The Last Beautiful Girl

The Last Beautiful Girl is a mystery/horror novel set in a fictional small college town in Massachusetts—a big change for the protagonist, Isabella, after having to abruptly move there from her comfortable life in Brooklyn. Isabella planned on finishing her junior year in Brooklyn and being the star of her school’s drama production with her best friend Eve by her side. Her parents have other plans—the family has to move for a job opportunity for Isa’s father. Isa is crushed. The only upside she can see is that the family is moving into a gorgeous mansion that belonged to an artist’s muse—Isabella Granger—who is also Isabella’s namesake.

Isa’s reluctance of being the new kid in a small school is complicated by the reputation of the Isabella Granger house where she now lives. The house, itself, is beautiful and mysterious; there are ornate details in every nook and cranny of the house and portraits of the former owner in every room. The house, which is in the process of being restored as a historical site, has areas closed for renovations and for safety reasons. There is no cell service, and the house doesn’t show up on any GPS maps. It seems like anyone who talks to Isa just wants to know about the house. Isa drifts away from Eve and decides to take a chance on having a friend in Alexa, the girl who introduces her to her new school’s drama club.

Alexa comes to visit the mansion and takes some photos of Isa to help build her art school portfolio. After noting the similarities between Isa, in present time, and Isabella, the muse, a new project emerges: an Instagram account documenting Isa as Isabella in the house. The girls discover a room full of the Isabella Granger’s old clothes and jewelry, and, with Isa’s resemblance of the original Isabella, they quickly go viral. Soon Isa is the center of attention at her school, and her thoughts of Brooklyn nearly vanish. At the same time as her rise to fame, unnerving things start happening in the mansion. Doors appear out of nowhere, periods of time are unaccounted for, and Isa wakes up one day fully dressed in an intricate costume that once belonged to Isabella. The eeriness of these events is compounded by Isa’s discovering of the numerous deaths that have happened in the mansion over the past years. The draw of internet fame is too strong for Isa to resist, despite her inklings that something is off, and she devotes herself completely to the Isabella Instagram page. The reader learns that Isa’s obsession turns into a possession, and Isa is forced to disappear within herself to become Isabella Granger.

The Last Beautiful Girl had an incredible amount of potential to hook readers and keep them guessing along with Isa as to what was happening, but the plot arc fell flat. The word choices felt forced (Isa, as a teenager, says “totes” whereas Isa, as Isabelle, says “dilly” when she’s excited) and left little room for questioning what was happening. The aspect of going viral online and the subsequent obsession with looks and fame were interesting, but it was hard to root for Isa as a character throughout her demise. The horror aspect of this novel is predictable, and the ending feels rushed compared to the build up. Nothing terribly unsettling or original happens in the haunted mansion, and the narrative lacks any real twists or turns. The setting of the mansion and the descriptions of the portraits and accompanying costumes are quite beautiful, but it wasn’t enough to keep me fully engaged while reading. The text format included news articles, emails, and text messages embedded in the rest of the prose, all of which helped make this a pretty quick read for its 300+ pages. Overall, The Last Beautiful Girl would make a good starter book for those wanting to try the YA horror genre, but it would fall short for more experienced horror readers looking to be shocked by an unexpected turn or wanting to solve the mystery on their own.