Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

"Ghosts don't scare me. Flesh and blood people do."

- Ellen Hopkins, Perfect 

Review by Chase


Book Synopsis:
Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they'd rather be. For four high-school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there.


Cara's parents' unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. Kendra covets the perfect face and body - no matter what surgeries and drugs she needs to get there. To score his perfect home run - on the field and off - Sean will sacrifice more than he can ever win back. And Andre realizes that to follow his heart and achieve his perfect performance, he'll be living a life his ancestors would never have understood.


Everyone wants to be perfect, but when perfection loses its meaning, how far will you go? What would you give up to be perfect?


General Overview:
I highly anticipated this novel after I found out that Ellen Hopkins was writing a companion novel to Impulse. Impulse was the first ever Hopkins book that i read and I adored it (thanks Dylana). While you don't have to have read Impulse to understand Perfect, I highly reccomend that you do because it provides backstory that is very relavant to some of the characters. This story was amazing and each of the characters were amazing and horrifying at the same time. You could really feel the pain in some of them and it made it that much more believable. 


Plot:
I love how Ellen Hopkins uses multiple narrators because each one of them have their own story. In every novel, you find that one character that you relate to and it's like "Oh, she knows what I'm going through." Each story is unique in its' own way but they all interlock and are dependant on one another which I really enjoy. The story is extremely relevant for teens in today's society because their is always that pressure to feel...well...perfect. This novel shows that it's ok to embrace the aspects that make you different. 


Characters:
All of the characters were well fleshed-out and believable. They all had their own story and their own reasons for achieving perfection. I enjoyed reading Cara and Kenra slighlty more than the others but that's because I seemed to grasp their character better than the others. But all of the characters are equally amazing. 


Final Thoughts:
This book was amazing and I highly recommend it. It provides a dose of reality that I think that many people want, or need. Societies view of people has made us believe that if we don't fit into the cookie cutter mold of what people should be, then we need to alter ourselves to fit better. 

Read It For Yourself