The Fall of Butterflies

March 7, 2016
As with Anatomy of a Misfit (2014), Portes’s second YA novel has a seductive zaniness and almost unstoppable exuberance. Sixteen-year-old Willa Parker, a small-town girl and native Iowan, reluctantly heads east to a fancy New England boarding school, where she meets Remy Taft, an infamous student from a famous family, who adopts Willa like she’s a wide-eyed puppy. Though it takes some wading through Willa’s mile-a-minute internal monologue in the opening chapters, once her adventures with Remy begin, the story turns into a heartfelt, hilarious thrill. Willa’s dry observations can be laugh-out-loud funny (“I’m not sure what the cutoff point is for gyrating in sparkly clothes, but I can tell you some of these people are really pushing it,” she says of the crowd at a Brooklyn club). But Willa’s early announcement of a plan to kill herself and other foreshadowing hint that Portes’s characters are careening toward tragedy, with Remy at the center of a brewing storm. Willa’s memorable voice and humor, as well as her longing to cultivate relationships that will anchor her more firmly to the world, will linger with readers. Ages 14–up.

July 1, 2016
Sixteen-year-old Willa is less than psyched to be starting boarding school on the East Coast at the insistence of her high-powered, absentee mother (not that she's in love with her 646-person hometown, What Cheer, Iowa: "Yup, you heard me. What effing Cheer effing Iowa"). Overwhelmed by the "shoulds" of life, she decides she's going to kill herself. Then she meets Remy, Pembroke Prep's enigmatic, charismatic It Girl, "a person who deeply and truly doesn't give a fuck," and their friendship gives Willa a purpose in life. Portes (Anatomy of a Misfit, rev. 9/14) excels at the first-person, precociously self-aware, snarky teenage-girl voice. The book's humor is dark and the social commentary biting as Willa notes, in her direct-address narration, the excesses of the "haves" around her: her mother lives glamorously in Fontainebleau, France, while Willa and her dad barely scrape by in Iowa; Remy is the epitome of the poor little rich girl; Willa's love-interest's family has its own private island. Willa flirts with being sucked into that world -- taking Ecstasy with her bored, rich friends, for example, while at the same time wondering why they have to bother. Remy's terrible choices throughout (including seducing a teacher) and her descent into drug abuse feel organic rather than histrionic, while Willa's emergence from the dark is hard-fought and believable. elissa gershowitz

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from March 15, 2016
See the girl on the train, the white one "with the frizzy red hair and funny mouth"? That's 16-year-old Willa Parker. Willa has a simple two-point plan: move to the East Coast...and kill herself. Willa leaves her hometown of What Cheer, Iowa (you heard that right), to attend The Pembroke School and (presumably) go on to Princeton, because her wealthy economist mother (who divorced Willa's father and left them with nothing) says she "should." Willa's plan is derailed when she meets the ultraprivileged, uber-hip Remy Taft (yes, related to the president), the oddly friendless queen of Pembroke. The girls develop a close friendship, complete with witty-cute banter, a late-night joy ride on a stolen golf cart, and frequent Ecstasy trips. As Remy pushes Willa out of her comfort zone, Willa forgets her suicide plan, but it soon becomes apparent self-absorbed Remy has several secrets of her own. As Willa tries to save her best friend from destroying herself, she's also figuring out whether or not she's neighboring Witherspoon Prep hottie Milo Hesse's girlfriend. Surrounded by wealth, Willa often questions the unfairness of privilege; her scholarship status and Midwest origins often make her feel inferior and out of place. Her first-person narration is self-deprecating, deeply thoughtful, and thoroughly funny, with a sometimes-chiding direct address that pulls readers into her confidence. Snarky and painfully astute. But in a good way. (Fiction. 15-18)

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July 1, 2016
Sixteen-year-old Willa is less than psyched to be starting boarding school, and she decides she's going to kill herself. Then she meets Remy, Pembroke Prep's enigmatic, charismatic It Girl, and their friendship gives Willa a purpose in life. Portes excels at the first-person, precociously self-aware, snarky teenage-girl voice. The book's humor is dark and the social commentary biting.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

April 1, 2016

Gr 8 Up-Willa Parker sits at the "freak" table at school and feels that she has a responsibility to take care of the others at the table. Because she "lost it" when defending Peanut Allergy Boy, her genius mother who lives in France and not with Willa and her father, decides to remove her from public school and the small town of Cheer and send her to a prestigious private school in the East. Willa, as to be expected, is not excited about going to Pembroke and leaving home but has no say in the matter. Remy, the first fellow student she meets, dresses strangely, smokes, and is getting yelled at by the head of admissions. She is rich, popular, and everything Willa is not. She also becomes her roommate and good friend, and because of Remy, Willa is quickly accepted at her new school. But being friends with Remy comes with a dangerous price, and as the popular girl spirals out of control, Willa must decide if the friendship is worth the price. The protagonist's voice is vibrant and authentic, and her journey from outcast to member of the in crowd to a mature teen is fraught with drama. The engaging although not always admirable characters, the family dynamics and their effect on the characters, and the resiliency of the spirit make this a thoughtful read. VERDICT Fans of Chelsey Philpot's Even in Paradise will enjoy this coming-of-age story with emotional appeal.-Janet Hilbun, University of North Texas, Denton

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.