Young Adult Literature; Family Drama
Young Adult
Perfect is published by Margaret K. McElderry Books, the young adult imprint of Simon and Schuster. (An imprint is a specialized division within a larger publishing company.) All the narrators are teenagers, and their stories center around high school life. Hopkins is the undisputed champion of contemporary teen problem novels, and in Perfect, the biggest problem the narrators have is their parents. Sound familiar? We thought it might.
Family Drama
Speaking of problems with parents, they can really wreck your sense of self. All the narrators in Perfect are struggling to define who they are outside the confines of their families. Cara, Kendra, and Andre are under enormous pressure to keep up the perfect façade their parents want to project—well, except for Kendra's dad, who shows up drunk at her choir recital and causes a whole different kind of family drama.
As for Sean, he may not have parents, but he's definitely trying to live up to familial expectations. His Uncle Jeff was an athlete, and Sean's trying to be the best baseball player in the history of ever. Uncle Jeff knows baseball scouts, and he pulls some strings to advance Sean's career. In a way it's a nice thing to do, but in a way it's another kind of pressure. Then there's his brother Chad, a drug dealer who gets him hooked on steroids. All the narrators dream of becoming their own people; they're just not quite sure how to do it.