back... different. And homicidal. But mostly different. The only solution for Isla is to follow her sister's footsteps, returning to the finishing school. But can she survive with her mind in tact, or is she doomed to the same fate as her sister?

The first quarter of this book is intriguing and un-put-down-able. But once we reach the finishing school, everything goes off the walls and is really hard to follow. Not in the is-this-surreal-or-real but just confusing. It felt esoteric in a sense. It was beautifully written though, and the parts I did understand were great!

This book has great intersex representation, and Isla is a really complicated and strong character. She deserves the world, but due to how underwhelming the plot actually was, I'm only giving this 3 stars.

I think this book is great for anyone interested in reading about an intersex main character or interested in beautiful, atmospheric writing, but I don't recommend it for the plot.


Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review!:)

Intersex representation! I fear saying this is the first book this year that I have read with it and I am very grateful to AMM for this. It is opening my eyes to voices I have not been paying attention to and I appreciate the confrontation with that lack in my reading.

This was eerie, thought-provoking and so compelling. I will continue to read anything AMM writes and publishes.

The cover art is extremely beautiful. That is what really caught my attention. A major theme in this story is focused on identity. Isla is used to being in her sister Renata’s shadow, but there comes a time when she must follow her own path. The plot was easy enough to follow. I feel like some points were very repetitive. I don’t think I was the target audience, but I did understand the storyline.

HOUGHTS

The writing, the essence, the vibes are immaculate... but a book really needs more than vibes, right?


PROS
Immaculate: This book grabs you by the throat from the beginning. The writing here is masterful, eerie and evocative. I was engaged from the first page, and that's saying something. I do think the story falters a bit (see some of the cons below), but if we're talking about technical construction here, the writing itself is beautiful. I have rarely been so captivated.

Catty, Chatty Girls: So many books write teen girls as one note. They're either chatty and friendly or mean and catty. But the truth is, teen girls are all of these things, all at once. And McLemore definitely writes that well. These girls are snippy. They're gossipy. They're scathing on occasion. And they like being around each other. They support each other. They're friendly, and they look out for each other. People can be enigmas, and it is so nice to see teens written with some actual nuance--nuance that makes them feel realistic.

Refined: I really appreciate McLemore's nuanced consideration of "refinement" here as well. Because refinement is about polishing, elevating, becoming "better"... and it is also intrinsically a loss. A loss of rough edges in favor of some conception of femininity. The polishing of an image that erases parts of the person being polished. This book is all about femme rage, restrained and righteous, and I love that.


CONS
Dragging On: As much as the vibes, the tone, the writing here might be immaculate... the story does start to drag on a bit. Which is saying quite a lot, since this book isn't long by any standard.

Breaking Point: Part of the reason this book seems to drag, I think, is because the tension is building and building and building... and doesn't ultimately go anywhere. It felt like we should have reached a breaking point way earlier than we did. Things should have made sense. Pieces should have clicked. And there is a bit of that in the conclusion... but it was too little, too late for me.

Wishy Washy: Which kind of leads me to my biggest problem here. As wonderfully evocative as the vibes are... this book is just vibes. I had no idea what was happening the entire time. I had no footing in the world itself. I didn't know what kind of world it was--fantasy, historical, contemporary realist? I needed some kind of groundwork, some kind of foundation, and because the plot itself doesn't really come together either, I was just left... kind of confused and vaguely appalled. I just... am not sure what this book was. I love the vibes, but the vibes were not enough.


Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐
4/10
Fans of Kirsten Miller's Don't Tell a Soul will like the eerie, ethereal nature of this story. Those who like Jessica Day George's Princess of the Midnight Ball will enjoy the glittering, dark underworld of this refined finishing school.

David Lynch finishing school gothic magical realism Dorian Grey gemstone horror. If that confuses you, it should! If that intrigues you, it should!

It starts off pretty normally. Two sisters are sent to a finishing school to become proper young ladies. The younger sister, Isla, drops out that night. The older sister, Renata, completes her education and comes back as a perfectly proper, personality-less young lady...a complete stranger. And then she runs away. While the sisters' grandmother searches for Renata, Isla vows to undercover whatever evil is afoot at the finishing school.

The school is weird. The teachers are weird. The usual gothic boarding school dread lasts for about half the book.

Then we get into the David Lynch part: weird dream sequences, fantastic imagery, cryptic phrases... Much like David Lynch productions, I felt like I was wandering around an art exhibit being fascinated but also a little scared, saying, "My how interesting, how marvelous" and 100% believing that while also having no idea what was happening. It also reminded me of a magical realism story I read in Spanish a while ago about children turning on all the lights in their house and then drowning to death in the light. This book is like that, but with crystals instead of light, and is about societal expectations placed on women. That last bit really comes together at the end with the Dorian Grey comparison.

Definitely a book you have to be in the right mood to enjoy.

I did adore a memory Renata shares with her sister at the beginning of the book. They are guests at a fancy wedding and are both wearing diamond necklaces. They proceed to pop the diamonds out of their settings and eat them silently, much to the horror of everyone around them. (The diamonds are candies, don't worry, but their audience doesn't realise that at first.) There's so much to unpack here in terms of wealth, upper class performance, consumption... I had a feeling I was going to like this book after that.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I'm not really the best at reviews and i also don't want to give any spoilers. But I'd give this 4 stars. It's very interesting and was easy to stay tuned--until the ending. I'd also like to apologize for taking this long to get my review out. I had trouble accessing my account.

Flawless Girls by Anna-Marie McLemore is a bit of a thriller, a bit of a fever dream, a bit of a cautionary tale, and a whole lot of gender metaphor. In Flawless Girls, Isla attends the Alarie House girls’ finishing school to find out why the school changed her sister Renata into an emotionally and spiritually desiccated version of her former self.

The story is surreal and the writing is lush and gorgeous, with incredible imagery and deep exploration of what it means to be a girl. McLemore leaned in real hard to one particular metaphor, which I initially found clever but ultimately felt they over-explained. While this didn’t detract too much from my enjoyment of the story, I wish they had spent more of the book on interpersonal relationships and less of it explaining the metaphor.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

While a departure from McLemore's usual style, it is full of their themes. Flawless Girls is the tale of Isla, a seventeen year old who is a little difficult. When she and her sister Renata are originally sent to the Alarie House, Isla doesn't make it a night before escaping, but Renata finishes her term and comes home, very much different from the sister Isla knows.

It's during Renata's return, while Isla is trying to recreate a prank the sisters pulled, that Renata snaps and flees their grandma's house. In an effort to understand exactly what she saw when Renata almost attacked her, Isla returns to Alarie House.

This felt way more creepy than McLemore's usual books, and as above, the prose wasn't as purple as they usually deliver (which I LOVE, McLemore is one of my favorite current writers), but the themes were the same. In fact in the author's note at the end, McLemore talks about how Isla would have access to more information today to understand her body more, but how McLemore also used their experience growing up to temper Isla's.

I really enjoyed the symbolism, and it did take me a second to catch onto the gems being everywhere and how that impacted the girls finishing at the House. When the Alarie sisters were explaining the gems, it was actually an apt and still accurate metaphor for how society wants most women to behave.

This was so beautiful and full of so many memorable characters, but I'm also so glad McLemore wrote this book with these themes!

This was so well written and the attention to detail is immaculate. However, there is something missing in the plot, and I can’t point it out. I have to agree, there are a lot of metaphors in this book, so be sure to pay attention.

wow. this book was so amazing!! i can't believe netgalley let me read this early .thank you so much! it was amazing and wonderful and fun and the characters were just so so so great!!!

"Flawless Girls" follows Isla and Renata Soler as they navigate an elite finishing school to gain acceptance in high society. When Renata undergoes a mysterious transformation at the school and later disappears, Isla sets out to uncover the secrets that changed her sister. While the premise, cover art, and descriptive elements captivated me, the narrative was slow to build and became disjointed towards the end, leading to confusion. Despite its poetic portrayal of inner conflicts, character changes felt abrupt. However, the lavish descriptions of the setting, characters, and mystical elements maintained an intriguing atmosphere, earning it a three-star rating for its unique storyline and themes of self-discovery.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. Flawless Girls has a fantastic premise, and I enjoyed reading it, but I did find it's overall approach a little lacking. I felt like I was missing some critical details the entire time, and felt like I had to fill in the gaps myself to make the story make sense. If it had been through development one last time I think the kinks could have been ironed out. That being said, I did like the atmospheric take of the book, and would read more of Ms. McLemore's works in the future! A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.