This collection of interwoven stories offers a devastating examination of the current cultural belief that money and beauty are at the heart of happiness. Mentoring Margaret Gracie a few years ago, I was struck then, as I am now, by her critical understanding of these ‘‘plastic’’ characters whose lives she dissects with a sharp and clever knife, but also with great compassion for their struggle ... each one of them trying to find some deeper, more meaningful reality than the superficial values encasing and imprisoning them.
—Isabel Huggan, author of Belonging: Home Away from Home

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Margaret Gracie’s Plastic revolves around the life of Debbie, a former Miss America, and the power and damage her extraordinary beauty can wield. Via Gracie’s deft storytelling in multiple points of view, we’re transported into a world where appearances hold massive importance—at a cost that goes far beyond skin deep.
-Julie Paul, author of The Jealousy Bone and The Pull of the Moon

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With Plastic, Margaret Gracie explores how hyper-capitalist values infiltrate our minds and dominate our bodies. The Sanderson family offers us a mirror, demonstrating the unfairness of expectations placed on mothers versus those placed on fathers, and the shallowness of our money- and beauty-obsessed culture. A potent, ambitious debut.
-Deborah Willis, author of The Dark and Other Love Stories, long-listed for a Giller Prize

Margaret Gracie's debut novel, Plastic, pulls back the layers of perceived perfection in a shallow world where beauty and success are measured at face value. The central character, Debbie, a former Miss America, is clinging to a fantasy life because she believes her only worth is what the world sees on the outside and she strives desperately to maintain that image not only for herself, but also her crumbling family. Gracie's writing is honest, polished, and brings the reader into the characters' lives in a way that intimately explores what is going on deep within, behind their eyes and opaque smiles. This book may appear to be a light read, despite its darker subject matter; however, it holds an important message. Peel back the layers.
- Andrea McKenzie Raine, author of Turnstiles (Goodreads review)