Reviews - La Femme Parfaite

1.13k reviews for:

La Femme Parfaite

JP Delaney

3.64 AVERAGE

sofface's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Oh wow. I enjoyed this book from the get-go, but that ending killed me.
I felt so heavily for Abbie. I'm still trying not to cry about it.
Well written and easy to read with a whole lot of "wtf" in the last couple of pages.
Over all, I loved it!

syntide's review against another edition

4.0

mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

calicocola's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Listened to the audiobook, which was really well-done! The book itself is a solid thriller with several shocking moments. I think I would’ve been more impressed, however, if I hadn’t already been quite familiar with the

Madonna-Whore complex & Pygmalion story.

It was interesting to see them explored through the lens of AI, though. However, like other reviewers, I have several objections with the way autism is portrayed in this book. As someone with autism who feels intense - sometimes debilitating - empathy, it was very strange to hear the voice actors decreeing that autistic people are incapable of this. I think this issue could have been dealt with if the author acknowledged the spectrum & different manifestations of autism - aka didn’t make sweeping generalisations - but this is never addressed. Also I am SO sick of the autism-robot comparisons omfg!!!! I was happy to see the treatment of the son’s autism improve towards the end of the book, and an actual engagement with the ableism that underscores a lot of autism treatment programs… But the sour taste, left by the earlier content, remained. I think this could have been improved if the author made it explicit that

at first, the AI is working from a database that is ableist & thus thinks of autism reductively, before she begins to acc learn about Danny & become more aware.
Early on, there is an especially awful moment where the novel talks about mothers of autistic children who kill both themselves & their children when their child’s disability gets too overwhelming. As an autistic person, I was horrified by this - but the book seems wholly sympathetic towards the mothers, and doesn’t spend even a sentence on how morally fucked up their actions are, for the children themselves. We’re talking about murder-suicide here!!! Some attention shld have been paid to the moral implications of that!!!

Any discussions of autism seemed to be rooted quite firmly in the perspective of neurotypical caregivers to autistic people, rather than the perspective of autistic people themselves - which makes sense, upon learning that the author cares for an autistic son. There’s not anything inherently wrong with that, but I wish more time had been spent on

how Danny might be struggling, rather than him just being an issue for Abbie to deal with. It talks extensively about how hard it is for Abbie to deal with a child who screamed seemingly randomly - but what about how scary it must’ve been to be Danny, suddenly terrified by the overstimulating world around him?

Idk, I think there are several aspects of that which could’ve been handled better. Overall though, it’s a solid book! Plenty of gasp-worthy moments, although the ending is a little confusing. It had the potential to score higher than 3 stars but the aforementioned issues with its portrayal of autism limit it.

Content Warnings

_ld_'s review against another edition

5.0

dark informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

lupi_reads's review against another edition

3.0

mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

sheridanling's review against another edition

4.0

mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Albeit a slow start with a slight drag in the plot progression during the first half, this book really came through in the second half. Had my jaw on the floor with all the plot twists and turns.

Overall an interesting thriller, particularly with the reflections and the role of artificial intelligence and robots in a futuristic society.

theoopal's review against another edition

Book got wildly anti autistic the moment the son was introduced. Reduces autistic people to empathy void shells of a person. Weird savior bs from the AI mother’s prospective. Stopped after a few chapters when it wasn’t getting any better