Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
First Person (Central Narrator)
There are four narrators in Perfect, but they all speak in the first person, one at a time. To differentiate, Hopkins begins each section with the narrator's name, and she uses a different font for each. They speak in order: Cara, Kendra, Sean, Andre, repeat. Cara begins the book and gets one extra section at the end to close it.
There are a ton of minor characters in Perfect, but we learn about all of them through the four narrators. When a minor character (or one of the other narrators) speaks, the narrator relays it in italics. For example, when Andre goes to visit Jenna in the hospital and her dad walks in with Kendra, here's how Andre relays it: "His face goes all red, and hatred feeds/his ugly glare. You./This is because of you, you goddamn –/No! Kendra stops him cold. This is not/because of him, Dad./It's because of you!"(48.59-60). The italics, then, are Kendra and her dad speaking.
It's an unusual way of writing dialogue, but then, verse is an unusual way of writing a novel.
We promise you'll be able to keep it all straight—plus, you'll get to know each narrator pretty well in turn.