Friday, May 23, 2008

Perfect You, by Elizabeth Scott


Kate's life is falling apart. Her father has quit his job to sell stupid vitamins at the mall. As a result, her family is falling into debt, her parents are fighting, everyone at school is making fun of her, and she has to work with her Dad while he does nothing to stop the decline. Worse still, he best friend is not really speaking to her anymore. To make life even more complicated, there's a guy she doesn't like (or maybe she does!) who may like her (but he probably doesn't!). Kate is convinced that no matter how hard she tries to make things work out, that they just won't. And it's not worth trying. This attitude in turn basically creates self-fulfilling prophecies, but she is blind to that effect.

While the characters feel very realistic in their flaws, this does not make them particularly likable protagonists. I would hope that readers will see how destructive and arrogant the depicted behaviors are. I would hope that readers would draw the conclusion that these are not lives to emulate. But I'm not convinced that they will. And having such an anti-hero at the center of the story makes this a hard read.

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