Date Finished: February 8, 2018
Page Count: 622
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Ellen
Hopkins is a true words smith. I could vividly see everything she described in
the book and it was lots of fun being in a freestyle poetry format. The characters
were open books, and I was easily able to see what made them unique and develop
options about them. Truly Perfect is
a master piece, but as the book teaches the audience: true perfection is
unattainable and this book, while very good, has far too many thing to be
disgusted by if you ask me. Seriously, why would someone my age even read this kind
of stuff? I’m not so sure a book as explicit as perfect should be in the school
library. Oh well, it’s America but sometimes we have to put restrictions in
place am I right guys?
So to makes
this easier, I’m going to format this into a list about what I liked about Perfect and what I didn’t like. The like
list will go first so people who are curious about the book will have less of a
chance to see what I disliked about it; that way it might be easier for some
people to keep interest in the book and avoid bias. It also allows me to
properly overshadow all the good in the book and emphasize how much I dislike
it. I kid you not, this book scarred me so bad it was worse than the time I was
a 6th grader and some friends told me the alternate meaning for, “lemon”
and a heck of a lot more scarring than Puella
Magi Madoka Magica. Some may say I’m innocent because of that, but I just
don’t like that kind of intense stuff. Blood and gore are pretty okay (I’ve
drawn a couple bloody things in my life) but there are certain areas I don’t touch
even with that (giant naked people running around eating actual people who live
inside walls are in the okay category by the way). So warnings aside, lets dive
right into the likes.
What I liked about
Perfect
1. The formatting.
Like I stated before, it’s in free style poetry told from the perspective of
four different characters, each using a different font. Lots of times the text
will be shuffled around and arranged in a specific way to emphasize the
emotions of the character like when Conner succeed at suicide and everyone was
super depressed. Then you have each of the “chapter” openings where there were
two columns: one with a couple stanzas and one with more than just one stanza. When
only the single stanza column was read a message revealing the characters
deeper thoughts was revealed and it was super cool (also super dumb since I
didn’t notice it until around page 162). My overall favorite had to be “love and
sex. aren’t interchangeable,” because I really relate to this statement and think
of it as true (Hopkins 421).
2. Each character represented
different paths. Something that can easily be observed in the main
characters (and a couple side characters) is what happens when one tries to achieve
perfection. Cara found her peace in life as well as love (which I’m super salty
about but more on that later), despite being forced down the path of perfection
and having a major fall from grace. Kendra wanted the perfect body but in her
attempts to do so she stopped loving herself and developed and eating disorder plus
being forced to have to use her body to get what she wanted. Sean tried to be
the perfect athlete with the perfect life but his overuse of steroids cost him
his manliness, Cara, his dignity and nearly got him arrested (because remember
kids, sexting is illegal). Andre was a black Romeo, loving with only his eyes
to the point where he started dating Jenna for her looks and then got trapped
by her warped personality, almost to the point of being unable to break off the
relationship. Conner (side character) was pressured to be perfect like his twin
sister Cara, got down with older women to cope and ended up attempting suicide
one his pleasures were reveled and having to be sent to a mental hospital
before jumping off a cliff later on to kill himself. And finally Jenna (side
character) had a terrible childhood with a bad father so she stopped loving
people other than herself and only lived in the moment; in addition she was an alcoholic
(a 16-year-old alcoholic), she didn’t truly love Andre, and ended up getting
raped and beaten. How could a person not fall in love with Hopkins’ diverse
illustration of these coming of age stories, and the different paths so many
people can take despite living so close to each other?
3. Hopkins deals
with “taboo” subject. I say “taboo,” because while not outspokenly
taboo, you don’t see many authors take up subjects like Hopkins did so
casually, especially 7 years ago. You know what I’m talking about here: modern
racism, parental abuse, LGBTQ, mental illnesses, religion, lust, suicide, etc. A
bold move on her part and I applaud her for that. At the same time though, I
kinda have to frown on this fact which segways nicely into my next list of:
What I disliked/hated
about Perfect
1. Cara falling in
love with Danielle. No, it’s not because it’s same sex love
(although it’s not my cup of tea I can tolerate it), but because she fell in
love with her in like ten minutes or so, just because Dani saved her life. And,
she was still dating Sean when she fell in love with Dani and stared seeing her
for Christ’s sake! Come on man, back stabbing is bad, but doing it in a few
minutes is even worse. It’s hard for me to like love if it’s love at first
sight sorta thing and doesn’t have much depth to it which is exactly what this
was so I was not going to board this ship, no sir.
2. “Let’s get naked
guys.” No, that’s not a quiet for the book, but there was so many
sexual moments in the book I wanted to throw up. I can clearly remember two scenes
where two characters had sexual engagements and it was absolutely atrocious! Maybe
I just don’t care about this stuff being asexual and thus a virgin and all, but
there was way too much of that in there for comfort and I was slightly alienated
the whole book. Don’t even get me stated on the fact that so many characters
fell in lust, or would talk about throwing their bodies anywhere without are
care so long as it was pleasuring. Ugh! So not my cup of tea!
3. Kendra and her self-hate.
On a character standpoint, I find this a very interesting aspect of
her and it gives me a reason to have some interest in what happens to her. Hopkins
stretches this a little too much for comfort to me, despite how real it makes
Kendra’s character feel, as she constantly call food her enemy, her body not
small enough if it wasn’t size two and the fact that she felt her breast were
too small. Get over yourself girl, nobody’s prefect and a size two with D-cup
breast is absurd if you thought you’d get that way naturally.
4. Kendra is waaay to
hung up on Conner. For real girl, can’t you see how screwed his life
was once he left school and realized that you two split up for the best. He was
even hitting on older women like that one teacher. If that’s not a red flag
that the guy isn’t the best to be around I don’t know what is and your constant
nagging about missing him and feeling that you two really had a connection was
almost as bad the #3 thing I didn’t like. Then again, society should try to
reach out to “troubled” individuals so we don’t end up killing everyone off due
to minor flaws they have.
5. Jenna. Lol,
that’s kinda extreme now that I take a couple steps back and look at that one
name in red. “Jenna,” Kendra’s little (?) sister who doesn’t care about anyone
but herself and will use her body to her advantage to get some booze. I’m
pretty sure she only dated Andre because he was black and seemed nice to mess
with her racist dad due to him having left her for reasons she was unaware of.
You totally didn’t deserve Andre the way he treated you but you totally had
that rape coming for you girl, should have seen it a mile away.
6. That ending.
So Cara realizes she’s got her life going the way she wants it, Andrea dumps
Jenna and prepares to pursue his dream as a dancer, Sean feels slightly
regretful for using steroids and having sexted that picture of Cara, and Kendra
cries. All the while this takes place at a funeral and the final page says nothing
more than, “…a perfect paper airplane,” (Hopkins 622). It’s a long story as to
why that was the final line, but what the heck? How dare you leave so many unanswered
and ambiguous things about Conner and the other character’s futures Hopkins! You’ve
got to elucidate something as deep and philosophical as this, so you don’t
leave the readers who weren’t expecting this type of book and don’t particularly
enjoy this kind of stuff unsatisfied with the ending and wanting more! COME ON!
7. At one point Andre’s
dad makes the comment about artist being gay. Because as an asexual/heterosexual
artist I take offense to that. Nothing deep, just something I don’t think is
true.
And there you have it folks! Don’t
read the book if you feel the same way as I do based on this list of what I don’t
like (except that last one, that one’s kinda a joke) and do read it if you like
lots of romance, philosophical/thought provoking, or coming of age novels. On a
side note, I need a serious detachment from romance for a while, and me if you
reading this NEVER READ ANOTHER ELLEN
HOPKINS NOVEL AGAIN. That stuff is not you cup of tea. Zàijiàn readers, and
see ya’ll in my next book review!
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