|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
Review
"This page-turner pulls no emotional punches."
--Kirkus Reviews, April 2011
"Hopkins sticks to the signature style that has made her books bestsellers, blending verse poetry with controversial topics . . . to intrigue her fans and recruit new ones."
--Publishers Weekly, July 2011
"This companion to Impulse can stand alone, but packs considerably more punch when read contiguously as intended. . . . Hopkins’s legions of fans will no doubt devour Perfect and welcome the return of the characters they learned to love in Impulse."
--SLJ, August 2011
"Hopkins addresses teens’ struggle with unrealistic expectations in gut-wrenching free verse."
--Booklist, August 2011
"At its nucleus, four teenagers are grappling with insecurities that become exacerbated when loved ones turn up the heat. . . . The unrestricted access Hopkins employs is formidable: parents, siblings, love interests, and outliers all thrust frank judgment on the characters. It is how Cara, Sean, Kendra, and Andre react that encourages readers’ emotional attachments. Her writing conveys teenage quandaries with all of the intended consequences, as the verse style only serves to shock as the events unfold."
--VOYA, October 2011
Book Description
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.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect,
By
This review is from: Perfect (Hardcover)
Perfect was addicting. It showed a wide array of characters, as Ellen Hopkins books always do, with a wide array of equally real and relatable stories. Each character is facing different dilemmas that in some way or another readers will be able to relate to. Not to every single character and all their individual problems of course, but to at least one aspect of them. This book runs parallel to one of Ellen Hopkins' previous books Impulse. While Impulse tells the story of Connor, Perfect explains what is going on back in his home town while he's away.The book features his twin sister Cara, who's struggling with being the perfect daughter while trying to understand love. Another feature character is Kendra, Connors' ex-girlfriend who is coping with still being in love with Connor while pursuing a modelling career that demands she gain the perfect skinny body type. Then there's Sean, Cara's boyfriend, who's after baseball records and a place on the baseball team of one of the top colleges, and he's willing to gain that place with illegal substances not caring about the consequences. And finally there's Andre, who didn't actually know Connor, but his story still ties in as he decides between his parents expectations for him and his own hopes and dreams. And although the story is never told from Jenna's perspective, she's still a main character in my opinion and adds the issue of excessive drinking to the book. I liked this book a lot. I wasn't a huge fan of Fallout, it seemed less gritty than the others. While this one also wasn't the same level of grit as say Crank or Tricks, I didn't feel like it needed it as I did with Fallout. All in all it's a good book and anyone who was a fan of Ellen Hopkins' other books will love this one just as much as the rest.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (45 customer reviews) 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect,
By Kellee M. - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Perfect (Hardcover)
Wow. In the companion to Impulse, Ellen Hopkins shares with us what is going on back home while Connor is at Aspen Springs. Puts his life into more of a context then you got in Impulse. Terrifying.Yet another book that left me crying at the end. Summary: It is so hard to be perfect. Cara's parents have expectations for her that no one can live up to, Kendra pushes her body to the limit to reach beauty, Sean will do anything to be the best athlete he can be, and Andre is hiding his true ambitions from everyone. All 4 teenagers just want to please those around them, but is it worth the risks and consequences? What I Think: Perfect runs parallel to Ellen Hopkins's Impulse. While Connor is at Aspen Springs, the psychiatric hospital, in Impulse, Perfect follows his sister and some of their friends back home. In Impulse sometimes I couldn't connect with Connor and the way he was feeling, but Perfect gives you the back story I wished for- and more! I now truly understand why Connor ended up where he did. One of my favorite parts of the book was whenever the point of view changed, the new section began with a very lyrical poem vs. the narrative ones that drive the story. It set the emotional tone for the section and character. Also, they are truly beautifully written. Because this book has multiple points of view, there are so many different issues that are dealt with: Abuse, Alcohol, Drugs, Ambition, Race, Eating Disorders, Depression, Sexual Orientation, Rape, Expectations, Stalking, Love, Abandonment, Steroids and more. Although you may not be able to connect with all of the trauma within Perfect, everyone can connect to something. It is also because of all of the trauma that Perfect truly draws out emotions and causes you to physically react. If you have read Impulse, it is a similar experience. My last thought is that I am glad that I don't live in the neighborhood/school district that Ellen Hopkins built for this book. 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review by Patricia's Particularity,
By Patricia Leppla - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Perfect (Hardcover)
Where do I begin with another amazing book by the ever-so talented Ellen Hopkins... Perfect is a novel that everyone must read, not just teens. It's message transcends age, gender, sexuality, race and time. We all want to be perfect, and for each and everyone one of us defining what is 'perfect' is different. Ellen Hopkins explores the idea of 'perfection' through characters that struggle with things that many of us have and still do: being the prettiest, the best at sports, the best academically, and to be just perfect for ourselves by being who we are.One of my favorite characters is Cara, Connor's sister (from Impulse). Not only is she under thumb of her parents' constant pressure to be the best academically and at everything else, she is left behind while Connor works on his own issues (must read Impulse to find out more about this). And if that wasn't enough she is finding something about herself she never knew... she could be be a lesbian. Can I just say this girl has a strength of wills like no other! Such a simple question that carries so much meaning and weight. Ellen Hopkins has created a reality in verse perfectly (no pun intended), a reality that many of use tend to ignore or pretend doesn't exist. Ellen Hopkins continues to grab the attention and respect of all her readers through her brute honesty and artistic craft. Without her our Literary World would be less than it is. She gives us hope to find the truth in ourselves, that we are all perfect, just the way we are, in Perfect. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect cafe read...,
By Kate "Midnight Book Girl" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Perfect (Hardcover)
Went to Barnes and Noble this morning and ended up reading this book while sipping my Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate (good, but the Salted Caramel Mocha is better). I didn't realize until I was reading that Perfect is a follow up to Impulse, and here again you have lots of teens under pressure. I much preferred the girls story's, while the boys seemed a bit boring. I really didn't like how the rape was dealt with, but at least it was realistic- a lot of rapes don't get reported and it did offer an interesting he said/she said view point. I would have preferred to hear more about Cara- I thought her story of coming to grips with the fact she was a lesbian was the best part of the book, but a lot of her struggle seemed to happen to fast. I was more interested in Jenna's story than her sister Kendra's anorexia battle. I really enjoy Ellen Hopkin's writing style, but this go around I just wasn't as impressed with her characters- they seemed very stereo-typical and it lacked some of the tension that Impulse had. Still, there's something to be said about an almost 600 page book that I was able to read in one sitting at the Barnes & Noble cafe.
|
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
