Every Exquisite Thing by Laura Steven BOOK TOUR review!

CW: eating disorder

This is a really fascinating retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray written for a YA audience (though would definitely appeal to adults, especially ones like me who used Dorian Gray for all my AP Lit essays!).

Our main character Penny Paxton follows in her famous mother’s footsteps and attends the Dorian Drama School. Penny is dealing with pretty serious disordered eating and body dysmorphia, so when she gets to opportunity to have a masked painted capture her image so her body will never age, only the painting, she’s all in. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

This retelling is very cool because while it captures the essence of Dorian Gray it’s also completely unique in both plot and style. Penny is queer and constantly grappling with her identity and what success means to her.

There are also lots of feminist messages and this resonated with my experience of being a woman, for sure!

This book also contains many twists and turns I didn’t see coming. This is a thrilling novel with horror aspects and is hard to put in one box (I personally love a book like that!).

This book is on sale NOW and came out yesterday! The audiobook is also very good and the narrator captures Penny so well. Thank you to Colored Pages Book Tours, Wednesday Books, and MacMillian audio for the gifted copies!