#92 - Perfect by Rachel Joyce

With a title like Perfect, expectations were high going in - especially since The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was one of my top reads of the year.  So when the opportunity to read this as part of the NetGalley advanced reader program I couldn't hit the Request button fast enough!

I have to say - the whole experience of this book was totally and completely worth it!  Rachel Joyce's writing has always felt so effortless to me and each page painted such a beautiful picture I felt like I was reading a screenplay.  Perfect was so much different than Harold Fry but every bit as magical.  The idea that just a few seconds can change the course of so many lives is intriguing and unsettling.   The story goes back and forth between 1972 and present day and the voices of the characters in both stories were seamless.  Every person in the book I felt like I could have known in real life.  I loved the innocence of the boys, I loved the life cycle of the tenuous friendship between the mother and Jeannie  even though, in my throat, I could feel where it was heading.  And the relationship between Jim and Eileen was perfectly weird and quirky.

I have traditionally been critical of books that throw in a twist at the end but most of the time they are predictable and unnecessary but when my breath caught in my chest I knew it was not going to be chalked up in that category.

The ending.  It broke my heart.  I wanted more.

Thank you to Netgalley, Doubleday Publishing and Rachel Joyce for allowing me the privilege of reading this book.  Its one to add to your bookshelf when it comes available for sale on January 7th.

Goodreads rating: 5 shining glittering stars

In progress: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (audio)