Better than Perfect
3.5/5
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About this ebook
They say the higher you climb, the harder you fall – how will Juliet cope when her perfect world starts to crumble around her?
Juliet seemingly has it all. Popular, pretty, with laidback, loving parents, a devoted boyfriend and an effortless straight A report card. But then the cracks start to show: her parents separate, which leads to her mother taking an overdose. With the stress of college applications looming on the night of her mother’s hospitalization, Juliet takes comfort in the arms of a stranger. Now her relationship with Jason is on the rocks too – can she piece her perfect life back together before the shockwaves threaten to collapse it completely?
Melissa Kantor
Melissa Kantor is the critically acclaimed author of six previous novels for young adults. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.
Read more from Melissa Kantor
Maybe One Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Better Than Perfect Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
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Reviews for Better than Perfect
10 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Juliet's perfect life is crumbling all around her. It starts when her father moves out and in mother sinks into depression. It escalates when she finds her mother on the floor of her bathroom after suffering an accidental, or deliberate, overdose of the prescription drugs that she had been taking for years. Then she meets a boy - Declan - and they form a connection but he isn't Jason, the boy who has been her steady and soul mate since eighth grade.Juliet is the upper class kid whose every moment has been scheduled for her. Between swimming, debate, SAT prep classes, and homework from all the AP courses she's taking, she doesn't have a moment to breath. She and Jason have been determined to get into Harvard. She is unhappy but is sure that happiness will come when she reaches her goal. Her routine is greatly disturbed when her mother is placed in a psychiatric hospital. It is disturbed again when Declan and his sister want Juliet to join their band. Juliet finally has to stop and take a look at what she really wants out of life. She has to figure out for herself if what she has been working so hard for is what she wants or if it is only what has been expected of her.This is a great story about a girl who needs to stop, take a look at her life, and determine the path that will really bring her to happiness.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Actual Rating: 3.25 Better than Perfect started out very "wobbly", in my opinion. And honestly, I wasn't even sure if I would be able to make myself continue reading. If anything, it was frustrating to read.Normally, the cheating main character would be a deal-breaker for me, but in this case, I actually felt okay about it, knowing that later on in the book, there would be the big reveal and Juliet would be able to redeem herself. But that never happened. Yes, you read that right. Juliet decided to leave the matter untouched as she and Jason parted ways. Now, that is definitely not setting a good example.Maybe I'm just sensitive - but I felt it extremely hard to concentrate on the love between Juliet and Declan, knowing that their relationship was founded on dishonesty.You know the saying: Once a cheater, always a cheaterI spent some wondering exactly why it was so hard to relate to Juliet, and I concluded that it was because of how overwhelmingly perfect she was from the very start. Juliet had an amazingly perfect life with "a picture-perfect family; a handsome, loving boyfriend; and a foolproof life plan: ace her SATs, get accepted into Harvard early decision, and live happily ever after."I should've heeded the implicit warning.I admit that at first I thought that, by having Juliet be accepted by Harvard, Melissa Kantor had missed a golden opportunity, but as I continued reading, it became clear that allowing Juliet to make her own decision was a much better option.I'm a little indecisive on the open ending, because while I like being able to interpret stories in my own way, it remains a little difficult to imagine how Juliet and Declan's relationship would progress, given the short amount of time they spent getting to know each other and the fact that they had both been cheaters. (This still bothers me.)Still, I feel as though Kantor's Better than Perfect was a book that had great potential and expressed the changes that people go through when their lives are turned upside down, and it remains a good reminder to everyone that they don't have to be perfect to be happy, which I think, is a message that Kantor was very successful in addressing, despite the unlikeable characters.So I guess, unfortunately, Better Than Perfect was NOT better than perfect.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: An average contemporary read about self discovery and dealing with family issues.Opening Sentence: “I’m going to miss you.”The Review:Juliet’s life was perfect until her father left home and her mum overdosed on her pain meds, or so she thought. What she didn’t know is that her mother had been unhappy for a very long time but she just hadn’t noticed it. The picture perfect family Juliet believed she had was all a lie and once she realises this, she begins to lose confidence in everything she has left.But even as I thought that, I couldn’t help wondering if maybe some things, once they’re broken, can never be made whole again.I could see how difficult it was for Juliet to deal with her mother’s issues, but her reaction to her mum’s overdose was a bit over the top. It was almost like she was living in a bubble that had suddenly burst. I mean, surely there must have been some signs of an unhappy family, why did it come as such a shock to her? The girl was supposed to be going to Harvard, you would think she’d be smart enough to pick up on these things!The Clovers and their band brought a nice mix to the story and I wished they had a stronger presence because it was almost as if they disappeared after Sean’s fight, which was a huge shame. Sean might have a crude sense of humour with some awful habits but he made me chuckle.“Jules, sweetheart,” Sean said, stopping the song for what must have been the fiftieth time. “You sound like you’re singing in the church choir.”“I’m an atheist,” I snapped.Declan didn’t add much to the story, personally I thought he was there to just look good. His main qualities as far as I could tell were that he was an excellent singer, had a British accent and was hot. Apart from that, there wasn’t any substance to him so I didn’t understand why Juliet liked him so much.Juliet and Jason’s teenage romance was horrifically cheesy, they were almost adults yet they made a ‘j power’ pinkie promise, seriously who does that???!!! I can understand why they were in a relationship to begin with: their families were similar, they grew up together, were both very ambitious and driven to go to Harvard but the fact of life is that people change. Just because you want something now doesn’t mean you’ll want the same thing 5 years down the line. The problem was that in this relationship, Jason continued to want the same things but Juliet changed.Although I wasn’t too fond of Juliet, I liked that she did what she wanted and wasn’t afraid of facing the consequences. She knew her interests changed so she stopped chasing it rather than being stuck in an unhappy routine that she can’t come back from. It must have taken a lot of courage for her to choose not to do what she had always dreamed of and accept who she had become, but I liked it and found it inspiring. I think it’s definitely an important message for teenagers today.In general, it was an okay-ish contemporary read but the characters needed development.Notable Scene:Was this what it had been like for my mom? This sense that it was easier to sink down than to swim up? I thought of the Sylvia Plath poem we’d had on our first practice AP exam. Dying / Is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. Maybe my mother hadn’t done it exceptionally well. Maybe she’d really wanted to die, only she’d screwed up the dosage.FTC Advisory: HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Better Than Perfect. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.