A Pageant Queen Takes On The Deep State In Candice Wuehle’s ‘Monarch’

Being a child beauty queen and an MKUltra agent aren’t that different. Or, at least, they require similar skills: an ability to take commands, fierce dedication to a mission, to perform on command, the ability to lose oneself. Candice Wuehle’s intoxicating, off-center, debut novel Monarch centers on Jessica, a former child beauty queen who grows up enmeshed in the world of child beauty pageants at the behest of her Norwegian mother Grethe, who each night freezes herself in a cryochamber device built to halt the aging process so she can remain beautiful forever. At 14, Jessica quits the pageants and… Read Full Article