A good-girl-goes-bad debut novel set in the gritty and glitzy early-aughts L.A. art world, where a group of young creatives are united—and then ripped apart—by their ambition.

Beautiful girls are easy to topple.

Margot Wheeler graduated high school in her living room. Homeschooled, socially awkward, and artistically gifted, she spends her days by herself, drawing a Victorian-era graphic novel.

When she moves to Los Angeles, her strangeness is immediately noticed by Pearl, a rich kid with lavender hair and a short fuse, and Jordana, a charismatic free spirit with plans to take over the art world. The three form a tenuous alliance, making their way through downtown studios, mansions in the hills, diners, and galleries, and navigating the city’s cult of personalities—from the coffee heiress who funds art shows, anointing the next big thing, to the hot dirtbag painter who (naturally) specializes in female nudes.

In this intoxicating (and occasionally toxic) world, Margot’s innocence quickly falls away as she tries on two different yet intertwined roles: the artist and the muse. With a fragile sense of right and wrong, she draws, paints, and poses her way to art world fame, until a series of reckonings, both big and small, force her to confront the idea of selling out, the price of betraying friends, and the cost of becoming an artist on her own terms.

Teetering between the euphoria and edginess of LA’s 2000s art scene, Little Monsters is a homage to a city that no longer exists and to the complexities of young womanhood—a cool, captivating coming-of-age story about self-creation.