Review: Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Title: Perfect
Series: Impulse #2
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Poetry
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books, Simon and Schuster Inc.
ISBN-13: 9781416983248
ISBN: 1416983244
Release: September 13, 2011
Rating: 5/5


Tagline(s): ~None~

Summary:

Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they’d rather be. For four high-school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there.

Cara’s parents’ unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. Kendra covets the perfect face and body—no matter what surgeries and drugs she needs to get there. To score his perfect home run—on the field and off—Sean will sacrifice more than he can ever win back. And Andre realizes that to follow his heart and achieve his perfect performance, he’ll be living a life his ancestors would never have understood.

Everyone wants to be perfect, but when perfection loses its meaning, how far will you go? What would you give up to be perfect?

A riveting and startling companion to the bestselling Impulse, Ellen Hopkins's Perfect exposes the harsh truths about what it takes to grow up and grow into our own skins, our own selves.

Review:

Characters

Cara Sykes, Kendra Mathieson, Sean O'Connell, and Andre Kane all have on thing in common: their expectations for perfection. Whether those expectations are from their parents or self-imposed.

After her brother's failed suicide attempt, Cara ends up on an unexpected journey of self-discovery. But what she finds could shatter her facade of perfection. Cara will have to choose between taking a chance on what she discovered or continuing to live behind that facade and under her parent's expectations.

Kendra wants the perfect face and the perfect body that will take her career from the pageant stages to the model runways. But for Kendra, that perfection comes with a price. A price that could eventually cost her everything. Will she be willing to pay it?

Sean has everything planned around his relationship with Cara. Even getting a baseball scholarship to Stanford. But in order to get there, his batting needs to be perfect. And what better way to ensure that than using steroids? But when things with Cara take a nosedive and his future plans are disrupted, Sean is a little more than upset and decides to get even.

Andre's ancestors struggled from the ground up to be successful, and his parents expect him to be just as successful. But where Andre's passions lie don't exactly fit with his parent's idea of the perfect career. Andre will need to choose whether to follow his heart or a future of discontent.

Theme

As the title of the book suggests, a theme of this story is perfection. Perfection that's imposed upon them by others or perfection that is imposed upon them by themselves. The perfect lifestyle, the perfect body, the perfect future, or the perfect career. But perfection comes at a price. Sometimes it's low, sometimes it's high, and sometimes the price is too high. Cara, Kendra, Sean, and Andre will have to choose whether they are willing to pay the price, no matter the cost. Is perfection important enough to risk everything for?

Though perfection is an obvious theme, as you read you will notice another theme: the absence of love. Cara's parents are distant and don't show much affection toward their children. Because of this, Cara doesn't understand love and doesn't think she could really love anyone. After Kendra's parents divorced, her father payed very little attention to her and her sister, Jenna. That lack of attention has deadly consequences for one of the sister. Sean loves Cara with all his heart, but when Cara doesn't return that love after almost a year together, it sends Sean spiraling downward. And when Jenna can't return Andre's love and he realizes he can't help Jenna before she falls, they break up.

Love is essential. When there's too little or too much of it, it can break us.

Plot

Perfect is written in verse. A lot of people would think that a book that's written more like a poem than a novel wouldn't have much depth. But they would be wrong. Perfect has a lot of depth and many powerful messages.

This book addresses many issues that teens face everyday. Sexual orientation, suicide, eating disorders, alcohol abuse, drug use, etc. It shows how they happen and the consequences of them.

The author does an amazing job telling each teens story---their issues, the complications and resolutions of those issues, and the consequences of them---all in verse.

My Final Thoughts:

I love how this book is so powerful. It has a powerful message about real life issues. You would think that a book written in verse would be simple, but it's not. It has a lot of depth to the story. I was so into this book that I couldn't put it down.

Quote:

Cara Sierra Sykes, Page 1

"Perfect?
How do you define a word without concrete meaning? To each his own, the saying goes, so why push to attain an ideal state of being that no two random people will agree is where you want to be? Faultless. Finished. Incomparable. People can never be these, and anyway, when did creating a flawless facade become a more vital goal than learning to love the person who lives inside your skin? The outside belongs to others. Only you should decide for you---what is perfect."

About this Author:

Ellen Hopkins is the New York Times bestselling author of Crank, Burned, Impulse, Glass, and Identical. She lives in Carson City, Nevada, with her husband and son. Hopkin's MySpace and Facebook pages get thousands of hits from teens who claim Hopkins is the "only one who understands me", and she can be visited at ellenhopkins.com.

Okay, as promised, I was adopted as
a baby and grew up in Palm Springs,
California. I went to a great private
school, where my teachers
convinced me I could become
anything I wanted. I knew from age 9,
when I published my first poem in the
Palm Springs Desert Sun, that I
wanted to be a writer. -Ellen Hopkins

Review: Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard

Title: Paper Covers Rock
Author: Jenny Hubbard
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Poetry
Publisher: Delacorte Press, Random House Inc.
ISBN-13: 9780385740555
ISBN: 0385740557
Release: June 14, 2011
Rating: 3/5



Tagline(s): ~None~

Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Alex has just begun his junior year at a boys' boarding school when he fails to save a friend from drowning in a river on campus. Fearing the consequences if they reveal the whole truth about what happened, Alex and his friend Glenn, who also witnessed the accident, decide to lie. Plagued by guilt, Alex takes refuge in the library, telling his tale in a journal he hides behind a copy of Moby-Dick.

But the boys were not the only ones by the river that day. In the midst of their panic, Miss Dovecott, a young English teacher fresh out of Princeton, happened to arrive.

Over the next few weeks, Miss Dovecott begins to recognize poetic talent in Alex; she helps him find his voice, and he is thrilled by his teacher's special attention. But when it becomes obvious that Miss Dovecott has noticed glimmers of guilt in Alex's writing, Glenn is convinced that she is out to get them. Now Alex must choose between his friend and his mentor. But every decision has it's consequences.

Jenny Hubbard has drawn on her skills as poet, playwright, and teacher to create this poignant story, which captures a world where the line between the code of silence and the code of honor is not always clearly drawn.

Review:

Characters

Alex Stromm was one of four boys at the river the day Thomas died. Unlike Glenn, Alex isn't in the spotlight, nor does he want to be. But Alex's talent for writing poetry gains him attention from his English teacher. He uses this talent to work through his guilt over Thomas' death.

Glenn Everson is the Golden Boy, always in the spotlight. Perfect in athletics and academics; he's someone everyone respects and looks up to. Suspecting that their English teacher knows more than she's letting on about what happened at the river, Glenn comes up with The Plan to get her out of the school.

Haley Dovecott is Alex and Glenn's English teacher. She notices promising talent in Alex and becomes like a mentor to him. She also happened to be near the river on the day Thomas died. She heard yelling and went to see what was wrong. Not knowing what she really saw, she subtly tries to get more information from Alex and Glenn.

Thomas Broughton was told to jump off the rock, not dive. But having drunk way more vodka than he should have impaired his judgment. He dove and hit his head on the rocks in the river and died. He is survived by his parents and younger brother, Trenton.

Theme

In this book Alex struggles with whether he should keep his silence or let the truth be known about that day at the river and Thomas' death. Alex feels guilt over Thomas' death because he believes he didn't do everything in his power to save him. But in a way, Alex does break his silence when he writes about that day, and the events after, in the journal his father gave him. Whether that is good enough is up to interpretation. I believe that speaking out is too hard for some people, but if they can find another way---like Alex with his writing---it's just as good as actually saying the words. It's out there in some way, shape or form.

Plot

The main element in this story is Alex's guilt. The author [Jenny Hubbard] has Alex express and work through his guilt in writing. Whether it's in his journal or homework assignments---his poetry. She even has his use running on the cross country team as a way to work though it. For a lot of people writing is the best and easiest way for them to express themselves, and I thought that that was the best way the author could have used to show Alex coming to grips with this subject. It's realistic and honest.

Setting

The book takes place at Birch School, an all boys' boarding school.

Alex doesn't like the image a boarding school gives those who attend, because people automatically think you're a delinquent and are there because you did something wrong.

There is a sense of brotherhood within the dorms. Since you're with these guys everyday a bond is formed. Though it's not a place that's easily accepting of those who are gay.

For Alex, the river represents death and the loss of innocence. Though he does go back to the river after Thomas' death, it's not easy for him.

And the cross country track is a place where Alex can just let it all go for a while and run. There's also a sense of achievement as Alex's run times continue to improve.

My Final Thoughts:

I was kind of surprised when I began reading that it takes place in the 1980's. Most recent releases I've read have either taken place in the present or the future. I liked how the author used writing as a way for Alex to express himself. Although the poetry was a little difficult for me to understand, but I've never really been good at understanding poetry, so it's not a real negative for the story. All in all, I really liked this book.

Quote: 

Chapter Seven, Page 72

"Writing is about making choices, Miss Dovecott says. One word or phrase or title over another. So many options that they're almost overwhelming. Which is why it is sometimes so easy to grab the cliche, to reach out to what is familiar. But don't. Because metaphor is all about the comparison of two unfamiliar, unlike things."

About this Author:

In the summer of 2009, Jenny spent ten happy days at Vermont College of Fine Arts under the expert tutelage of Kathi Appelt, to whom much is owed. A published poet and playwright, Jenny taught English to high-school and college students for seventeen years before retiring to write full-time. Her first novel for young adults, Paper Covers Rock, will be published by Random House in 2011. (You may visit her at www.papercoversrock.co.) Represented by Jonathan Lyons of Lyons Literary LLC, Jenny is currently working on young-adult novel #2 in Asheville, North Carolina, where she lives with her math-teacher husband. When not at her desk, Jenny enjoys taking walks, going to plays, and working the New York Times crossword puzzle.