The Debutantes Series
October 15, 2020
The Debutantes series, which includes Little White Lies and
Deadly Little Scandals, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, made me
just resent how high-class society was presented in the book. It’s
the story of the kids of a generation of uber rich spoiled brats
who had a very messed up sense of morals and left their kids to
deal with the consequences of their stupidity.
It’s been over a week since I finished, so I don’t even remember
the exact family trees revealed by the end, but I’ll try to make a
rough version. Be warned, there’s HUGE spoilers ahead. But I think
it won’t matter because all the readers of this blog have either
A) already read the series or B) will never read it.
At the beginning of the series, the main character, Sawyer, gave
off strong “I’m not like other girls” vibes. When she went dress
shopping with her ‘cousin’, Lily (they’re not really cousins but
we’ll get to that), Lily asked Sawyer what her style of outfits
was. And, Sawyer literally said “Does grease-stains count?”. Yes,
Sawyer used to be a mechanic but why does she need to say it like
that?? But maybe Jennifer Lynn Barnes realized this was an issue
by the second book because there’s a scene in which Sawyer tells
Nick (love interest), “What kind of person would I be if prided
myself on being different from other girls?”. So, I think that was
redeeming enough.
In true Jennifer Lynn Barnes style, there were a million plot
twists that revealed how truly messed up this particular circle of
Southern High Society was. I’ll try to summarize it but it’s quite
involved.
Around 20 years before the generation in the series (Sawyer,
Lily), three Debutantes (basically high society girls), who are
the best of friends, make a pregnancy pact. They are high school
age, and all decide to get pregnant together on purpose for some
reason. This group of three includes Greer (who initially got
pregnant accidentally and then convinced her two best friends to
do it too so it wouldn’t be scandalous), Sawyer’s mom Ellie, and
Ana. Greer ends up having a miscarriage and ditches her two
friends who are pregnant by then because “she doesn’t need them
anymore.” Yeah, she’s pretty awful.
The family tree is really complicated so I’ll just include
the picture without going into the specifics. I will say this much
tho: Kaci and Olivia are cousins and they’re also identical. Kaci
happens to see Olivia getting murdered. Kaci then BECOMES Olivia
and takes her place in Southern high society. This is revealed at
the end of the series and is really creepy?? But they kinda just
ignore and let her keep pretending.
Even though the familiar relationships were extremely messed up,
the writing was good and the books were still interesting to read.
