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A review by bookph1le
The Perfect Girl by Gilly Macmillan
4.0
This book was pretty much glued to my hands. Excellent psychological suspense. More complete review to come.
Full review:
The Perfect Girl is one of those near-perfect novels for me. At the center of the story are two intriguing mysteries: what happened when Zoe was younger, and what happens to her mother during the course of the story. Though this book only takes place over a 24-hour span, it was never boring. It's a deep dive into the psyches of several of the major players, and I found it very compelling. Some spoilers to follow, though with a book like this I would never give the major plot points away.
What kicks off the story is the secret that Zoe and her mother are concealing from their "Second Chance" family. Right from the start, there's a sinister edge to this particular thread. As the narrative peels back the layers, we see how harrowing everything was for Zoe and her mother in the aftermath, and how hard Zoe's mother had to work to reclaim their lives, but her insistence that Zoe not tell the truth sets up a pretty harsh reality in which mother and daughter are forced to act out parts. Zoe is deeply unhappy and bears the scars of her experience, but she can't discuss her troubles with her mother because her mother has an image to maintain. This new life has a thin veneer of perfection, but the book makes it quite clear that there are some serious cracks in its foundation.
Throughout the book, I felt for Zoe. While there's no denying that she did something that had serious repercussions, the story is not as simple as it initially seems, and over the course of the story I had the sense that no one is fully on Zoe's side. Sam, her attorney, fights for her, but I never felt like anyone was truly in Zoe's corner, believing her and fighting for her, and I think that speaks to the complexity of her situation. Everyone is focused on the future and what the punishment for Zoe's actions will mean, which means no one is very focused on Zoe's present, which is exactly what she needs. Once all is said and done, Zoe continues to be isolated, forced to keep her feelings to herself because of her mother's determination to more or less sweep it all under the rug and pretend it never happened.
This theme of unresolved issues runs very strongly throughout the narrative, and it's not just confined to Zoe. In fact, everyone in the story has unresolved issues: Tessa's lack of fidelity, Sam's unwillingness to have a difficult conversation because he fears what might result, Richard's refusal to face up to his drinking problem, Zoe's father's inability to deal with his feelings about his daughter in the aftermath of the crime she committed, and Lucas's unresolved issues with his father.
Obviously, this is a densely packed book, which is why, though it takes space in an abbreviated amount of time, it never feels as if it's dragging. Macmillan really digs into the darker side that inherent in a lot of us, in our inclination to push aside the unpleasantness of life rather than dealing with it. These characters all felt so vivid to me because their psychology is so detailed and so believable. Each one of them has his or her own motivations for their actions, and this lends distinction to their voices.
I thought this was particularly true of Richard, whose voice we don't hear until later in the novel, after an image of him has already been formed based on what other characters have to say about him. These sections were particularly strong to me because they created new facets to a character I thought I'd already figured out. I didn't find him entirely sympathetic, but reading from his point of view provided me with a much better understanding of who he was.
Really, the portrayal of Richard gets to another heart of this book: that the images we create of other people don't always match up with the actual person. Rather than look at someone as they are, we have a tendency to create our own narrative about them, and when our narrative doesn't match their own, that is when a collision occurs and misunderstanding creates rifts.
In the end, I felt there was a real payoff to this book's ending, but it's one I'm still chewing over even after a couple of weeks of having read the book. This isn't a black and white book about good and evil, but very much a story about the many shades of gray we human beings have to navigate.
Full review:
The Perfect Girl is one of those near-perfect novels for me. At the center of the story are two intriguing mysteries: what happened when Zoe was younger, and what happens to her mother during the course of the story. Though this book only takes place over a 24-hour span, it was never boring. It's a deep dive into the psyches of several of the major players, and I found it very compelling. Some spoilers to follow, though with a book like this I would never give the major plot points away.
What kicks off the story is the secret that Zoe and her mother are concealing from their "Second Chance" family. Right from the start, there's a sinister edge to this particular thread. As the narrative peels back the layers, we see how harrowing everything was for Zoe and her mother in the aftermath, and how hard Zoe's mother had to work to reclaim their lives, but her insistence that Zoe not tell the truth sets up a pretty harsh reality in which mother and daughter are forced to act out parts. Zoe is deeply unhappy and bears the scars of her experience, but she can't discuss her troubles with her mother because her mother has an image to maintain. This new life has a thin veneer of perfection, but the book makes it quite clear that there are some serious cracks in its foundation.
Throughout the book, I felt for Zoe. While there's no denying that she did something that had serious repercussions, the story is not as simple as it initially seems, and over the course of the story I had the sense that no one is fully on Zoe's side. Sam, her attorney, fights for her, but I never felt like anyone was truly in Zoe's corner, believing her and fighting for her, and I think that speaks to the complexity of her situation. Everyone is focused on the future and what the punishment for Zoe's actions will mean, which means no one is very focused on Zoe's present, which is exactly what she needs. Once all is said and done, Zoe continues to be isolated, forced to keep her feelings to herself because of her mother's determination to more or less sweep it all under the rug and pretend it never happened.
This theme of unresolved issues runs very strongly throughout the narrative, and it's not just confined to Zoe. In fact, everyone in the story has unresolved issues: Tessa's lack of fidelity, Sam's unwillingness to have a difficult conversation because he fears what might result, Richard's refusal to face up to his drinking problem, Zoe's father's inability to deal with his feelings about his daughter in the aftermath of the crime she committed, and Lucas's unresolved issues with his father.
Obviously, this is a densely packed book, which is why, though it takes space in an abbreviated amount of time, it never feels as if it's dragging. Macmillan really digs into the darker side that inherent in a lot of us, in our inclination to push aside the unpleasantness of life rather than dealing with it. These characters all felt so vivid to me because their psychology is so detailed and so believable. Each one of them has his or her own motivations for their actions, and this lends distinction to their voices.
I thought this was particularly true of Richard, whose voice we don't hear until later in the novel, after an image of him has already been formed based on what other characters have to say about him. These sections were particularly strong to me because they created new facets to a character I thought I'd already figured out. I didn't find him entirely sympathetic, but reading from his point of view provided me with a much better understanding of who he was.
Really, the portrayal of Richard gets to another heart of this book: that the images we create of other people don't always match up with the actual person. Rather than look at someone as they are, we have a tendency to create our own narrative about them, and when our narrative doesn't match their own, that is when a collision occurs and misunderstanding creates rifts.
In the end, I felt there was a real payoff to this book's ending, but it's one I'm still chewing over even after a couple of weeks of having read the book. This isn't a black and white book about good and evil, but very much a story about the many shades of gray we human beings have to navigate.