At the Medio School for Girls, young women are trained to fit into traditional wife roles: either Primera (First), with a "wise and discerning nature" and "quick wit and loyalty"; or a Segunda (Second), displaying "beauty and bravery... nurturing warmth, and... passion that lurk[s] beneath." Medio's religion states it is the right of prominent, wealthy men to marry both a Primera and a Segunda. This religion of binaries is also to blame for the literal wall that divides the upper class from the lower classes. Resentment over the injustice has festered, and now social and economic upheaval threatens the divided state.
Seventeen-year-old Daniela "Dani" Vargas is a "star Primera student." She is also a fraud--from an impoverished town outside of the wall, she used forged identification papers to get into school and has worked hard to propel herself into a higher class. Awaiting a proposal from "the capital's most promising young politico," all Dani has to do is lie low until she graduates. But then, a rebel sneaks into the school and destroys Dani's forged papers, offering her new, unimpeachable papers in exchange for help--Dani agrees to spy for the insurgency on her soon-to-be husband, Mateo, and his family. At graduation, Mateo takes Dani as his Primera, as expected, but stuns her with his choice of Segunda: her passionate and beautiful rival, Carmen.
As Dani grows to understand Mateo's manipulative nature and finds allies in unlikely places--including love with someone she once thought an enemy--her desire to help the revolution grows. Tehlor Kay Mejia's debut creates a lush and beautiful Latinx-inspired world featuring complex female characters. With thrilling adventure, unexpected twists and a cliffhanger ending, readers will clamor for the next installment of Dani's story. --Clarissa Hadge, bookstore manager, Trident Booksellers & Cafe, Boston, Mass.