Reviews with content warning for Eating disorder - The Perfect Child

This is my first Dr. Lucinda Berry book and I am curious to read more, but if all of her books have a non-ending like this under the guise of a cliffhanger, then I don't know if they'll be a good fit for me.

A very disturbing book (PLEASE check the trigger warnings) filled with moments that made me recoil in horror and more that made me roll my eyes.

WHY ON EARTH would you get a cat for a seriously disturbed child who has PURPOSEFULLY injured her "friend", just because she's experiencing some jealousy over a new baby?? HUH???? And I'm sorry but, y'all

The ending left a lot to be desired. I can be content with a more open-ended, unconcluded ending; I am also okay with an unhappy ending. But give us ANY ending! This book genuinely feels like the last chapter was accidentally left out, or the author just gave up writing and published it.

What happened to Janie? Did the treatment facility help (I was fulling expecting for there to be some hint that she injured to killed the woman running it)? What happens to Piper and her job? Does Hannah ever find healing? Does she divorce Christopher because he is the WORST? (But seriously, HOW was this man so fucking oblivious and selfish and dismissive of Janie's problems???) What happens with Greg's lawsuit? There was some sort of hint about Piper's relationship with Christopher- was it she just had a crush on him or was there something more? That felt loose and not developed at all

There are just so many unanswered questions and the ending feels very unsatisfying and lazy.

There was zero character development and despite there being multiple POVs, there was no differentiation on who was speaking.. they were all written the same way. And the audiobook quality was just.. not good? The first narrator (the one for Piper) sounded too muffled and quiet, and the narrator for Christopher just annoyed me (only because of the character himself, not the narrator) and I just ended up reading the e-book for the majority.

Honestly, the more I think about Christopher, the more angry I get.
I've dropped .5 more stars just writing this review.

Content Warnings

kaylasbookgram's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

🤯🤯🤯

What did I just read?!?! I don’t think I’ve been this hooked on a book like this since I read Verity By Colleen Hoover. This was my first Lucinda Berry book and most definitely won’t be my last, especially if all her books are as great as this one. This book was impossible to put down the second I started it.

Hannah and Christopher are a lovely couple who are struggling with infertility. As they start to consider the option of international adoption a little girl is admitted to the hospital whose mother was murdered and has clear signs of abuse. After being part of her surgical team Christopher falls in love with the little girl and talks his wife into fostering and then adopting her. What they didn’t fully expect was the toll it would take on their marriage. The little girl ends up pitting the couple against each other and causing Hannah to eventually have a mental breakdown.

I absolutely couldn’t stand Christopher. Even with the therapist confirming Hannah’s fears he still refused to support her or even be there for his wife. I felt so bad for Hannah and understood her terror although I definitely think she went to far in her actions near the end. The ending of the book was extremely frustrating because it just ended pretty much in the midst of a thought. Left us wondering what happened I think a more satisfying ending was definitely needed. Overall I enjoyed this book and it got a 5 star review in my book.

Content Warnings

pippamillerxoxo_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

rebeccaelizabeth94's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I was hooked from the first page of this book. It was so dark and twisted from the beginning. We find Hannah working in the hospital when an abused toddler comes in after being abandoned in a parking lot. The next day her husband Christopher is assigned to be the lead doctor on her case. He immediately falls head over heels for this baby and wants to help her in every way he possibly can. He convinced Hannah to become emergency foster parents for her. Despite the fact that they have no background with raising children, especially children with severe disabilities and CPTSD they get to be her guardians. Then when they try to get her real foster parents Chris makes the snap judgement to become her foster to adopt parents. Hannah goes along with it but Janie drives a wedge in between the couple. We see Hannah slowly unravel and Chris seems to think she is just a kid. We find out Janie is 6 and old enough for school but they enroll her in pre-school. She continues to get kicked out because she is aggressive towards her peers and throws her poop. ( unrelated to the plot but my opinions that I need to share: This child should have had in home care and psych help. She should have been enrolled in a public school so she could receive behavioral supports from the county. She could have been sent to the special services school and that could have helped. She needed routines and strong structured activities.) Hannah and Chris should have had some parenting classes but back to the story. Chris was obsessive in his need to save Janie and didn’t want her to get the support Hannah thought she needed. The demands that the therapists gave them seem cruel but in the grand scheme of things are more like consequences than torture. Hannah was right she needed some consequences for her actions but not to the level Hannah inflicted. Each character in this book was some form of twisted and it made for a dark but good read. Piper started as a strong ally but she slipped when she wasn’t doing frequent checks. Hannah should have asked for help and Chris should have been more receptive. He literally threw their lives away with his desire to help a child. He had noble intentions but he sacrificed his family for someone he didn’t have the skill set to help. It’s noble to want to help people in need but it’s wrong to insist you are the best person for the job when you don’t have the proper training and background.

Content Warnings

secretlybatman4's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Knocked a star off because Christopher really annoyed me and the ending was just…. Abrupt. I was hoping for more just to tie up the end of the Baurs story. The beginning was boring af too so I almost stopped reading but then I pushed through and I consumed to book very quickly. Definitely will read more books by Dr Berry.

Content Warnings

chronicallyplotting's review

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What did I just read?! I could hardly get myself to put this book down! It was so creepy, disturbing, scary and yet I had to keep reading. I had to know what happened next. The character dynamics and shifts were amazing, I love how the author changes characters personalities in ways we don’t expect at times. Not only do we feel their POVs of the storylines change but also their thought processes of telling us what is going on and their emotions. We can feel each persons connection with each character to the point we start to love Janie through Christopher but forget we hate her through Hannah’s eyes.
This is a book I will be gladly recommending to others to read but also adding the words… “don’t judge me” after it.
Wow. I am impressed with the suspense and creep factor.
And I am thrilled to have found another author who is using their career to write their novels. Lucinda Berry’s novels being blurred lines between fiction and nonfiction based on patients she has potentially studied or had, this makes reading this book even more thrilling. The fact that characters like Janie exist is scary.

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