The Perfectionists
Sara Shepard
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
FIRST OF ALL CAN I JUST SAY-- THAT COVER!!! :0
In Beacon Heights High, Nolan Hotchkiss is king. His charm, wealth and good looks are deceptively seductive, and many are the students whose lives and reputations have been ruined by it. All while Nolan continues to reign, unquestioned and undisrupted. Until now, that is.
Mackenzie, Ava, Julie, Caitlin and Parker seemingly don't have much in common. Each has their own friends, dramas and goals. But one thing they do share: they all have a deep hatred of Nolan Hotchkiss. And they all think it's about time he paid for what he's done. They come up with the perfect murder - a hypothetical murder, of course. It's all wishful thinking ... until they wake up one morning to find that their wish has come true. Nolan has been killed - in exactly the way they planned. The thing is, they didn't do it. So who did?
I really, really loved this book. It was filled with mystery, intrigue, romance *blushes* and I was kept in suspense the whole time.
I loved most of the main characters, who each have pretty interesting backstories. Out of all of them, I liked Ava the best, as I got to know and understand her most. She felt like a real person that could be in my Tech class at school. I love that she is bold and such a strong person. She went through a lot of awful stuff and I think she had the worst outcome of all the MCs in the end of the book. I adored Ava and Alex's relationship- it was sweet and sincere. They said "I love you," and truly meant it. However, the other relationships were pretty boring.
I couldn't care less about Carson and Julie, because as strange as it is, I totally ship Parker and Julie. <3 Whenever they had a total BFF moment I was all
I hated the Mac-Blake-Claire love triangle. To be honest Mac was really the only character I didn't like or connect to much. She was very... two dimensional.
The Josh-Jeremy-Caitlin love triangle, on the other hand....
There was actually a guy you could root for, as Josh was a douche the whole time. #TeamJeremy XD
I do have to say, though, that Caitlin wasn't a favourite either....
Julies backstory was amazing. I don't acre about popularity much (quality over quantity) but I completely understand how she would like to have friends, after what happened at her old school. Parker was a very interesting character too. I really liked reading her chapters of the book. The fact that her mum blamed her for everything with her dad was truly awful, and I felt her pain. Even though the book was third person, I managed to connect and get to know 3\5 characters so that was good :D
I do kind of wish there had been more story behind Caitlin's brother, Taylor, though. It was kind of glossed over, you know? I get that its Caitlin's point of view and she didn't really understand what was going on, but at least a few full passages from Taylor's journal would be nice. I actually thought for a bit that the girls HAD killed Nolan. But then I found out they just drew on him so yeahh xD that kind of cleared things up. The book had a few similarities to PLL, but it was mostly just the familiar theme and The Perfectionists definitely stood out as an original book. (Except that it is practically the same story as Get Even by Gretchen McNeil but they were both published around the same time so I can't really blame anyone for that. Just a coincidence I guess. And they both did have lots of differences anyway.)
The start of the book seemed to be ALL about Nolan and what a pig he is, so it was nice when they slightly ventured away from him and focused on the fact that someone may be trying to frame them for his murder. I am so glad there is a second book, The Good Girls, because I NEED to find out who killed Nolan, and much like in Get Even, nothing much was resolved.
The book never ceased to be thrilling or shocking, and I definitely enjoyed every second of it.
the spoiler sessions
My current theories on who killed Nolan and Granger
(and more!)
1. Claire is the killer. She was nervous when the police were interviewing the students. And it's very Sara Shepard to make the least suspected be the bad guys (Mona Vanderwaal from pll and Ethan from tlg)
2. Parker came back after the girls left and killed Nolan, and it was erased from her memory.
3. Alex killed Granger, thinking he was in a relationship with Ava (and getting revenge on Ava by pinning it on her)
4. Elliot Fielder. There has to be more to the guy. I think either he is framing the girls, or he is actually trying to protect Parker.
AND NOW, THE WAIT FOR BOOK 2 BEGINS.
XX, Aria\Emmi