Every Exquisite Thing
A Novel
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- ¥1,200
発行者による作品情報
A YA horror-thriller-romance retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Our Infinite Fates, with a never-before-seen bonus chapter!
Penny Paxton is the daughter of an icon. Her supermodel mother has legions of adoring fans around the world, and Penny is ready to begin her journey to international adoration, starting with joining the elite Dorian Drama School. When Penny’s new mentor offers her an opportunity she cannot refuse, to have a portrait painted by a mysterious artist who can grant immortal beauty to all his subjects, Penny happily follows in the footsteps of Dorian’s most glittering alumni, knowing that stardom is sure to soon be hers. But when her trusted mentor is found murdered, Penny realises she’s made a terrible mistake – a sinister someone is using the uncanny portraits to kill off the subjects one by one. As more perfectly beautiful students start to fall, Penny knows her time is running out . . . A seductive and searing exploration of beauty, identity, and what the pursuit of perfection can truly cost.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Steven (Our Infinite Fates) highlights challenges associated with disordered eating and anorexia in this clever reimagining of The Portrait of Dorian Gray as a dark fantasy thriller. "Extremely gay" aspiring actor Penny Paxton, who cues as white, enrolls at Dorian Drama Academy in the countryside near Edinburgh, the school that launched her emotionally distant, substance-reliant mother to supermodel fame. There, Penny—struggling to manage insecurity that's exacerbated by her alopecia—copes by overexercising and restricting food. When she's introduced to a mysterious artist, she commissions them to paint her portrait, which they claim will age and change while Penny's corporeal body remains eternally young. Determined to look her thinnest, Penny amps up her dieting and arrives to her sitting famished. Once her portrait is complete, though, she learns that she has unwittingly doomed herself to a life of eternal hunger. Things take a deadly turn when one of the artist's former clients, a Dorian alumnus, is murdered. Despite occasionally muddy worldbuilding and a somewhat unsatisfying resolution, intelligent reflections about anorexia's patriarchal connections enrich a twisty, intriguing novel that excavates body politics as well as the darker side of beauty and ambition. Ages 13–up.
