11 February 2015

The Perfectionists by Sara Shepard

Series: The Perfectionists #1
Publication date: October 2, 2014
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Genres: YA Contemporary 
Format: Paperback - review copy
Source: Received from Hot Key Books in exchange for an honest review
Pages: 267

Perfect test scores, perfect friends, perfect lives... perfect murderers?

High school senior Nolan Hotchkiss is one of those lucky kids - handsome, rich, living a charmed life - despite the fact that he's a self-centred bully who treats everyone around him like dirt. Still, no one can touch Nolan, no one would try ...

Until now.

There are five girls at school with Nolan who each have a very good reason to end his reign of terror, and now they're going to put words into actions and play this player at his own game.

But when you mess with fire you risk getting burnt. For these five fearless girls, revenge comes at a very high price and secrets have a habit of coming out ... even when there is nothing to hide ... 

I have to start out saying that this feels like a spin-off of Pretty Little Liars, I've seen the series and I've read the first book and this book has the same feel to it.


Characters
We have 5 girls:
  1. Caitlin, a bit of a tomboy. Caitlin plays soccer, she's adopted and has two moms (yes, lesbians, a fact I love) 
  2. Mackenzie, she plays the cello and her parents and sister are also musicians. 
  3. Ava, a beautiful girl with brains. 
  4. Julie, a girl who has it quite tough at home
  5. and lastly we have Parker, she also has it quite tough at home which results in her having scars all over her face. 
I could actually relate to all of them except Parker. I enjoyed all the characters, I liked that all of them had some kind of problem, it made them real instead of these picture-perfect people we sometimes come across in books. I also liked that all of them have some kind of quirk, for example Caitlin likes a cartoon that her younger brother liked. 
I really liked that the story is told from all the girls' perspective, instead of just one of two, that way we also get to know them a whole lot better and I found that I liked every single one of those girls. 

The Story 
It was quite confusing in the beginning with all the characters, but after 50-70 pages everything falls into place and you can just read it without thinking too much about it. 
It begins with a prologue where you basically get the whole story on a plate. After that we get to know everything leading up to this prologue and I promise not to spoil the ending - I just have to say that the ending sucked and it took down the rating a notch. 
It's also pretty creepy at times, and some characters turns out to be creeps. I found that, at some parts, I sat on the edge of my seat and couldn't stop reading - I just had to know what was going to happen, which is probably why I ended up reading it in a single sitting. 

When I finished it I was quite mad, I hate cliffhangers - but I didn't understand why it ended like that because it was supposed to be a standalone, but apparently there's going to be a sequel. I'm probably not going to be reading the sequel since I think the story is a bit bland to be honest; yes it grabs you but afterwards, I for one, found it bland.

The book is a bit 'meh' for me, but I found Pretty Little Liars 'meh' as well, so no surprise there. I just don't think Sara Shepard is the author for me. Sorry.


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