MADE GLORIOUS

A misunderstood thespian stops at nothing to obtain a lead role in this modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Richard III.

At Bosworth Academy, theater is a battlefield, and scholarship student and senior Rory King is sick of rotting in the trenches. She’s a loyal member of the Princely Players, her school’s esteemed theater troupe, but she’s been relegated to lowly ensemble parts for years. Now she’s ready to claim her spotlight. There’s just one problem: Pam Hanson, the iron-fisted director, repeatedly fails to see Rory’s potential. Luckily, Rory’s engineered a diabolical scheme to take what she’s earned, and she invites readers to witness it unfolding just as she planned. Like Shakespeare’s hunchbacked Richard III, Rory, who’s fat, is scorned for her body—but like him, she’s also clever, ruthless, and singularly focused. She has no qualms about exploiting anyone in pursuit of her goals, including her castmates, caring teacher Miss Keating, and even her closest friends. Through a narrative format that shifts between the first and third person, moves forward and backward in time, and incorporates prose, play scripts, and even a musical score, Rory’s numerous misdeeds are revealed: spying, forgery, blackmail, sexual manipulation, and more. Reimagining Richard III as a toxic theater kid rather than a crown-hungry noble is thought provoking. Her skulking and plotting make for quite the spectacle, propelling readers to the bitter, catastrophic end. Save for Miss Keating, who’s Black, all named characters are white.

Sensationally tragic.