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Perfect
656 pages
A raw, rapid-fire descent into the destructive lengths teenagers will go to achieve an impossible ideal.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like holding your breath while watching a slow-motion car crash. Told through sharp, visually arresting free verse, the narrative moves with a propulsive, almost frantic energy that mirrors the spiraling mental states of its narrators. The mood is heavy and claustrophobic, steeped in the suffocating pressure of parental and societal expectations. It is an unflinching, gritty experience that pulls you directly into the raw, messy reality of adolescent pain, body dysmorphia, and the toxic pursuit of flawlessness. The sparse poetry forces you to linger on devastating emotional truths while turning the pages at breakneck speed. It will deeply resonate with readers who crave intense, issue-driven contemporary fiction that refuses to sugarcoat the darkest corners of growing up.
- Mood
- claustrophobic
- urgent
- heavy
- angsty
- Tone
- raw
- unflinching
- intense
- earnest
- gritty
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- toxic perfectionism · crushing expectations · body dysmorphia · cost of ambition · fractured identity
- The writing
- Sparse, rhythmic free verse that utilizes visual formatting and white space to mirror the characters' fractured psychological states.
- The arc
- A frantic downward spiral into destructive coping mechanisms that shatters illusions and forces a painful reckoning with reality.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave intense, issue-driven contemporary fiction that tackles the darkest, most painful realities of adolescence without sugarcoating.
Content notes
- suicidal ideation
- eating disorders
- substance abuse
- body dysmorphia
- self-harm
About the book
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 understand. Everyone wants to be perfect, but when perfection loses its meaning, how far will you go? What would you give up to be perfect?
Description from Open Library.
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