Pushing Perfect [ARC]

Author: Michelle Falkoff

To be published: October 25th 2016 by HarperCollins

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.8)

Date Read: September 25th to 29th, 2016

*The ARC from Epic Reads was given by National Book Store

 

A girl’s quest for perfection results in dangerous consequences in this layered, suspenseful YA novel by the author of Playlist for the Dead.

How far would you go to be perfect?

Kara has the perfect life. She gets perfect grades. She never messes up. Until now. Because perfection is an illusion, and Kara has been struggling to maintain it for as long as she can remember. With so much pressure to succeed, it’s hard not to do whatever it takes.

But when Kara takes a new underground drug to help her ace the SATs, she doesn’t expect to get a text from a blocked sender, telling her to follow a set of mysterious instructions—or risk her dark secret getting out. Soon she finds herself part of a group of teens with secrets of their own, who are all under the thumb of the same anonymous texter. And if they don’t find a way to stop the blackmailer, their perfect futures will go up in flames.

This dark, emotionally resonant contemporary YA novel is perfect for fans of We Were Liars and The Secret History.

“Pushing yourself is the only way to get better.”

Hmm.. I like this book but it didn’t kept my attention and interest, and I got busy with school so I needed to read an e-book before I finish this one. I think it was my first time to read a book like this one, involving the illegal. I like that it has that mystery side and it kept me guessing at first but as the story goes along, I guessed who the blackmailer is.

The characters’ were also somehow realistic. Many high school students experienced or experiences what Kara went through: being pressured with academics and by her parents, friendship issues, anxiety, and the fear of having their flaws flashed before everyone’s sight. And as the story goes by, you will also discover other problems usually encountered by high school students.

I just did not like how the story ended, it seemed impossible to resolve a problem like what they did… Nevertheless, the story did teach me  some lessons and the concept is good. This is definitely recommended to middle graders to high school students.