Title: The Perfectionists
Author: Sara Shepard
Series: The Perfectionists #1
Genre: YA Contemporary, Mystery
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: October 7th 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: ARC received from publisher in exchange for an honest review

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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.


I love Sara Shepard. I have for a very long time. I have read some of her Pretty Little Liars series, and her adult books, so when I saw that she was coming out with a new YA mystery series I knew i had to give it a try, and although it was not my favorite of her books so far, I am glad i read it.

Overall I felt like the story dragged in many places. I found myself wondering when the action was going to start, and i also found myself skimming to parts that seemed more interesting to me. I will also admit that this story should not be read when you just finished Get Even by Gretchen McNeil because they are VERY similar. I think that was also part of the problem for me, I felt like i had read this story before, and in a way I had. And therefore it was repetitive and overdone for me.

The mystery element of this book was great. I really loved the murder and how it was being told through all the different characters. Obliviously I liked some characters more than others, that is a given when there are more than a few narrators. And seeing the same story through so many different lenses was great for the actual mystery itself, because as a reader, I had no idea who to trust and who to believe in terms of the truth. I did think that some of the situations that the girls got into were a little too perfect for the story, if you know what I mean. Being in the right place at the right time to find the perfect evidence was kind of unrealistic, especially for a group of high school-ers. But overall the mystery element was the part of the book that kept me reading until the end.

Now the end. This was the part that will always get me because there was little to no closure for this mystery, and knowing the author, the killer might not be revealed for another 7-8 books,and i honestly do not know if I can wait that long. But overall this book was a fast read with a great mystery, but ultimately fell flat with its characters and pacing.  If you love Sara's writing then this book is definitional the book for you, just beware that you will probably have to wait a long time for any kind of answers or closure.