I know it has been a while since I posted, and though I have read nine or ten books between this and the last post, I had to write about this book immediately.For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Ellen Hopkins' works, they are all fabulous. She writes in poetic form, using multiple formations and perspectives. All her works are edgy, gritty, and blunt. Her first book, Crank, was written about her daughter's dive into meth and the consequences it had on her and her family. The majority of her books are YA, but she has recently delved into adult fiction as well.
The purpose behind this little biography is to support this statement: Once again, Hopkins has taken a hard hitting teenage (and adult, really) problem (striving to be perfect) and developed it into such an intertwining story that it makes you look at things from a whole new perspective.
This book is told from the perspective of four different teens whose lives are all intertwined. (For those of you who may be afraid of getting lost with four narrators, you won't. Hopkins develops each character's voice so indepthly that the switch between personalities is seamless and easy to follow). The one thing connecting all of them is the pressure to fit into other people's idea of what perfection is. As each of them struggles with trying to be who they are meant to be while meeting the expectations that others place on them, we get a shocking view of the kind of pressure put on people by outside influences and how deeply these influences can root themselves into our subconscious and motivate our day to day interactions.
First, you have Cara. Cara, on the outside, is your poster child of success. She gets great grades, accepted to Stanford, athletic and comes from an influential family. But, underneath all that pressure to be perfect, she is dealing with her brother's attempted suicide (that she is forbidden by her mother to mention) and her concept of what love is. She faces the rebuke of the world when her facade come crashing down via cyberbulling and mass texting. Through this she is forced to confront other people's notions of what she should be and what will actually make her happy.
Then, you have Sean. Sean is your high school athlete A-lister. He is the best of the best and works hard to be there. What he can't earn with workouts and a strict diet, he supplements with a cycle of steroids. But, despite the physical benefit of the cycle (bulking up), he now has to deal with all those nasty side effects. Top that with losing the girl he planned his whole life around (Cara) and we see what a monster the pressure to be the best can produce.
Kendra is striving to be a model. She's pretty, popular, just smart enough to get by, and determined. The only thing holding her back from being on the runway? The "bump" in her nose and those few extra pounds. She can easily fix those things with a rich step dad willing to pay for surgery and a prescription from her agent to help her forget about how hungry she really is. The questions for her becomes what parts, physical and emotional, of herself is she willing to give up to achieve her goal? And, when she reaches perfection, will someone finally love her?
Lastly we have Andre. Andre grew up privileged, and has every opportunity he needs to be successful. The only thing is, he doesn't know what he wants to do. When you come from a family that worked hard to overcome racial stereotypes and be successful, wanting to follow your heart and dreams doesn't exactly sync up to their expectations.
These four teens battle who they want to be with who every expects them to be in story that lines all the stories up to make you realize the world is really not as big as we would think it is, and that everyone has something going on it their lives.
*Special note - This book is a companion to her previous work Impulse. In that work you meet Cara's brother and realize what a toll his parents' expectations took on him...
