Amy Middleton isn’t in love with Leo Prince. Not yet. The Senior Year Ball is days away, and he still hasn’t agreed to be her date. But Amy can imagine it all in advance: a night of supreme perfection. She’ll bask in the spotlight in her silver stilettos and designer dress—rose quartz fabric, mermaid skirt, illusion bodice with beaded lace—and when the music starts, Leo will lead her onto the dance floor and into their shining adult lives. When he finally says yes, success seems assured, and the night belongs to Amy, arriving on Leo’s tuxedoed arm as planned. But with the buzz of an unexpected text, nothing that happens next will be as it seems—least of all Amy’s carefully choreographed love story. In their second novel, acclaimed mother-daughter duo Angourie Rice and Kate Rice draw on pacy journal entries, interviews, texts, and school newsletters to reconstruct a night gone terribly and hilariously wrong. Touching on themes of privacy, social media, and predatory relationships, My Wonderful Disgrace is a deliciously dark comedy of errors about unrequited love, manipulation, misunderstandings, student protests, and the tragic fate of one innocent bystander of a goat.
- Books
- YA Fiction & Indies
- Young Adult Fiction
- My Wonderful Disgrace
My Wonderful Disgrace
New
Author(s)
Publisher
Age Range
14+
Release Date
May 12, 2026
ISBN
978-1536247435
Buy This Book
What really happened on the night of the Senior Year Ball? Expect the unexpected in this uproarious, edgy, and much-anticipated second novel from the celebrated team behind Stuck Up and Stupid.
Editor review
1 review
A Chaotic Night with Some Bright Spots
Overall rating
3.0
Plot
3.0
Characters
2.0
Writing Style
4.0
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
N/A
My Wonderful Disgrace by Angourie Rice and Kate Rice has a genuinely clever structural hook.
Pieced together through journal entries, interviews, texts, and school newsletters, the storytelling format gives the book a fun, fast-paced energy that keeps the pages turning. It's a creative choice that suits the chaotic tone of the story well.
There are some legitimately funny moments scattered throughout, and the payoff (the idea that a night doesn't have to go according to plan to still mean something) lands when it finally arrives. The friendships that grow out of the chaos feel like a natural, earned outcome rather than something forced.
That said, the characters were a tough sell. Amy spends much of the story dismissing a friend who is clearly just trying to help, which made her difficult to root for. The rest of the cast doesn't quite pick up the slack either, and when the characters aren't especially likeable, the humor has to work overtime to carry things.
The book does touch on heavier themes like predatory relationships and social media, but these feel more like background texture than focal points, which is worth knowing going in if you're expecting more from them.
Overall, My Wonderful Disgrace is a fun, quick read with a standout format and some solid laughs. Just don't go in expecting to fall in love with anyone in it.
Content Warning: brief depiction of a predatory student-teacher relationship, animal death
Pieced together through journal entries, interviews, texts, and school newsletters, the storytelling format gives the book a fun, fast-paced energy that keeps the pages turning. It's a creative choice that suits the chaotic tone of the story well.
There are some legitimately funny moments scattered throughout, and the payoff (the idea that a night doesn't have to go according to plan to still mean something) lands when it finally arrives. The friendships that grow out of the chaos feel like a natural, earned outcome rather than something forced.
That said, the characters were a tough sell. Amy spends much of the story dismissing a friend who is clearly just trying to help, which made her difficult to root for. The rest of the cast doesn't quite pick up the slack either, and when the characters aren't especially likeable, the humor has to work overtime to carry things.
The book does touch on heavier themes like predatory relationships and social media, but these feel more like background texture than focal points, which is worth knowing going in if you're expecting more from them.
Overall, My Wonderful Disgrace is a fun, quick read with a standout format and some solid laughs. Just don't go in expecting to fall in love with anyone in it.
Content Warning: brief depiction of a predatory student-teacher relationship, animal death
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