Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Summary and Reviews of My Flawless Life by Yvonne Woon

My Flawless Life by Yvonne Woon

My Flawless Life

by Yvonne Woon
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • First Published:
  • Feb 14, 2023, 352 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

Yvonne Woon, author of If You, Then Me, has crafted a slow-burn thriller about fixing—our friends, ourselves, and our complicated pasts. For fans of Allegedly and We Were Liars, My Flawless Life features a compelling narrator who grapples with the secrets of her private school classmates as well as her own life.

At the most elite private school in Washington, DC., whenever anyone has a problem that they need to go away, they hire Hana Yang Lerner.

Hana is a fixer. She knows who to call, what to say, and how to make sure secrets stay where they belong—buried. She can fix anything. Except her own life, which was destroyed when her father, senator Skip Lerner, was arrested for an accident that left one woman nearly dead.

Now Hana's reputation is ruined and her friends are gone. So when she gets a job from an anonymous client called "Three" to follow her former best friend, Luce Herrera, Hana realizes this might be her way of getting back her old life.

But the dangerous thing about digging is that you never know what you'll unearth. As Hana uncovers a dark truth about her supposedly flawless classmates, she's forced to face a secret of her own.

1

Picture, if you'll indulge me, a portrait gallery.

It's a jewel-toned room wallpapered to look seamless, as though there are no windows or doors, no entrances or exits. The subjects clasp their hands stiffly at their waists, emanating a quiet power. Power that was framed and nailed into the walls. Power that trapped you, that seemed dead but was very much alive, that you could pass every day, not knowing it was there, watching you, altering the direction of your feet as you walked.

If you asked me to describe St. Francis School in a single image, this is the one I would choose. Not because it depicts a place steeped in old money or a sycophantic worshipping of the past, though both were true of St. Francis, but because it was a trick.

The thing about portraits is that they're an illusion. The subject puts on their best outfit, their finest face. The painter makes their shoulders squarer, their cheeks rosier, their fabrics richer. You believe what you're seeing is true, ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)
Woon's novel is compelling from start to finish, helped along by Hana's strong narrative voice, magnetic personality, and sharp mind. The mystery is deliciously twisty and unexpected. Themes of interconnectivity and a haunted past, combined with the nuances of each character and the mystery itself, all move this thriller past familiar tropes and will certainly challenge the teen who thinks they can predict the ending a mile away.

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
This gripping mystery is deepened and complicated by explorations of Hana's trauma and relationships. The slow burn allows room for character development that elevates the novel. Thought-provoking high school drama with dark, serious undertones.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Woon (If You, Then Me) crafts a meticulously plotted mystery entrenched in high-society scandal and high school drama and peopled by complex, ever-evolving protagonists. It's a blistering commentary on privilege and wealth.

Booklist
Woon fuses a well-told story depicting the secret lives of elite high-school teenagers with a hardboiled detective tale. The result is a hugely refreshing read. Full of twists and double-crosses, the story never settles into predictability. Even better is the strong voice of Hana, an unreliable narrator hiding the pain of her father's crime under a cool mercenary verve. This book has everything a fan of YA mystery could want.

Reader Reviews

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked My Flawless Life, try these:

  • The Sisters K jacket

    The Sisters K

    by Maureen Sun

    Published 2024

    About this book

    "You're my sister, but I'm not sure I love you. I'm not sure I love anyone. But if someone hurt you I'd want to kill him. I'd want him to die in pain. And he has hurt you…"

  • Firekeeper's Daughter jacket

    Firekeeper's Daughter

    by Angeline Boulley

    Published 2023

    About this book

    More by this author

    Winner of the 2021 BookBrowse Award for Best Young Adult Novel

    In Firekeeper's Daughter, debut author Angeline Boulley crafts a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange.

We have 4 read-alikes for My Flawless Life, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Yvonne Woon
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now