The Perfectionists (Perfectionists, #1)

by Sara Shepard

Ava, Caitlin, Mackenzie, Julie, and Parker are all driven to be perfect--no matter the cost. At first the girls think they have nothing in common, until they discover that they all hate the same person: handsome womanizer Nolan Hotchkiss, who's done things to hurt each of them. They come up with the perfect plan to murder Nolan--jokingly, of course. They'd never actually go through with it. But when Nolan turns up dead in the exact way they'd discussed, the girls suddenly become prime suspects in his murder. Only, they didn't do it. So who did? Unless they find the real killer, and soon, their perfect lives will come crashing down around them.

Forging a friendship based on their mutual hatred of a philandering boy, five girls imagine a perfect way to kill him and must prove their innocence when he is killed in the exact manner they envisioned. The plot contains sexual situations. Book #1

• ISBN10: 0062074695
• ISBN13: 9780062074690
• Publish Date: 7 October 2014 (first published 1 October 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

I am a big Pretty Little Liars and The Perfectionists tv show fan. Well, maybe not of the last seasons of PLL, but overall I love it. Because of this, I will make comparisons between the tv series and this book, I can't help it.

I had quite a few problems with this book. I expected it to be obvious, no real plot twists, bland characters, and a writing style that is easy to read but also not special. All those things were true. But I was ok with that, because I know Sara Shepard's writing. It is that way.
My issue with the characters is that literally everyone in this series is trying to tear each other down. The guys, the girls, the parental figures, every single person. It's not that they are bad or morally grey, but just straight up evil. I got so tired of them being evil without any reason. Literally no one could just be a nice person for 10 seconds. Even the girls that were supposed to be sticking together mentioned every single time that they did not trust each other and thought one of the other girls might have murdered Nolan. There are some truly evil people at Beacon High and I'm worried about Sera Shepard's view of teenagers and parental figures. Oh and of the cops, because they never seem to do their job right and always pick on teenagers, which is kinda weird.

Another thing I wanted to address is the fact that this book touches on almost every home situation and difficult life situation I could think of. Drugs, alcohol addiction, bullying, bullying because of sexuality, having same sex parents, overachievement, hoarders, not being able to take care of yourself, multiple personality disorder, popularity issues, split up parents, cheating, cheating with a younger brother, manipulation, betrayal, unhealthy competition between friends, evil stepparents, stepping out of your comfort zone, nudes spread around school, fake rumors, sexual abuse, using people, teacher-student relationship, losing a sibling, losing a best friend, post traumatic stress symptom, impersonation, and the list keeps on growing. This book shows that all these things happen and that even though one might seem to be perfect on the outside, you never know who they truly are and what they deal with. That is a good thing, but at a sudden point the list of things that are addressed in this book got so long that it felt a bit ridiculous, as if everyone needed to have something messed up happened to them otherwise they would not be living in this place. Also, the topics are touched on, but never really fully addressed in a way that some subjects should be addressed, because we only have 250 pages and there also is a murder to solve.

Overall I enjoyed this book. It was a fast read, entertaining, at times annoying, but don't expect any answers. I understand that when there is a continuation there are often no answers to a mystery given, but with this book there was just nothing given. Except for obvious stuff that the reader already knew from page 50. Personally, I would recommend the series instead of the books, but you can fly through them so why not try both?

"The problem though, was that someone had seen. Someone knew what they'd done that night, and so much more. And someone was going to make them pay."

I started this book a few days before my school exams started... That was a total mistake! I had to unfortunately put this book down, because my brain needed to focus on my studies. For a few weeks, The Perfectionists sat unread in my cupboard. After my exams ended, I was excited to get back to reading and this book was definitely the perfect choice for my "exams are over mood."

I was in the mood for reading a mystery and this book certainly delivered! I couldn't turn the pages fast enough in order to figure out who the killer was. Which is why the ending made me mad...

But let's talk more about the story itself...

This book is told through the POV's of five people. yes, FIVE people. These people have their own personalities, their own relationships and their own secrets. At first, the POV's were extremely confusing. Trying to figure out who was Caitlin, Ava, Julie, Mackenzie and Parker was extremely difficult. Once I got a grasp of who's who and what's going on in their lives, the book became a solid read. Each characters personality was able to shine through and that is extremely applaudable for an author who wrote FIVE POV's. My favourite POV's were Julie and Parker. There's something about them that seems a tad bit out of the ordinary (and I can't wait to find out what it is!).

This book is all about secrets and perfection. I loved the idea that Shepard brought through. One might have a perfect life, but that doesn't mean that one has a perfect character or perfect morals. It just means that one might be really good at hiding their dirty little secrets. I love when characters in a novel are human and flawed. I felt as though Shepard was able to make her five main characters realistic and utterly flawed. The characters in The Perfectionists were human. They made mistakes, their actions had consequences (well kind of) and their lives didn't really turn out the way they wanted to in the end i.e. nothing ended "happily ever after". (But who knows what will happen in the second book?)

Unfortunately, I couldn't help but compare this series to Shepard's other popular series, Pretty Little Liars. I read the first Pretty Little Liars book (which I don't remember much of) and I'm an avid fan of the TV series. Firstly, there are five characters in this novels and their personalities somewhat resemble the personalities of The Pretty Little Liars characters. Secondly, there's a popular unlikable character who dies. There are a bunch of other similarities between these two series.

The way The Perfectionists ended made me mad! I can't really talk about it, because I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I'm going to try as best as I can to get my feelings across. The mysteries get solved and then... BAM! The solving of the mystery wasn't what the main characters thought it would be... It was a clever cliffhanger ending, but the more I thought about it, the angrier I became. This book solved absolutely NOTHING, ZILTCH, NADA. As the reader, we get told a story that we expect to figure out more about and we are being fed a few clues, but and the end of it all, all the clues were for nothing and none of my questions were answered

This book has it all, mystery, murder, suspense, secrets, high school issues (their high school is a serious nightmare) and utterly flawed characters. Unfortunately, the ending, killed me! (pun intended) It made me terribly mad to realise that none of my questions were answered and the murderer is still loose.

I need to get my hands on the second book, The Good Girls, ASAP...

[readingwithwrin]

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