The Perfectionists

Candy! A delightfully escapist summer read for fans of YA thrillers. I listened to this, and the narration is excellent! Cassandra Morris is the ideal narrator for this kind of young adult novel; she sounds like she's just the right age and she creates an authentic range of teenage emotion. In terms of the story, I was whisked away into the world of these girls, who are in high school in the Pacific Northwest. This is a slow burn murder mystery, and the sequencing and pacing really kept me guessing and eager for more. I would definitely suggest reading book 2 (The Good Girls) immediately after this one, which is what we did. I got such a kick out of dishing about these stories with Priya and Kimberley. Now I'm I planning to restart show more Pretty Little Liars and binge that series (also by Sara Shepard) with buddies. She really captures the essence of fun, glossy YA suspense. show less

Sara Shepard is my brain-numbing queen. She's so easy to read and, for me, it's so easy to get interested in the story without necessarily getting invested in anything or anyone.

So this was pretty fine. I tore through it in two days, and I always like seeing what nonsense will happen even if it is all derivative of the same thing...backstab. kiss the wrong boy. backstab. hide a petty secret. kiss the wrong boy again. kiss TWO WRONG BOYS. The girls this time are nicer and quieter, and honestly at a point reading Shepard's books isn't even about what cool character choice she'll make or what theme she'll bring up, it's just like, how much more of a delightful tangled drama mess can she create. (And how many boys can she make who are show more carbon copies of each other because at this point it's A LOT.) It's just a game of instant gratification.

But I think if I need another dose of her I'll stick to the trillion PLL books that overstayed their welcome. I know those gals and I liked how the drama compounded. I don't really look to them to...feel anything for the characters, or expect to see them grow or anything. Starting a new series from her really highlighted that for me - I wanna see how they get deeper, not how they get out, because I'm not bothered if they DON'T get out.

(Also I never noticed how unprofessionally she writes cops/authority. Like the cops all acting like smarmy teen boys and spilled all their case details to give the protags a SICK BURN.)

Anyway! I have the sequel here with me so I'll see! There's still something that always draws my eye to her candy-bright covers and snappy slogans when I just need a tense contemporary to turn my brain off! show less

Julie, Parker, Caitlin, Ava and Mackenzie all have there reasons for wanting Nolan Hotchkiss dead, he was a bully, a narcissist, a liar, thief, manipulator and all around perv. When the subject of the perfect murder arises during a group discussion they all agree Nolan is the one they would target given the chance. They plan it all out, down to the tiniest detail.

However when Nolan ends up dead and the police call foul play they are all stunned. It was hypothetical. None of them would ever really kill someone. Right?

In order to clear their names they start searching for the real killer. But a guy like Nolan has a lot of enemies and whose to say the killer isn't one of them?

I LOVED this book, yes it's like Pretty Little Liar, I can't show more deny that but there's a reason people love PLL so much. It's more addictive than cocaine. I joke with my sister that we'll be the little old ladies in the nursing home watching PPL hoping that "A" is revealed before one of us dies.

This book has all the nuts and bolts that made PPL, friendships, secrets, betrayal, loyalty, loss, mystery, murder and cliff hangers galore.

I think it took me maybe three hours to read this book, start to finish, I couldn't put it down for more than a couple minutes, all five girls are so unique and have their own personalities, problems and ultimately their own motive.

The only thing I would've liked to see was maybe a chapter from Nolan's point of view, we see who he was on the outside and how others perceived him (and don't get me wrong I doubt I would ever like him as a person) but I would have a liked just a couple pages told from his view point.

I walked into this book thinking it was a stand alone novel... At the end I was physically and emotionally distraught. It was so good and I just wanted the ending. The shocking, surprising, ending!

As long as you are prepared for the fact that it will probably be a decade and a half before this series is over than go ahead and pick it up but if you want an open and shut mystery this book is not for you.

Until next time,
Ginger

In compliance with FTC guidelines I am disclosing that this book was given to me for free to review.
My review is my honest opinion. show less

This was really good!! I really enjoy a solid YA mystery/suspense/drama story, and "The Perfectionists" pulled me in so quickly! I NEED the next book asap!

The main characters, Julie, Parker, Mackenzie, Ava, and Caitlin, are really interesting characters, and each of them felt very well thought out and written. I love to see friendships grow between girls, and am really glad this wasn't one of those "girls are catty to each other" relationships. Also, this book passes the Bechdel Test, which is cool, and far too uncommon in YA books.

I'm only docking a star because the relationship drama (like between Caitlin and Josh, and Mack and Blake) just felt a little cheesy and predictable at times. Also, finding clues seems to be a little too show more Scooby-Doo easy for these girls. Just felt a tad unrealistic. Nevertheless, I'm still going to keep reading! I can't wait to see what happens!! show less

It's a little hard to get into a book when the author throws 20 characters at me within the first couple of chapters. What makes it worse? Rotten character development. While each girl had their unique and interesting story, they did not have unique voices, making the story feel 'told', rather than 'experienced'.
About 3/4 of the way through, I was finally engaged in the story line, and then... Bam! The book was over with not just a cliffhanger, but with no resolution to any bit of the story.
The single reason for not 1-starring The Perfectionists? The mystery was plotted out in an interesting way. It is just too bad that I will never know how it ends since I will not be reading any further in this series.

I read this book because I just marathoned Pretty Little Liars on Netflix and heard this is getting a PLL-connected spin off.

A group of girls who all hate Nolan got to talking one day in class about taking revenge on him. It wasn’t totally random, the class itself kind of inspired the conversation. Plus, it seems like everyone hated Nolan for one reason or another. He did bad things to a lot of people with varying degrees of bad consequences. Long story short, there are a lot of people who would be happy to never cross paths with Nolan again.

But the girls had been planning a much more innocent revenge than murder. They planned to get him drunk/drugged and take embarrassing pictures of him.

But Nolan dies the same night and eye show more witnesses start to report who he was last seen with. Despite the girls seeming pretty innocent from their story, they know they might sound guilty if they go to the cops. Plus, they think someone might have overheard their conversation in class and be framing them.

In addition, each girl has a secret of two that they’re afraid will come to light.

I liked the story but it definitely is entirely built up to a cliffhanger to start book number two. I’m ok with that, I was expecting it. I’m definitely going to suggest that you buy both books together or you’ll be left hanging at the end of this book.

I think I’ll have a better idea how much I enjoyed the story after finishing the second part. show less

A total fun, guilty pleasure read. It’s basically just PLL with different character and a different murder— and I’m okay with that!! Especially because I KNOW that it stops at 2 books and doesn’t go on for 27.