Perfect

My Review: A powerful and honest portrayal of the internal struggles a teenager faces with body image. Strong emotional depth with important themes for discussion.

This was a very well written book, though it ended with me wanting about twenty more pages- like it should have had another chapter or two. I would have given it five stars except I'm not sure about the graphic and detailed descriptions of binging and purging. It was good but being that the book was aimed at a middle school audience, they don't need to know techniques for bulimia. A little too much "how to". It's important not to gloss over what eating disorders are so that maybe someone will recognize themselves and realize they need to get some help but for those who don't, they don't need instructions for starting. I think I would consider having my daughters read it with me and discuss it but I definitely wouldn't let them read it show more on their own. One really strong point the book makes is showing how hard and yet how possible it is to stand up to peer pressure. It also deals with family relationships and grief. show less

This is an amazing YA novel. The story moves at the perfect pace to delve into a whole bunch of issues that the majority of young women deal with as soon as adolescence begins. Unfortunately, a good deal of those issues continue to follow long after adolescence ends. The need to be, or at least look perfect is an unattainable goal and novels like this should be necessary reading to help our girls as they are bombarded with airbrushed and filtered images everywhere they look. I found this story deep and compelling without being preachy. I highly recommend this book.

Isabelle Lee has an annoying little sister, a depressed mother, a newly found friendship with the most popular girl in school, and bulimia. "Perfect" is the story of her personal journey through hardship and self-discovery.

A year ago Isabelle's father died, and her family has not been the same since. Her mother spends days in bed, cries late at night, and doesn't often cook for her daughters. Isabelle's little sister, April, has to struggle with doing a school project on her family when her mother won't tell her where the photos of her father are. Forced to go to Eating Disorder and Body Image Therapy Group by her mother, Isabelle is shocked when Ashley Barnum, the most popular girl in school, walks in late. Soon a friendship forms show more between the two that is held together solely by their shared need for binging and purging food and soda. Through her observation of Ashley's eating disorder Isabelle comes to realize how much she is actually hurting herself and her family by continuing her own habit. Through fighting her mother's depression and helping the rest of her family recover from her father's death Isabelle is able to fight her eating disorder.

Isabelle's matter-of-fact descriptions of the world around her and how it makes her feel are at times sarcastic, ironic, or pessimistic, but other times are funny, thoughtful, and quite true-to-life. The author's creative use of the first person point of view makes "Perfect" hard to put down once you start it. "Perfect" is a novel for middle and high school readers. show less

After her father dies, Isabelle, her sister and her mother are bereft. But mom won't even talk about dad, and Isabelle can't deal by herself. She begins a cycle of binging and purging and meets the perfect Ashley in the eating disorders group. Maybe perfect isn't always what it seems.

Isabelle's family is still recovering from the death of her father when her younger, very annoying sister April catches her throwing up her food in the bathroom. Soon their mother places Isabelle in group therapy to help her deal with her bulimia, as well as her grief for her father.

Despite dealing with some of the same issues as Laurie Halse Anderson's "Wintergirls," "Perfect" seems geared toward a slightly younger audience, as the main character herself is in middle school and is less openly hostile toward her body. Isabelle is in group therapy throughout the novel and makes good progress, giving it more of an optimistic tone. Also, peer pressure is addressed in "Perfect" through Isabelle's relationship with Ashley, which many young show more readers will be able to relate to easily.

That being said, the subject matter is still very difficult and readers would benefit from reading this book under the supervision of a trusted adult. show less

According to the back of the audio CD case, Perfect has received the Milkweed Prize for Children’s Literature and is a Book Sense Winter Picks selection. The audio CD version of Perfect was among the 2007 Selected Audiobooks for Young Adults from Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Author Natasha Friend does a very good job of introducing the subject of bulimia, as well as the emotional causes and physical effects of the eating disorder. Friend uses Isabelle’s therapy sessions to initiate open dialogue conversations between the story’s characters. Friend’s use of journaling in the therapy sessions offers the reader an example of how teens can express and talk about their feelings and emotions. Perfect is filled show more with humor and sadness. The binging and purging rituals are terrifying scenes. Your heart goes out to the girls. You can feel their pain as they eat anything and everything in sight only to lose control and intentionally purge all they have eaten—a perfect routine. Perfect is a book that deals with a very real problem. Books such as Perfect may break the silence of a young adult who is secretly suffering from a life-threatening eating disorder. Friend has also written two other books: (1) Lush deals with an alcoholic father and (2) Bounce deals with the subjects of stepfamilies and relocation. show less