Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Goodreads Summary:

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?

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.

My Thoughts:

I read this book a while ago and wrote a review but never posted it. I wanted to think about it for a while before posting. This book, like Impulse before it, is written in poetry story telling. I loved reading a story written in this way. It brings be back to the way that I personally tell stories. This book has overlap with the first book in the series but not in the normal way. We are dealing with all new characters during the same time frame as the first book. Conner from Impulse gives us time markers through two of the new characters, Kendra and Cara. 

I had a really hard time with Kendra. She reminded me of girls I dealt with at a job I once had. I worked in a  treatment center for troubled girls. Some of these girls had eating disorders. I remember having to watch them chew and swallow each bite of every meal. I had to stand next to the bathroom while they used it to listen for purging and other behavior that could harm them. It broke my heart to see so many young girls destroying themselves in the goal to be the perfect weight, to attain the perfect look. I didn't work in the treatment center for very long. Those girls really did break my heart and eventually I had to admit I wasn't strong enough to deal with it every day. Throughout the course of the book Kendra's eating issues increase and soon she is so thin she looks emaciated.Needless to say the eating disorder sections of this book hit home for me and I cried more than once. I heard more than one girl have the same thoughts as Kendra. I hate what we as a society have done to women to make them think they have to starve themselves and constantly move all for fear of having a belly, curves, and any softness to their frame.

Over all I liked this book, it was not a light read (neither was Impulse) and I wouldn't say it had any moments that really inspired me. The only criticism I have is that it didn't ever lift me back up after it dropped me really low. I fully understand that was kind of the point, but at the same time, when you have so many people in pain it would be nice to be able to at least hope for these people. I was left with no hope and that is, again, really hard to read and handle. Ellen Hopkins ended her book with some facts about eating disorders and such, but had she left any hope at all for her characters it would have had more impact to read the stats and how to help prevent these things from happening to other people. Don't get me wrong, I have a high tolerance for doom and gloom, I just need a pinch of light to balance it all.

I recommend this book to fans of Ellen Hopkins. I would not suggest this read if you are at all in a grim place yourself.

While writing this review I was listening to Sara Bareilles.