"What would you give up to be perfect? Four teens find out in the New York Times bestselling companion to Impulse.
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.
A riveting and startling companion to the bestselling Impulse, Ellen Hopkins’s Perfect exposes the harsh truths about what it takes to grow up and grow into our own skins, our own selves."
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.
A riveting and startling companion to the bestselling Impulse, Ellen Hopkins’s Perfect exposes the harsh truths about what it takes to grow up and grow into our own skins, our own selves."
Awards and Nominations:
- Goodreads Choice Award Nominee For Young Adult Fiction (2011)
- Children's Choice Book Award Nominee for Teen Choice Book of the Year (2012)
Welcome back to week 2 of April and poetry month. I am very excited to share another book by Ellen Hopkins. This is the sequel to Impulse which I reviewed last week.
Perfect starts at the same place that Impulse did, except it is told from the perspective of four different people. One is Conner's sister Cara who also has to deal with the high expectations of her mother while also sorting out her feelings to figure out if she likes Sean or if she likes Dani. Sean is the athlete who is dating Cara. He is trying to build his life around a girl who isn't really sure about him, and he is working hard to get into college on a baseball scholarship. Sean starts relying on steroids but is soon confused about why he is angry all the time. Kendra used to date Conner and Sean. Kendra wants to look perfect from her head to her toes. She starts counting every calorie and working out obsessively so that she can get onto the runway to become a model. Andre's mom will be fixing Kendra's nose, but he falls head over heels for Kendra's sister Jenna. Andre has to figure out if he wants Jenna or a dance career more, all while trying to keep his parents happy.
Everyone has their own idea of what perfect entails. Most people have an idea of what the perfect relationship would be like, what the perfect job is, what the perfect house looks like, and so on. Perfect is something that many people are pushed to be, but I believe that more push themselves to be perfect. I really felt that this book was a mixture of parents pushing their kids and their kids pushing themselves. Sean and Kendra both wanted something for themselves and pushed themselves well beyond what they should have. Andre and Cara were both being pushed by parents to be the best and to meet their expectations. Last week I wrote about parents pushing their kid to be perfect, and today I want to talk about kids pushing themselves. My siblings and I all took very different paths in life. One sibling went the path of the military, one got pregnant in high school and has primarily been a stay at home mom, and one took the path of fast-food restaurants only to build themselves into a well-paying position in the company. They each had their own path and I vowed that none of those would be mine. I knew I was going to make a name for myself by going to college and becoming a teacher. I was going to have a reliable salary paying job. I knew what I wanted and I did it. I knew what would derail my plans and I avoided those things at all costs. Now 5 years out of college and pushing myself to be perfect, I am sometimes referred to as being uptight. I have held myself to be "perfect" that a lot of the time I'm unable to let go and have fun. And frankly, it sucks to have your brain so wired to be perfect all the time. It is something I'm learning to overcome, but it has definitely been a struggle. So I definitely understand what these kids are experiencing and feeling when they are expected to be perfect.
I honestly think I liked this book more than Impulse. I enjoyed each of the characters except for Andre. I felt like he was forced into the book and his insight wasn't really crucial to the entire story as a whole. He definitely felt more like a supporting character than a main character. I also want to disclose that this book has a rape trigger. Three of the four main characters has a tie back in with some kind of rape incident.
I enjoyed this book, but much like Impulse, I was left wanting more after it ended. Both books start and end at almost the same time, but it absolutely necessary to read Impulse first. I give this book also 4 stars out of 5. As I mentioned above this book has a rape scene in it, and I advise caution if rape is a trigger for you.
Perfect starts at the same place that Impulse did, except it is told from the perspective of four different people. One is Conner's sister Cara who also has to deal with the high expectations of her mother while also sorting out her feelings to figure out if she likes Sean or if she likes Dani. Sean is the athlete who is dating Cara. He is trying to build his life around a girl who isn't really sure about him, and he is working hard to get into college on a baseball scholarship. Sean starts relying on steroids but is soon confused about why he is angry all the time. Kendra used to date Conner and Sean. Kendra wants to look perfect from her head to her toes. She starts counting every calorie and working out obsessively so that she can get onto the runway to become a model. Andre's mom will be fixing Kendra's nose, but he falls head over heels for Kendra's sister Jenna. Andre has to figure out if he wants Jenna or a dance career more, all while trying to keep his parents happy.
Everyone has their own idea of what perfect entails. Most people have an idea of what the perfect relationship would be like, what the perfect job is, what the perfect house looks like, and so on. Perfect is something that many people are pushed to be, but I believe that more push themselves to be perfect. I really felt that this book was a mixture of parents pushing their kids and their kids pushing themselves. Sean and Kendra both wanted something for themselves and pushed themselves well beyond what they should have. Andre and Cara were both being pushed by parents to be the best and to meet their expectations. Last week I wrote about parents pushing their kid to be perfect, and today I want to talk about kids pushing themselves. My siblings and I all took very different paths in life. One sibling went the path of the military, one got pregnant in high school and has primarily been a stay at home mom, and one took the path of fast-food restaurants only to build themselves into a well-paying position in the company. They each had their own path and I vowed that none of those would be mine. I knew I was going to make a name for myself by going to college and becoming a teacher. I was going to have a reliable salary paying job. I knew what I wanted and I did it. I knew what would derail my plans and I avoided those things at all costs. Now 5 years out of college and pushing myself to be perfect, I am sometimes referred to as being uptight. I have held myself to be "perfect" that a lot of the time I'm unable to let go and have fun. And frankly, it sucks to have your brain so wired to be perfect all the time. It is something I'm learning to overcome, but it has definitely been a struggle. So I definitely understand what these kids are experiencing and feeling when they are expected to be perfect.
I honestly think I liked this book more than Impulse. I enjoyed each of the characters except for Andre. I felt like he was forced into the book and his insight wasn't really crucial to the entire story as a whole. He definitely felt more like a supporting character than a main character. I also want to disclose that this book has a rape trigger. Three of the four main characters has a tie back in with some kind of rape incident.
I enjoyed this book, but much like Impulse, I was left wanting more after it ended. Both books start and end at almost the same time, but it absolutely necessary to read Impulse first. I give this book also 4 stars out of 5. As I mentioned above this book has a rape scene in it, and I advise caution if rape is a trigger for you.
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