Peerless by Jiehae Park is a darkly comic, modern retelling of Macbeth set in a competitive American high school. It follows twin sisters who will stop at nothing to secure their spot at an elite college, exposing the cutthroat nature of ambition, identity, and the price of success.
We see the world through their distorted lens: real yet heightened, glossy yet unsettling, much like their adolescent emotions. Colors match too perfectly, hallways gleam, and the high school feels picture-perfect — but the harmony is deceptive. Everything mirrors everything else, echoing the twins’ symbiotic bond. In a world built on balance and pairs, anything out of sync becomes unbearable.
Their carefully constructed reality begins to crumble when the college offers its coveted scholarship to D, a Native American student. Desperation drives L and M to unthinkable acts — manipulating, murdering, and unraveling as ambition consumes them. Violence seeps through their perfect world, delivered with eerie absurdity — poisoned cookies, chocolate sneakers, and feathers falling from the sky.
