Perfectly Perfect


Perfect by Ellen Hopkins is a novel I recommend everyone to read. The story is about how four high school seniors who strive to attain perfection. It is written in poem form and begins each chapter with one of the characters names bolded on the top of the page. I thought it was a well-written novel and flowed nicely. All the characters thoughts, words and actions aligned effortlessly. Cara, the main character experiences tough situations, which challenge her, but she remains strong and true to herself throughout the whole story. The characters go against their parent’s ideals and create their own to reach perfection, whether its being the prettiest, strongest, best at sports, smartest or the most popular these teens all seem to want it.

Ellen Hopkins reflects the realities of real life satisfactory. She utilizes real life struggles and experiences teens to grab the attention of her readers. The dialogue between the characters is also real and genuine. Ellen Hopkins shows these hardships as they are without distorting them. She flawlessly displays conflicts that teens go through including Connors suicide attempt, Cara and Sean’s breakup, Kendra’s eating disorder and Andres dancing dreams. As teens we go through similar struggles, even though we don’t experience these exact ones and react the same ways as the characters, most teens can relate to this novel in one way or another. I like how Ellen does not sugar coat the suffering of these teens, she shows the ugly truth and tells it how it is or else readers would not enjoy the book as much. She gives readers hope to find inner trust in ourselves in that we are all perfect. Towards the end of the story this was truly evident to me. You do not want to miss out on this great novel so I suggest reading it very soon.