Perfect World [Hardcover]

Brian James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2004

A powerful, beautiful novel about growing up fast in a haunted suburban world. The proud debut of PUSH in hardcover.

Lacie's best friend Jenna wants to grow up fast. She wants to be cool and be known and be with a boy all the way. Even though Lacie isn't so sure, she follows Jenna anyway. She tries to block out her sadness. Her questions. Her fears. At first it isn't that bad. She even meets a boy whose problems are compatible with hers. But then Jenna's friendship turns fierce . . . and the perfect world comes tumbling down.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up - All Lacie Johnson wants to do is escape from the pain that engulfs her: the pain of her father's grizzly suicide, the pain of pretending to be what she's not, the pain of having to constantly please her shallow best friend, Jenna. When Jenna drags Lacie along on an afternoon romp with two boys, Lacie expects the worst, but she is pleasantly surprised by Benji, who seems real when everyone else is fake and has secrets as dark and upsetting as her own. Slowly, they reveal themselves to one another and fall in love, giving Lacie the strength to abandon Jenna and find a true friend in another girl. As Lacie and Benji grow closer, their relationship becomes more physical. When Benji announces that he must move to Portland to escape his abusive mother, Lacie is devastated, but just when she thinks she might end it all, she's finally able to put his needs above her own. She realizes that any world in which she is loved for who she really is can be perfect. Although the book is ultimately uplifting, Lacie's pain is raw and unrelenting. James clearly understands how debilitating depression can be for adolescents. - Ronni Krasnow, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-10. To distance herself from the perfectly planned subdivision in the perfectly wonderful town where she lives, ninth-grader Lacie Johnson runs, which also gives her time to think about where she fits in, especially since her father's suicide. It's easier to stay apart, but Lacie's sometimes-friend Jenna respects no boundaries and persuades Lacie to go on a double date with her, Avery, and Benji. Rather than stay and watch Jenna and Avery make out, Lacie and Benji walk home. Gradually they get to know one another, and Benji helps Lacie reconnect with feelings she has closed away--until his family circumstances intervene. James' first-person narrative, interjected with dialogue unframed by quotation marks, brings a very real sense of being inside Lacie's head, and Lacie's fears and anxieties about opening herself to intimacy and love will resonate with young women who, like Lacie, aren't sure how far to go. Cindy Welch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Push (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 043967364X
• ISBN-13: 978-0439673648
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,577,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up outside of Philadelphia, a town I portrayed all my thoughts and feelings about in Pure Sunshine and the short story Filthadelphia. When I was eighteen, I moved to New York City where I stayed for ten years. You can read about my impressions of that city in both Tomorrow, Maybe and Thief. For the suburban experiences of my life, check out Perfect World and Dirty Liar.

Needless to say, ten years in Manhattan is more than enough. It was time to pack up and head for the peace and quiet of the middle of nowhere. Alas, I ended up in the Woodstock area of upstate New York. An area aptly portrayed in my book Zombie Blondes.

My fascination with writing started in childhood with the notion of making up stories. I loved action figures as a kid. Actually, I still do and still collect them. But as a child, I would set up my entire bedroom like the stage for one epic story that I would play out for days. I didn't know it at the time, but it was the basis for what I do now. I was also a stuffed animal kid. I had dozens and they all had names and they all personalities. Basically, they were characters. Writing isn't very different than playing. It's just a grown up way of doing it.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Challenges of Maturity, December 2, 2004

By 

Gary H. Cassel "Flamingnet Teen Book Reviews" (Baltimore, MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perfect World (Hardcover)

Perfect World is a riveting fiction novel that tells about the challenges of adjusting to high school and becoming more
mature. Author Brian James speaks from a fourteen or fifteen year old girls point of view. The book is set in a town that has perfectly planned out houses and evenly spaced trees.

Everyone in town thinks they are perfect, and they do not talk about problems. The main character, Lacie Johnson, has many family issues though. Her father committed suicide two years earlier in their bathroom. Her mother works two jobs, and Lacie is forced to stay home to babysit her younger brother, Malky. Lacie's best friend has always been a girl named Jenna. Things have changed, and Jenna is more interested in boys and being socially accepted. Lacie is not as concerned about those things. Jenna meets a boy named Avery, and he introduces her to a boy named Benji. But as Lacie and Benji become closer, Lacie and Jenna start to grow apart. Lacie struggles to see the good in the world and feels like she is loosing everyone close to her. She starts to feel like she is going crazy just like her father.

The book is written differently than most books. The sentence structure differs. Instead of using periods the author connects similar thoughts with varying amounts of periods; they are similar to ellipses. For example, a paragraph with about fourteen lines of text has only a single period. This book is also for an audience either about to enter high school or just recently started high school. The issues are better suited for them. Some parts of the book contain sexual acts but
nothing sexually explicit.

The most interesting part of book is how the author is a man, and yet he tells the story from a teenage girl's point of view. Brian James treats the subject of fitting into high school and finding out who you are as a serious issue. As I read the book I also found it hard to put down. It keeps the reader interested in what will happen next. It shows how the world we live in may not be so perfect at all. You have to look inside yourself to find out what a perfect world is to you, and strive to get there given the circumstances that are handed to you.

Reviewed by Kathleen O'Reilly for Flamingnet Book Reviews.
For more preteen, teen, and young adult book recommendations and reviews, please visit www.flamingnet.com.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not captivating, December 19, 2004

By 

Reb (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perfect World (Hardcover)

It's an interesting story about a teenage girl who doesn't fit in, who doesn't play by the "mean girl" rules, and who is scared and curious about her sexuality. Lacie is coping with the suicide of her father, her best friend's changing priorities, and her first boyfriend. It's a bit melodramatic and trite, but overall a well conceived novel that will appeal to young girls.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Picture Perfect, April 24, 2006

By 

TigerTown "TigerTown" (Versailles, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perfect World (Hardcover)

How would you feel if everywhere you went you had to act like somebody else? Well welcome to Lacie's world, it's like she is in this play that doesn't stop but makes you sick to your stomach. This goes on for ever after the cryptic time of her family's life until she meets Benji. Benji helps Lacie realize that nothing else matters than what's on the inside. Lacie soon begins to find a spot for herself in life until once again things began to fall apart.
I really liked the middle of the book because things started to work out for Lacie and her way of life. I also liked the character Benji because he was able to shift Lacie's way of thinking of herself. I disliked the part where Lacie had friends who weren't very nice to her at all because no matter how hard she tried she could never quite fit in. My very least favorite thing was that Lacie's Mom was always at work; I disliked this because you're Lacie's age that is the number one thing you need (your Mom).
Anyone who likes drama and things about the real world than this book should be next on your list. In my opinion it is a girl book but suit yourself. I hope you enjoy it because I did.