WE COULD BE ANYONE

Amid the glamour of Hollywood’s Golden Age, 16-year-old Lola and 17-year-old Lisandro, expert scammers and siblings, confront fears and foes in award winner McLemore’s latest.

Lola and Lisandro’s Mamá and Papá died when they were young, leaving the pair with only their stories to guide them. At 13 and 14, respectively, they learned the hard way that they needed to con others or be conned. Thus was born their act: Lola pretends to haunt the rich and famous so that Lisandro can enter as a sympathetic medium, prepared to banish the ghost. Yet nothing prepares them to see their parents’ stories come to life when they target media mogul Bixby Fairfax and his mistress, the starlet Blythe Bell. They encounter the couple at The Coterie, their extravagant hilltop mansion on a country estate, reminiscent of William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon castle. There, the siblings learn that the roots of deception and anger grow deep. The Mexican siblings navigate a largely white world. Some of the layered fables confuse the plot, but the book pays a deep metafictive attention to mythologies that center women and queer characters. Each lead’s development is beautifully paced and thoughtfully explored as they narrate their own motivations and experiences with love interests, and the integration of a trans character and the celebration of the fullness of their being is bright and inspires hope.

Mystery and magic create a thrilling and expansive world for bold characters.