''Perfect'' is a

young adult novel Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

written by American author

Ellen Hopkins Ellen Louise Hopkins (born March 26, 1955) is a novelist who has published several ''New York Times'' bestseller, bestselling novels that are popular among the teenage and young adult audience. Personal life Hopkins was adopted by Albert and Val ...

. Like all of Ellen Hopkin's works, the novel is unusual for its

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French ''vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Definit ...

format. ''Perfect'' is the sequel to ''Impulse''.

Plot

From the bookjacket

"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?"

Characters

*Cara Sykes: Cara is the twin of Conner Sykes. She is trying to live up to her parents' expectations while at the same time struggling with her sexuality. *Kendra Mathieson: Kendra is the ex-girlfriend of Conner Sykes. She has been in beauty pageants her whole life and plans on being a model. She gets plastic surgery and develops an eating disorder to be "perfect." *Sean O'Connell: Sean is Cara's longtime boyfriend. He wants a baseball scholarship to

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

to be with her. He develops an addiction to steroids to be a great baseball player. *Andre Kane III: Andre is an African American boy from an extremely wealthy family. His parents expect him to enter a well paying career, though Andre secretly wants to become a dancer, and takes private lessons in secret.

Reception

Critical reception to ''Perfect'' has been positive, with the LA Times saying "Hopkins is painfully adept at channeling perfectionist psychology... It's an ambitious idea, powerfully executed." Publishers Weekly criticized the "overabundance of plot points", but stated that the book "explores enough hot-button issues (rape, teen plastic surgery, cyberharassment, etc.) to intrigue her fans and recruit new ones".

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

wrote that "While not razor-edged like her previous work, Hopkins’ portrait of four 12th-graders who are expected to be perfect will nonetheless keep teens up all night reading."PERFECT By Ellen Hopkins
Kirkus Reviews

References

External links

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{{Ellen Hopkins American young adult novels Novels about rape 2011 American novels Margaret K. McElderry books