Customer Reviews

Perfect: A Novel

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This was a hard book for me to review because I had an eating disorder when I was a teenager. Only in those days there was no knowledge to be had of eating disorders let alone help and support. You were just told to go on a diet. I remember a particularly nasty one where I could only eat grapefruit, hardboiled eggs, plain toast, and salad without dressing. Yet I was determined to look good in my cinch waisted skirt with layers of petticoats like all the popular girls in school.
I'm sure this is how the protagonist Isabelle Lee in Perfect feels. You'd do anything to feel good, not only in your clothes, but inside your vulnerable self. Isabelle's eating disorder is Bulimia: eat, purge, eat, purge. How else can she cover her feelings about her father's death, her mother's denial of it, and her seeming lack of popularity in her eighth grade class? To her horror her younger sister discovers Isabelle vomiting. Her mother makes her go to an eating disorder group for girls her age. To her amazement the most popular girl in school, Ashley Barnum, is there in group as well. Ashley's disorder is that of taking laxatives. They bond together to go through the stages of recovery filled with distrust, shifting friendships, courage, and finally confidence. Along the way Isabelle helps her sister and her mother face their grief, just by being more sure of who she really is.
Eating disorders are all too common in younger and younger children in our society, ranging from rampant obesity to anorexia. Perfect describes in page turning novel form how young girls can find help and support in eating disorder groups where confidentiality, mentors, and understanding of their disorder offer deep encouragement and healing. This book can give young people insight into the nature of eating disorders through a compassionate story without at all being preachy.
Perfect is a most important, even landmark, book. Kudos to author Natasha Friend for writing such an insightful young adult novel. Perfect is highly recommended for children from 10 years and older. I wish I had it when I was young. It will also be a valuable aide in eating disorder groups and women's studies groups in high school. What a great starting point for discussions.

Perfect was a very good read.
I read it in one day.

This novel probes the life of 13-year-old Isabelle, who is bulimic. Her father is dead. It seems her whole family is unstable. Her mother, although putting on a happy facade, cries at night for her dead husband. Her annoying sister is sad, too. Isabelle is also sad. It seems she is oppressed in expressing her feelings, though, which is why she chooses bulimia - as an outlet.

Isabelle is forced to go to Group - a group that helps people with eating disorders. To her shock, Ashley Barnum, the most popular girl in school, is also in Group. They develop a friendship that makes Isabelle learn more about who Ashley really is, and, ultimately, about herself.

This book is one book that you must read. Although it is geared towards younger teens, I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good book about an eating disorder - and, not only that, but one of coming of age. This would also be a great book for parents to read.

The characters are real. You feel their emotions, and you are taken on a journey through Isabelle's life.

Honest and well-written, Perfect is a book that should be in every library's shelves.

Although I am far above the recommended age of reader, 23, I picked up this title because I have struggled with anorexia and bulimia for 12 years. Unlike many other eating disorder fictions, which I usually find cliche, too textbook case, unrelatable, this book was dead on. It did not shy away from specifics about the life of a bulimic, it was candid, emotional, and in so many parts mirrored my own life exactly. I recommend this book highly to any pre/early teen girl, and also to older teens and adults who have patients, children, siblings with eating disorders, as this book does an excellent job of explaining the mindset of someone with an e.d. Those who, like myself, have had an e.d. will relate to it. I also highly recommend "Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia" for readers over 15 and "Stick Figure: A diary of my former self" for any reader over 11 years.

This book will entertain you so much with it's light and easy style. Humor mixed with strong emotion. I could actually say i came to know and love her well built characters. I was struck by her original points of view on such an emotional and challenging topic. There are a lot of books out there on eating disorders but very few of them can tackle this important topic while weaving a story that all girls of all ages can relate to and really learn something from. Anyone who has themself struggled with an eating disorder will relate to the pain, or if they know someone who is battling an eating disorder will find this book to be just the right book to open up the lines of communication and start the healing process. I urge all mothers to buy this for their daughters. This topic is so relevant in our world today. As a mother of two beautiful daughters i feel this book has a very important place in their library. Don't wait until you think there is a problem. Let this book be a teaching tool to hopefully avoid an eating disorder problem in your world. Thank you Natasha Friend and please keep writing for our girls!

I really loved this book! Its about a thirteen year old girl named Isabelle Lee. Her father died about two years ago, and nothing has been okay since then. She has a depressed mother who cries herself to sleep and an annoying, lonely little sister. The thing is, nobody ever talks about the problems they have. Isabelle and her family try to pretend everything's always perfect, even when it's not. Sadness about her father leads Isabelle into binging and purging. When her little sister catches her making herself throw up, her mom makes her go to an eating disorder therapy group for teen girls. isabelle is shocked to see ashley, the most popular, "perfect" girl in school there. the two become good friends and they binge and purge together. Isabelle learns that Ashley's life is far from perfect. Even though Ashley seems so "together" on the outside, she struggles with body image, family issues, and schoolwork. I won't spoil the ending for you, but let's just say that Isabelle learns a lot of things. One, she learns that just because someone looks perfect on the outside, it doesn't always mean everything's okay for that person (like Ashley.) She also learns that saying everything is "fine" is just a coverup, and it's important to talk about things and not keep feelings bottled up. The author, Natalie Friend, is an incredible writer who seems to know exactly how teens think. Her words will make you laugh, cry, and pray for Natalie's family. I recommend this book for anyone in middle or high school. It's a really fantastic book!

Perfect is the story of thirteen year old Bella, whose father recently died. His death transformed her mother into a weepy, whiny woman who is incapable of putting her own grief aside to mother her children. Bella's annoying younger sister, April, is constantly annoying Bella, but deep down she is a vulnerable girl who doesn't know how to deal with her father's death.

The real story begins when Bella is caught throwing up by her younger sister April, who promptly rats her out when Bella refuses to give April her bike (caring, isn't she?). While in eating disorder rehab, Bella discovers Ashley, one of the most popular girls in school, also has bulimia. In exchange for Ashley's silence, Ashley befriends Bella and lets her sit at the popular table. Sadly, that is as deep as the stpry gets.

Bella is bulimic largely because of the stress she endures at home. While bulimic acts are sometimes triggered by emotions, a large part of it is weight and self-esteem issues. Perfect never deals with body consciousness and completely ignores that side of the issue. The book glosses over Bella's therapy and instead chooses to focus on Bella's friendship with Ashley. What makes this story even more annoying is that their friendship is not believable. Bella only wants to be friends with Ashley because she's beautiful and popular, and Ashley wants to save her reputation. Friend never fully develops any of the others girls in rehab or Bella's 'best' friends, who are mentioned maybe five or six times in the book. Even Ashley is a flat, static, character. The other 'main' characters (who are still not mentioned as often as Ashley is) are Bella's mom and sister, and they are both incredibly irritating by the end of the book. Most readers will likely become annoyed with the mother's refusal to be a real mother to her children, and by the fact that she spends most of the book locked in her room crying. That gets very old after a while.

Perfect is a decent read for middle schoolers and those with little knowlege of bulimia and what it actually involves, but for those of us who have higher knowlege of the disease, Perfect comes across as campy and uninformed. It is obvious that Friend has done little or no research on this serious and important topic and her characters are lifeless and unbelievable. If you are looking for a book that can decently handle a serious topic without making a mockery of it, you might want to look somewhere else.

This book was amazing. Like the title it was perfect. I laughed, I cried, and I was amazed. This book really made me appreciate what I have. It really brought me into reallity. Perfect is a nice light summer read.

As soon as I started this book I didn't want to put it down. It really keeps your attention. You feel yourself in Isabelle, the main character's, place. It deals with the pressures of being "perfect", and fitting into the mold of the skinny, beautiful, and popular. Great book.

Isabelle is a sassy, sarcastic, and sometimes sad 13 year old girl who is dealing with everyday adolescent traumas and social woes, a pesky but adoring younger sister, the death of her father, and an eating disorder. I am the mother of two young children, and still unabashedly love a good teen novel. But this book was more than that. I read it cover to cover in one sitting and was moved by the message it sends to young girls. I laughed out loud, got a little teary at times, and was sometimes shocked by the depiction of the brutal reality of what girls are doing to their bodies now at a younger and younger age. This book will appeal to a wide spectrum of women, not just young girls. From women who remember what it was like to be a teenage girl, wanting to be perfect and obsessing over those who appeared so, to those who are moms of girls now and are already worrying about the impending impact of the beauty obsessed culture we live in on our perfect little babies, and most importantly, to those women who have struggled with, or know someone close to them who has struggled with, an eating disorder. My hats are off to Ms. Friend, she has produced a humorous, well-written look into the not so simple lives of the newest generation of young women.

Natasha Friend has hit the nail on the head with her first novel, Perfect. Any woman who has ever struggled with an eating disorder or known someone who has, will find this story of a middle school girl's struggle incredibly powerful and easy to relate to. I started the book expecting to enjoy reading a book for kids and came away feeling like I had just finished one of my favorite novels. It took me back to middle school, and high school, and to conversations I continue to have with women of all ages.

I highly recommend this book for women of all ages. In addition, Perfect is the perfect tool for those trying to reach out to young women who are facing the aches and pains of growing up in an image-conscience world. I look forward to reading more from Ms. Friend!