“I chose the jagged rocks, the broken bones, the spattered brains. I chose beauty. I'd choose it again.”

Luna Lewis is white. But her friends aren’t, nor are her brothers, nor her one-time Princess of Indonesia–finalist stepmother. After transforming from pudgy preteen to ‘exotic’ beauty, Luna reinvents herself as ‘Luna Lu’ and takes her ticket out of the most isolated city on earth. However, as her international modeling career approaches its expiration date, Luna must grapple with what she’s sacrificed—and who she’s become—in her mission to conquer the world.

Featuring an intersecting cast of glamor-hungry public schoolgirls, WAGs, mining heiresses, backpacker-barmaids, and cosmetic nurses, West Girls is a novel-in-stories that examines beauty, race, class divisions, and social mobility in Australia’s richest state. It’s also a devastating catalog of the myriad, inventive ways in which women love and hurt one another.