Hardly Perfect

by Christina Anderson

Aubrey Foster knows Nick Agrippa exists solely for the purpose of making her life miserable. Ever since he convinced everyone that she faked an allergic reaction to a bee sting for attention, no one has been on her side. Whenever he gets the chance to take a jab at Aubrey, he does, making sure that she never gets up when she falls. Because anything he says, the whole school automatically agrees to, leading to disastrous rumors and events that no one can ignore. When Nick discovers that Aubrey is in love with Billy Zachary, the boy every girl in the school likes, she knows her reputation is about to fall apart all over again. No one is ever safe from Nick’s rumors. But when Aubrey finds out that Nick wants to help her win the heart of the boy she loves instead, she knows she can’t trust him. Nick must have an alternate motive, some plan to ruin her already pitiable reputation, but she can’t figure out what it is. Yet she finds herself wanting his help, so she must place her faith in a boy she was never meant to trust. And once she starts trusting Nick, she can’t seem to stop. “Hardly Perfect” is hardly anything but perfect for young adults. In a story that teenagers can easily relate to, Aubrey Foster faces the world with a strong voice and a fearless determination to find out Nick’s true motive.

220 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2011

About the author

Christina Anderson was born in 1992 in New Hamphire, USA. As a child, she became fascinated by the world beyond the pages of her books, and she began writing fiction in elementary school. Eventually, she began publishing with her high school literary magazine and became its co-editor during her senior year. In college, she worked at her campus's Writing Center and won the school's Excellence in Writing award in 2013.

Though her love of writing is clearly an influential part of her life and schooling, she majored in Elementary Education and Mathematics Education in college. She continues to write and plans on publishing more YA novels in the near future.

Reviews

[Watermelon Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start, first of all, by saying that it’s a solid four stars.

I’m one of those people who don’t have many favourites, but this book crept right up there. Don’t get me wrong, there were times where I thought, “Hmm, that could’ve been done a little better” but it was all worthwhile at the end. I loved the sweet, adorable ending. Also, the entire story was a cute read.

I did learn a lot from this story. I learned to never buy flowers for somebody when a relative dies. NOTE: I’ve, thankfully, haven’t met somebody who has a relative dying. But although I’d never buy flowers –sorry, I’m just not that thoughtful– I now know I shouldn’t even consider it. Instead, support and optimism is what you can give to a suffering family.

It’s hard not to like Aubrey. At the start, she struck me as a plain and boring character. I didn’t like how she didn’t have much of a personality. But by the end of the book, I knew exactly who she was. Also, I love the idea of having a blonde person in the “unpopular” aspect of life –not every blonde is in the popular league.

The author did a wonderful job of bringing this book to life. There were times where I got lost in Aubrey’s world, especially her fascination with snowflakes.

Also, I think it’s a mathematician thing: when the author wrote, she made to add a lot of detail in the story. It wasn’t description of the scenery, but descriptions of thoughts of the main character. Things which showed us an insight without “telling.” Surprisingly, I do that too (put a heap of character thought) –and math is my favourite subject, so I think it must just be a mathematician thing. Or I’m just trying to find something in common, haha.

Nick. What’s not to love and hate? There were times I wanted to slam him against a wall, and there were others where I loved him to death. Oh, and Billy was definitely a good character. I liked his addition to the story, because it did make a difference. I love how all the drama in this story had a conclusion. I mean, if Aubrey didn’t go through all she did, she would’ve never found the meaning of happiness. It’s just like that quote: “You can’t feel happiness if you haven’t experience grief.”

Another thing I loved about Aubrey is how she’s similar to D.J. Schwenk in Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Mudrock. They are both people who don’t believe in talent, but hardwork and determination. This ultimately made me love Aubrey’s nice, loving and hardworking character. Although I do wish she’d have some other flaws, like a bad singing voice or being unable to dance.

This is an ultimately predictable read, but that’s what makes it so good. Because I know exactly what’s going to happen, I find myself in awe when the author pulls it off way better than I expected.

The reason I took a star off is because there were too many loose ends. And also, not enough character development in the side-characters –don’t get me wrong, the main characters were developed quite well. But Melissa and Morgana… they seemed to kind of blend together. Not only do they start with “m,” but they end with an “a.” I do wish they had a little more personality than being just… there. There as Aubrey’s best friend. But I can hardly complain (see what I did there? Total awesome reference to the title!), seeing as they were the ones to help Aubrey realise her true feelings.

I recommend it to anybody looking for a night of chocolate and ice cream. There are countless times where I forgot the drastic sounds of these people in this house (‘cause I’m staying for an hour at somebody else’s house since Mum’s out and I’d be home alone) because I was too mesmerised in the wonderfulness of this book.

The little things I picked up? Very minor compared to the fabulous manuscript.