Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Everybody has something about them that they wish that they could fix. Sometimes, fixing it would be a good thing. Sometimes, that thing isn't so bad, and fixing it could damage you.

In the long awaited and much anticipated companion to Impulse, four high school seniors tell themselves that they want to be perfect, no matter what it takes to get there. Cara wants to make her parents proud, and while good grades have always came easy to her, she has a whole new set of problems. Sean wants the perfect body and to be the best baseball player around. Kendra wants to be a model, but to do so, she feels she needs to drop some pounds, even though she's already only a size two. And Andre wishes that he could make his ancestors proud while doing what he loves to do--dance.

This book is just as beautiful and just as fucked up as all of Ellen Hopkins' books. I absolutely loved the stories of each character. They are all perfectly crafted and realistic. The only thing that I didn't like so much about this book is that because it took place at the same time as Impulse, you already know the ending if you read Impulse. However, this one does go more in-depth, I guess. Also, the poetry seemed sort of rushed in this one. Not to say it's bad--the words are perfectly okay. What I'm saying is that she didn't seem to craft it as much as it feels like she does in others of hers. It was still great, but it's kind of fun to read her books when the words make certain shapes. This one didn't do that so much. However, the characters and the stories seemed to make up for that--it still had me reading late into the night and into the early hours of morning.