Today, we are so pleased to be kicking off our read-along for The Perfectionists by Sara Shepard. Along with four other fabulous blogs (find them listed below), we’re reading a few chapters every week this month and sharing our thoughts HERE. We want you to chime in using the comments below — one, because it’s fun. And two, because it gives you a chance to win a pretty awesome prize pack!
Then, be sure to join us on the morning of November 6th (time & hashtag TBA soon!) in a Twitter chat with Sara Shepard herself, where we’ll discuss everything we thought about The Perfectionists.
The Perfectionists is in stores TODAY, so now is the perfect time to kick-off our read-along. Here is the schedule for you to follow along:
- Tuesday October 7th – Prologue + Chapters 1-9
- Tuesday October 14th – Chapters 10-18
- Tuesday October 21st – Chapters 19-27
- Tuesday October 28th – Chapters 28 – 37
We’ll post our thoughts on the chapters here, and then YOU chime in using the comments below. EVERYONE who comments & fills out the Rafflecopter form HERE will be entered to win an amazing prize pack, courtesy of Harper Collins. One winner will receive a THE PERFECTIONISTS tote bag & Goodies + a surprise ARC of an upcoming Harper release.
Get more chances to win by sharing your comments on the read-along at the other participating blogs:
Our Thoughts on Chapters 1-9
The prologue starts off with a lot of action, describing the events leading up to Nolan Hotchkiss’s death — the death mentioned in the flap copy of the book. It briefly introduces us to each of the five main characters, and sets up very suspicious circumstances leading up to the murder. Even though the flap copy says the five girls didn’t have anything to do with the murder, the prologue suggests they might.
Following the prologue, a lot of the first nine chapters involves getting to know more about our five main characters, and the friends and family important to their story lines. We discover how Nolan wronged each of them, and why they wanted to get a little (non-deadly) revenge against him. If these chapters were simply introducing characters, it would be kind of boring — but instead, we are introduced to the characters while they are coping with the aftermath of Nolan’s death.
We see how their classmates and community are responding, and we see the anxieties of each girl intensify as it is revealed that Nolan’s death was a murder — and not an accidental drug overdose, as it was originally thought.
My one main frustration comes from the fact that what the girls really need to do is just go to the police and explain what they did with their prank, and be completely open and honest about what happened. (I am often frustrated with Shepard’s other series, Pretty Little Liars, when the characters NEVER go to the police & fess up, either.) But of course, if the girls went to the police – the book wouldn’t really have anywhere to go.
I wonder if my frustration with this is because I am an adult reader — with an adult perspective. Am I too far removed from my adolescence to find it believable that five supposedly smart girls would NOT go to the police in this situation? How would I have reacted as a teen? I’d like to think I’d have gone to the police, but maybe that’s my adult self projecting on what I would hope I’d have done as a teen? I don’t know.
MORE ABOUT THE PERFECTIONISTS:
In Beacon Heights, Washington, five girls—Ava, Caitlin, Mackenzie, Julie, and Parker—know that you don’t have to be good to be perfect. At first the girls think they have nothing in common, until they realize that they all hate Nolan Hotchkiss, who’s done terrible things to each of them. They come up with the perfect way to kill him—a hypothetical murder, of course. It’s just a joke…until Nolan turns up dead, in exactly the way they planned. Only, they didn’t do it. And unless they find the real killer, their perfect lives will come crashing down around them.
From Sara Shepard, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Pretty Little Liars series, comes another story of dark secrets, shocking twists, and what happens when five beautiful girls will do anything to hide the ugly truth.
For the comments: What are YOUR thoughts on the first nine chapters of The Perfectionists? Sound off below & then fill out the Rafflecopter form HERE for your chance to win an awesome prize pack!
If you tweet about the read-along, be sure to use the hashtag #PerfectRead
Novel Novice 