The Favorite Girl

The Favorite Girl by Monica Arya was originally published in 2024. It is Arya’s 10th novel, and the sequel, The Caged Girl, is expected to be published in the summer of 2025. Arya writes both romance and thrillers, and she is an Amazon top 35 best-selling thriller author. The Favorite Girl is a mystery thriller that explores Wealth as a Tool for Manipulation, The Horrors of Gendered Violence and Sexual Commodification, and The Psychological Impact of Isolation.

This guide refers to the self-published paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, death by suicide, suicidal ideation, self-harm, mental illness, rape, sexual violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, gender discrimination, substance use, and sexual content.

Plot Summary

Demi Rao, the narrator, is unhoused and staying in a motel in North Carolina. She searches for a job that she can obtain without a home address or identification and finds a position as a live-in housekeeper at the Ivory Estate. The Ivory family has specific rules about her wardrobe and appearance, so she goes to a thrift store and drugstore to purchase items that meet these requirements for her interview.

When Demi hitchhikes back to the motel, a woman named Raina picks her up. Raina invites Demi to her house for dinner, allows Demi to borrow clothes, and gives Demi a makeover. Demi then goes to the Ivory Estate, where she sees that the décor is all white and that the inhabitants wear all white. She meets a man named Bradley, and he introduces her to Dr. Ian Ivory and his wife, Daphne. They interview her and then send her to go over her contract with their son, Conrad. The lengthy legal document outlines how Demi must look, eat, exercise, and work. She is shocked that the rules include getting an IUD, but Conrad’s good looks persuade her to sign the contract.

The Ivory family has a farewell dinner for Demi’s predecessor, Misha. After dinner, Demi is told to meet Misha to go over the job requirements. Demi then discovers that Misha is dead: Her throat has been slit, and Demi, shocked, picks up the knife near Misha’s body. The security footage makes it look like Demi is guilty of murder; the Ivory family blackmails her into staying and drugs her.

When she wakes up, a hair and makeup artist named Becca prepares Demi for her first day at work. Demi is forced to wear her hair in a bun and white clothes. A girl who looks like Misha, but isn’t Misha, explains what Demi will clean: Ian’s office and the cells of the caged girls. When Bradley shows Demi the first imprisoned woman, he claims that she is being treated for drug addiction. Raina visits Demi and echoes the claim that the women are undergoing legal and safe treatment. Raina also tells Demi that she hallucinated Misha’s death. After Raina leaves, Demi learns that Daphne wears blonde wigs over a bald head.

The next day, Demi is forced to wear a blonde wig while cleaning the prison cells. The women wear headphones and blindfolds in the all-white rooms. Demi and others wear shoes that don’t make any noise. That night, Ian visits Demi in bed, pinning her down and telling her that he found one of her dark hairs and that she needs to have her hair cut. The next day, Demi is forced to get an IUD, and the doctor establishes that she has never had sex before. Then, Becca cuts Demi’s hair into a bob and dyes it blonde. Demi learns that the Ivory family is looking for a “favorite girl,” that is, a fiancée for an Ivory man. Demi has to brush Daphne’s wigs, made from the hair of various prisoners and labeled with the women’s names, and clean the cages.

After dinner, Demi sneaks off and calls the police. An officer named Tate arrives and pretends that there is nothing illegal about the women in cages (the Ivory family has bribed him to ignore their illegal activities). Then, Conrad takes Demi to her room, warns her to stop misbehaving, kisses her, and calls her by a nickname that her sister used.

Demi thinks back on being imprisoned with her sister, Layla, in Tennessee. They were sold to a human trafficker, Trent, by their parents. In a flashback, Layla claims to have found a way for Demi to escape and tells her to go to Charlotte. During Demi’s escape, Layla is severely beaten and close to death. She begs Demi to put her out of her misery, and Demi stabs Layla, killing her.

In the present day, Bradley takes Demi to feed the other imprisoned women. When Demi drops a fork, the sensory-deprived prisoner is excited about the noise and smiles. The next woman tells Demi that she is safe. The third woman is Bradley’s sister, Daisy. Bradley explains that Daisy is engaged to one of the Ivory family’s clients, Mason. Next, Bradley takes Demi to a meeting between Mason, Ian, Daphne, and Conrad. Mason picks out Daisy’s hairstyle and lingerie for the wedding out of a binder of pictures.

After the meeting, when they are alone in Demi’s room, Bradley tells Demi that Trent and Raina work for the Ivory family. Bradley also explains that the women are not being treated for drug addiction but are being conditioned to be subservient wives. The Ivory family sells each “virgin” bride for a million dollars, at minimum. Then, Bradley tells Demi that Conrad picked Demi out of a binder too. Conrad arrives and kicks Bradley out, demanding to know if he slept with Demi. Conrad threatens to sexually assault Demi but stops and says that he’ll exchange wedding dates with Mason and that they will have sex tomorrow, on their wedding night.

The next day, Ian comes into Demi’s room and tells her that he convinced Conrad to wait a little while before they are married. Ian sexually assaults Demi but doesn’t penetrate her, saying that he’s saving her “virginity” for Conrad. After Ian leaves, Becca comes in to do Demi’s hair and makeup. Conrad and Demi plant a peony bush in the garden and drink peony-infused wine. Demi finds a human finger in the garden and passes out.

The next day, Bradley takes Demi to clean Ian’s office. One of the walls of the office is made of bone fragments from women who were killed by Ian and buried in the garden. Then, Daphne takes Demi to Becca to prepare for Daisy’s wedding. The audience is filled with the Ivory family’s clients, and Daisy’s bridesmaids are the other prisoners. Bradley gives Daisy away. After the ceremony, the group relocates to a room with a glass wall. On the other side of the glass, Mason has sex with Daisy, and then Conrad sexually assaults Daisy. Bradley tells Demi that he’s going to work at Mason’s house and that this might be their last night together.

Bradley and Demi sneak back to Bradley’s room. He gives her a pair of tennis shoes that she’s always wanted and shows her that the shoes contain a hiding place for the birth control pills he also gives her. She asks him to “take her virginity” so that Conrad can’t, and Bradley does. When Demi goes back to her room, Conrad comes in and sexually assaults her. Daphne comes in, stops Conrad, and makes him leave. Then, she gives Demi the lingerie that Conrad wants her to wear on their wedding night and threatens to harm Bradley if Demi doesn’t do what Conrad wants. Daphne serves Demi some drugged peony tea, and Demi passes out.

The next day, Daisy, Mason, and Bradley leave the Ivory Estate. Bradley says that he’ll return for Demi’s wedding. Conrad gives Demi an engagement ring covered in acid that brands her finger. That evening, Becca comes into Demi’s room and tells her that Layla was Conrad’s first choice and that Demi is just the replacement. Then, Becca dies by suicide in front of Demi.

The following morning, Officer Tate returns his bride, Isabella. She was given to him in exchange for his silence about the Ivory family’s illegal activities, but she won’t tolerate his sexual perversions. Ian tells Tate that he’ll have to wait for a replacement. Two of Ian’s employees drug Isabella, take her to another room, and sexually assault her while Ian watches and masturbates. Daphne takes Demi to a bridal shop to be fitted for the wedding gown that all the brides wear. That night, Ian comes into Demi’s bed, removes her IUD, and sexually assaults her.

The next day, Daphne and a woman who looks like Becca, and claims to be Becca, come into Demi’s room and help her get ready for her wedding. Daphne confesses that she underwent the “white-therapy” in the cages. She believes that torturing women to make them subservient will improve the world. Before the ceremony, Bradley tells Demi that he’s going to help her escape by drugging Conrad’s whiskey and gives her a suicide pill in case his plan fails.

Conrad and Demi are married, and Raina attends the wedding. After the reception, Conrad shows Demi the bodies of Ian and Daphne, with their throats slit, and forces her to drink their blood. Conrad explains that he and Demi are going to take over the business. He forces her to have sex with him while a home movie of Ian and Daphne having sex plays. Demi cuts herself before intercourse so that she bleeds on the towel that Conrad lays down. Afterward, Conrad drinks the drugged whiskey, passes out, and eventually dies.

After calling the police and freeing the prisoners, Demi finally leaves the Ivory Estate. She is picked up by a friend of Bradley’s, who takes her to Bradley’s boat in Charleston. There, Bradley says that Demi must undergo the white-therapy and that they are going to take over the branch of the business located in the Bahamas. Realizing that Bradley is Ian’s son, Demi uses the suicide pill to kill him. She signals to another boat, which rescues her. On board, she asks for an all-white meal and to be taken to the Bahamas.