A homeless girl with a dark secret is taken into a "Home for Burgeoning Entertainers."After white teenager Domino loses her closest friend to the cops, she desperately needs money to spring him from jail. In steps Ms. Karina, a white woman offering Domino employment at an establishment for promising girls. Soon Domino travels with her new employer from Detroit to Texas and the large, secluded farmhouse where Karina—Madam Karina—runs her establishment. But also along for the ride is Wilson—possibly an alternate personality created by Domino's past traumas, possibly something more. Wilson likes violence. A lot. The home is a brothel where girls are billed for everything and must entertain their way up the ranks (from "Carnation" through "Daisy" to "Tulip") before offering sexual services sans intercourse at "Lily" and finally reaching "Violet." Each rank garners a larger cut of earnings, but the hazing is tough and progression depends on the manipulative desires of the unhinged Madam Karina, who never wants her girls to abandon her. While uncovering dangerous secrets, present-tense narrator Domino befriends sweet, white Poppet and brown-skinned Cain, a mysterious male servant who's rumored to have a violent past. But his past has nothing on Domino's, which is long alluded to and teased out; but when it—and the delightful Wilson—strikes, it's a doozy. Domino's trenchant, colloquial voice makes a great, grounding foil for Wilson's threat. A dark, twisted stand-alone. (Thriller. 14-adult)

Gr 9 Up-eventeen-year-old Domino desperately wants a home with four solid walls to call her own, a truly safe place. Facing an impossible situation in Detroit, she agrees to go with a mysterious woman to work as an artist, hoping to earn the cash she needs to survive. Domino ends up in an ever-worsening situation in rural Texas, indentured to a mentally unstable madam and terrified that her own dark secret will be revealed. At the house, girls are divided into a caste system of Flowers, earning mere pennies on the dollars spent by those seeking entertainment. Initially girls amuse guests with their art: singing, drawing, and dancing. But as they move up in rank, the stakes get higher and the game more vicious. Dependent on the madam for everything bought via credit, girls never see their money. While savvy readers will see the predatory "opportunity" presented to Domino for what it is, a life of near slavery with no escape, the mystery of Domino's dark secret and those of her fellow Flowers will keep teens in suspense, rocketing toward an intense and surprising conclusion. Mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, and child abuse are all tackled in this powerful story. The protagonist's struggles feel authentic and raw, despite the somewhat hasty and too-tidy conclusion. VERDICT An intriguing purchase for libraries where mysteries and books on trauma are in demand.Kristen Rademacher, Marist High School, IL