Book Review: The Perfectionists by Sara Shepard

Hey my lovelies, here is a non-spoiler review of Sara Shepard's the Perfectionists. 

Title: The Perfectionists
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pub. Date: October 7th 2014
Date Read:Sunday 13th March 2016
Pages: 336
Rating:3.9/5 stars
Goodreads Summary: In Beacon Heights, Washington, five girls—Ava, Caitlin, Mackenzie, Julie, and Parker—know that you don’t have to be good to be perfect. At first the girls think they have nothing in common, until they realize that they all hate Nolan Hotchkiss, who’s done terrible things to each of them. They come up with the perfect way to kill him—a hypothetical murder, of course. It’s just a joke...until Nolan turns up dead, in exactly the way they planned. Only, they didn’t do it. And unless they find the real killer, their perfect lives will come crashing down around them. 

From Sara Shepard, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Pretty Little Liars series, comes another story of dark secrets, shocking twists, and what happens when five beautiful girls will do anything to hide the ugly truth. 

Overview

The Perfectionists is everything that you think a Sara Shepard book would be, full of mystery, death, murder and a group of girls trying to solve it. If you think I just described Petty Little Liars, then you are right, this book was incredibly similar to Pretty Little Liars and reminded me more of the tv show rather than books. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it just shows that Sara found her niche and she has stuck with it. Although it became almost like a cheaper knock off of the original series, except this one is condensed down into two books rather than 16. None of this is to say that it’s a bad book, in fact I really enjoyed it, and if it was buy any other author it probably wouldn’t have gotten the slack that I have just given it.

The Perfectionists is a story of 5 girls, who each play their part in a prank on the most popular guy in school, who is a known bully and drug taker, who ends up dead. Something that I never really got was that drugs are accepted and seem to help the ‘perfect’ image, whereas in real life it’s not something to be proud of. Each of the girls have more of a reason to do the prank and then on to do the killing.

The girls;

There is Ava, who is a pretty girl, who is still dealing with rumors that were caused my Nolan (the dead guy) long ago, which still affect her home life, school life and relationship with her boyfriend.

Parker, who was pretty and popular until an accident which was indirectly caused by Nolan (and Julie, just as much) led to her bearing scars on her face, due to this she repetitively has black outs and strong migraines. I have various theories about Parker, but I shall get into that in my review of The Good Girls to avoid any spoilers.

Next up, Is Julie, who effectively took Parker's place on the popularity scale, she has a strange home life, due to her mum’s illness, which she tries to hide from everyone, except Parker. Due to hr popularity she also has what is necessarily a stalker, who in turns tries to copy everything that she does.

Caitlyn, is the ‘sporty one’ who plays football or soccer depending on where you’re from and her boyfriends also on the male’s football team. She is affected by Nolan due to his excessive bullying (not that any bullying is good) of her younger brother, which lead to him committing suicide.

And finally there is, Mackenzie, the one who I couldn’t remember the story line or who she was… I’m back, Mackenzie was the musical one, her reason for revenge on Nolan wasn’t what I would consider that much of a big deal. We didn’t really know much of her home life only that she is uber competitive with her ‘best friend’, who is a huge bitch may I add, and she also has feelings for said friends boyfriend. Yeah, I saw exactly where that was going too.

Other Characters

Mr Granger is basically a creepier version of the TV shows Mr Fitz, and yeah another teacher. Adam, Ava’s boyfriend, takes notice of a lot of things, which really goes to the other end of the creepy spectrum. To be honest there are no other characters to take note off.

Positives

1.          The main characters have a lot more diverse cast than Pretty Little Liars
2.        Only two books. TWO! Is this really Sara Shepard approving a series that is only a duology?
3.        The end makes you want the second book right now.
4.          I have the second book right now.

Negatives

1.  Introduces at least 20 characters who are not important at all throughout the novel in the first chapter
2. I could not remember the fifth girls name or her story line, whilst writing this review.
3. Cliffhanger. I Repeat there is a cliffhanger
4.   It seems like the books just finally starting to build and then it ended. Ugggh.

Even though the Perfectionists is definitely a what if? Of Pretty Little Liars, it was still enjoyable and I still got pulled straight into it. Its great for anyone who still wants the murder mystery part of the story , but doesn't want the heaviness of a book that comes with that situation. 

Thank you for reading my lovelies, this is it for this week, if you would like to see more of what I am currently reading you can check me out on Goodreads, Instagram and Twitter. 

Previous Book Review: The 100 by Kass Morgan

Next Book Review: The Good Girls by Sara Shepard

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