What a fun, absolutely perfect summer day read! I loved the multiple points of view and the New Orleans setting. This had a bit of a Pretty Little Liars feel, but I actually liked it much more. I’ll be recommending this to our young adult book club at the library. Thanks so much for the opportunity to read.

This was a fun, wild read
It gave Pretty Little Liar vibes
Big twist was slightly predictable, but overall, it was a solid bingable read!

I didn’t expect this book to be as good as it was but I’m delightfully surprised! Such a quick read, the perfect book to read in a day, laying out in the sun.

Decently plotted and paced mystery. I liked the plot, the action scenes were nicely written and tense, and the resolution was solid. I wanted a little more uniqueness to the voice of the characters and the oppressiveness of the setting on actions to be more concrete and clear. Overall, a fun read.

A rare 5 star review from me. I loved this book! I want to thank NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love reading “high society” based books but many times they are predictable and have way too many common YA tropes. This however, while you can certainly figure things out to some extent had many twists throughout and was exciting to read. There are some slower parts but they are quickly over and onto the next facet of the girls investigation of their missing friend.

I enjoyed the multiple points of view and that the chapters were labels with a time line as I needed to refer back at times during a few confusing parts.

The descriptions of Nee Orleans that the author chose to focus on were vivid in painting a solid picture in one’s mind. It also painted a friending picture of Mardi Gras culture which I expect is a bit too close to the truth when talking about secret clubs and dark history, racism, and patriarchy associated with it.

Also, while it is YA with teen protagonists, it was well written and easily can be enjoyed by all ages. The other thing I appreciated is that the older teens acted like older teens. You didn’t have those eye roll moments thinking “this would never happen.” It was spot on with how a teen would act when in that culture.

The book drops on October 24th 2024 so put it on your to be read list!

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

Once I was able to adjust to the different POV's, I was able to follow the tale of each different Maid. I really enjoyed seeing this mystery unfold from different perspectives and seeing their secrets revealed was truly a twist I didn't see coming. Getting an inside look to a world I have zero insight into was an amazing journey and the twist at the end had me flabbergasted! Definitely an awesome read!!

Diving deep into the secrets of New Orleans debutant culture, this book follows the kidnapping of the debutante queen a year after the former queen died. Vivian, April, and Piper try to solve the mystery of where Lily went the night of the ball. As they do, they get let into a secret society of men who are as rich and powerful as they are awful. As they slowly begin to unspool all of the threads leading them to Lily, they realize that the biggest monsters are the people that they know well.
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💭Thoughts💭
I really like the way that the author writes and enjoyed this almost as much as her previous novel. I did think some of it had some plot holes, but over all I truly enjoyed. All of the characters were well developed and I enjoyed Piper the most, surprisingly!
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⌛️Favorite Moment⌛️
All of the NOLA descriptions and a look into the culture was so neat. I didn’t know too much about the area, only Mardi Gras, so I enjoyed learning more.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for the copy of The Debutantes by Olivia Worley.The three POVs were all in the first person so it was hard to keep track of whose POV I was reading. I’m not sure it really mattered in the long run though, and it was a fun, interesting book! The underlying feeling of menace was a good backdrop to some of the standard teenage angst you find in YA books. I loved how what was going on felt like it could be real, which added to the spookiness. If you’re looking for a well-written book that will keep you glued to the pages, this is the book for you!

This book is EVERYTHING. Easily one of the best thrillers I've read all year. It managed to write three completely different main perspectives, and even more side characters, without relying on annoying tropes that make me rate mysteries lower. Even when I thought April would be just the not-like-other-girls character or Lily would be just the perfect victim or Margot would be just the bad girl or Wyatt would be the it's-always-the-boyfriend, they surprised me. I could relate in some way t0 all of the narrators, and Vivian was easily my favorite. I also like that this managed to be an upper-class-society, elite-private-school book without using the "I'm the one scholarship kid in the whole school and my family is dirt poor while everyone else is rich AF" trope. As a former "scholarship kid" from a school where most of us were "scholarship kids," so many authors get it wrong and it ruins a perfectly good book. But this book didn't use that, and just because the narrators were wealthy didn't mean they were entirely out of touch. They were perfectly complex. No caricatures here. (I think that's also why I prefer this book to People to Follow-- there was one narrator in that book whose entire character was "I'm the only person here who's completely perfect and I've never done anything wrong in my life" and she was obviously supposed to be the favorite, and there isn't any of that here). These characters are allowed to fuck up without being portrayed as evil people.
It also never felt slow, which I haven't seen from a mystery in a long time.

Debutants are supposed to be perfect girls of high society. If that's the case then why did one mysteriously die of an overdose, and why has one randomly disappeared?

Three dubutants who are not friends finf themselves on a journey to discover the answers to not one, but two mysteries within their small new Orleans Debutant group. It is a fast paced book with a twist here and there that you may not be expecting.

What a thrilling ride, with twists hidden inside other twists like matryoshka dolls, action-packed scenes, smart pacing, well-constructed characterization, and spine-tingling yet colorful, eccentric settings in New Orleans! As someone who spends each Halloween in NOLA, I fell in love with this entire concept!

I didn’t expect to enjoy this book so much or give it five stars at first, even though it started with a fast-paced, Carrie-esque ball incident. Initially, I thought the three main characters (or four, if you include Lily, who is the key piece of the entire puzzle) were not very relatable, and some of their dialogues and descriptions felt a little lame. However, after a few chapters, I was completely sold! The big mystery unfolds into other mysteries, revealing the secrets of the townsfolk, critiquing patriarchy and chauvinism, and showcasing the unconventional friendship of the girls as they strive to uncover the mystery of the dead queen and the kidnapping of their friend. This instantly made me flip the pages faster, holding my breath, squirming in my seat, and forming theories about the perpetrator. I managed to guess some of it, but the jaw-dropping twist at the end was brilliantly executed, earning my ovation! It was well-played, fooling me in the smartest way.

Here’s a quick rundown on debutante culture: The term "debutante," a French word meaning "female beginner," is a tradition inherited from the United Kingdom during George Washington’s presidency. Newly independent America held debutante presentations in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., a practice that continued for Washington elites into the 20th century. Originally, the term indicated that the woman was old enough to be married, and part of her coming out was to display her to eligible bachelors and their families with a view to marriage within a select circle.

This old tradition still continues in the South, including in New Orleans, Louisiana. A debutante is usually presented at a ball during the Carnival season, reminiscent of Victorian-era courting.

It seems that some minds are stuck in old centuries, and poor young girls are still forced to parade like cattle to make their parents proud (this is a theme questioned in the book through town conspiracy theories).

Here’s a quick recap of the plot:

As Les Masques Ball, the most anticipated social event for the New Orleans elite, finally arrives, avoiding last year’s tragic event where the last queen, Margot Landry, died from an overdose, the prestigious families focus on their children’s representation at the ball, honoring their old traditions.

But on the night of the ball, the new queen, Lily LeBlanc, from one of the wealthiest families in town, is attacked with fake blood by a man in a mysterious jester costume while video images of the last dead queen play in the background.

Lily acts quickly as if nothing happened, but she has a quarrel with her boyfriend Wyatt. She then sends messages to three girls, who are also chosen as maids of the ball: her boyfriend’s sister Piper, her former frenemy April, and her best friend Vivien, to meet and discuss what really happened to Margot. When the three girls gather at the meeting place, Lily is nowhere to be seen, and they receive an alarming email warning them that something has happened to Lily and that they must find a secret clue she left behind to solve the mystery.

The girls, who never connected in school circles, discover that Lily is missing, presumed a runaway, and they must cooperate to find out what happened to her, which may be connected to Margot's suspicious death, which was also not an overdose but a murder! They dig through secret societies of elites who can control the police. How can a shy wallflower like April, a know-it-all, A-grade student like Piper, and Vivien with her terrible secret fight these powerful enemies when their entire lives, secrets, and loved ones are at terrible risk?

Continue to read to find out!

Overall, this is a well-executed, smart, moving mystery with eccentric NOLA settings that perfectly match the entire settlement! I highly recommend reading it, especially for the smart twists that are perfectly mind-blowing!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for sharing this addictive YA mystery’s digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Debutantes by Olivia Worley is a thrilling young adult whodunnit set in the fascinating location of New Orleans and its Mardi Gras traditions.

The plot revolves around the mystery of a missing Queen from a debutante ball.

I enjoyed this compelling suspense novel and learning about a Mardi Gras Krewe and the world of its debutantes.

I did have some trouble telling the three main characters (maids) apart initially. I also felt that some aspects of the plot and some characters did not seem to be fully integrated into the story.

from Wednesday Books
Macmillan

Publication date October 29th, 2024

#privilege #tradition #misogyny #secretsociety
#friendship #youngadult #thriller #suspense #neworleans #mardigras #secrets #whodunnit #oliviaworley
#arc #netgalley #wednesdaybooks #macmillan
#Brightbookreviews #Goodreads

Set in New Orleans with a inside look at the floats and the parades and the debutantes the dark history of those groups, and that region comes screaming to the forefront when one of the debutante queens turns up dead. A year after her death, her friends, who are not friends with each other, still don’t believe that she died the way they said she did. What follows is a unraveling not just a mystery and a young woman’s death but also so of the history that we so often don’t want to look at around the treatment of women and people of color in some of our most historical institutions. This is a great read. I read it in a day and was turning pages as quickly as possible, this author is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc of this upcoming thriller in exchange for an Honest review . This is the second book that I read from this author and I enjoyed it as well. The plot was exciting with enough twists and turns to keep me reading. I liked the plot centered around a creepier New Orleans. I sometimes had trouble remembering which character was which as it switched between the point of view of several characters. The ending wasn't my favorite but still enjoyable throughout

"The Debutantes" by Olivia Worley is a YA thriller that brings you into the world of high society New Orleans, where privilege, secrets, and danger collide at the Les Masques Ball. I absolutely loved the setting of this book; secret societies are always fun, and when they’re set in New Orleans, that makes those societies even more unique!

Set against the backdrop of the prestigious event, the book follows the perspectives of three debutante maids—Piper, Vivian, and April—as they become entangled in a chilling mystery surrounding the disappearance of the newly crowned queen, Lily. As they unravel the truth behind Lily's vanishing and the tragic death of the previous queen, Margot, they find themselves confronting the dark underbelly of their privileged world.

Worley did an excellent job in bringing together multiple perspectives, allowing you insight into the inner workings of the characters' minds and the secrets they harbor. Each character felt unique with their inner voices, though I would say that April was my favorite, followed by Piper. Vivian felt a bit more stereotypical to me and didn’t stand out as much. Despite this, the dynamics between the characters are well-developed, bringing something unique to the mystery being unraveled. The developing camaraderie among the main trio (who started as mere acquaintances) adds depth to their relationships and drives the story forward. This character writing was definitely one of the big highlights of the book for me.

The atmospheric setting of New Orleans serves as a character in its own right, with Worley capturing the city's gritty yet vibrant essence. From the allure of Mardi Gras culture to the unsettling reality of debutante traditions, the book explores themes of privilege, misogyny, and toxic masculinity.

While the plot unfolds at a brisk pace, keeping you engaged with its twists and turns, some plot elements were a bit predictable or were even unresolved at the end. I think there was just so much going on with so many different layers to the mystery that it was hard to keep track of everything, especially with three different perspectives to keep track of. I did like how everything was wrapped up in the end, and the major mystery was one I did not predict whatsoever.

Overall, "The Debutantes" is a gripping YA thriller that delivers on its promises of suspense and atmospheric storytelling. This is definitely a must-read for fans of the genre looking for a captivating mystery set against the backdrop of New Orleans' high society.

Did not finish at twenty three percent It was giving cheesier PLL like the Jester is basically A. I can sometimes enjoy a YA but this will probably be enjoyed more by a younger audience.

read if you like:
📍 new orleans
🎉 marti gras
🎩 debutantes
🦹 high-class societies
🏡 family loyalty
👯‍♀️ young adult thrillers

summary:
This book follows a familiar storyline - missing girl in an upper class world — but in a new setting, New Orleans! It is about the evening of the annual debutante ball for the Krewe of Deus, and the Queen, Lily, goes missing. Even worse? Last years Queen, Margot, was found dead following last years ball. Are their disappearances related? Who is targeting the debutantes? Three girls, April, Vivian, and Piper, who are not friends, but all have their own motivations to find Lily, band together to understand what happened to her and whether it is related to Margot’s death.

The story moves quickly, and I love that each chapter ends with a cliffhanger. It alternates between the three girls’ POV’s, and through that, we learn about them, their families and their feelings about the legacy and lore they were born into. The author does a great job painting the picture of the world they live in — of privilege, tradition and family loyalty. The ending is gripping and exciting - and even has its only twists that round out the story in a satisfying way.

Another great part is this book is the setting - the high society of New Orleans. I feel like most of these books are written about New York, but this one paints a picture of a lesser known elite class in New Orleans. I loved the details about the historic culture, the history of debutantes and the Krewe structure. The book is worth it to read about these alone!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Net Galley for the advanced copy! Check this book out when it releases on October 29!

I enjoyed this one - a lot of intrigue and twists that kept you guessing til the weekend end. It did get a little muddled or confusing at times but overall I enjoyed it

Olivia Worley takes her readers deep into the high society world of New Orleans in this entertaining and smart YA thriller.

For New Orleans society, the Les Masques Ball is the event of the debutante season. Of course, everyone hopes this year’s is better than the last, when the queen ended up dead. When the new queen goes missing, three of the debutante maids must work together to find out where she is – and the truth about what happened to last year’s queen – all while being terrorized by a maniacal jester.

Told from the alternating views of three vastly different characters, the reader is given insight into the dark secrets of this privileged world. As each character searches for answers, it is also revealed how many misdeeds of their own they are trying to keep hidden. The result is a fun and clever thriller with plenty of twists to engage readers.

The main characters are likable - even with their flaws. Worley does a nice job of giving each character a distinct voice and the rapport among them is believable.

Another nice element of this book is the way Worley writes New Orleans as a character. It is gritty but beautiful, haunted but lively, and a place where you can feel alone one minute and like you are home the next. The writing allows the reader to become immersed in the setting of the book, even if they have never been there before.

There are aspects of the book that could be hard for some readers (older men grooming young girls, for instance), but overall, this is an intriguing thriller and a definite one to add to the list if you enjoy the genre.

This book… I honestly don’t really have the words to describe how this book made me feel. I have conflicting emotions because the twists were insane and I usually love that, but in this case, it was a little too much.