When Violet moves to Perfect with her family things are definitely not all they appear to be. Violet’s father Eugene is an optician and his skills have been requested by the Archer brother. When they arrive, they are given some tea which tastes of their absolute favourite thing and, weirdly, it actually does. The following morning the family all discover that they cannot see a thing – blamed on the air in the town – so are fitted with rose tinted glasses that they must wear at all times so they can see properly. Everyone in the town wears them and everyone is perfectly happy that way. Violet’s mother becomes a very happy housewife who bakes and joins the book club with the other mums. Violet isn’t quite so happy and is labelled a difficult child in the school for challenging and questioning the status quo. Violet’s mother is given medication for Violet to help her behave like all the others, which Violet manages not to take, and so begins her quest to discover why things are not really all that perfect in Perfect.
Violet is convinced she can hear a voice while she is there – a distant and strange one but a voice nonetheless – and, when a pair of glasses that are different to her usual ones turn up, she discovers a whole new world that the Archers have been hiding from everyone in Perfect. Violet sets out on a quest to discover what is going on here – her father disappears and her mother’s personality is changing rapidly, not to mention the fact no one has any imagination and do not seem to listen to anything that might cause them to think any further than the book club or when their next cup of tea will be. Meeting a strange young man from No Man’s Land called Boy, Violet is determined to get to the bottom of this!
I read this book in the summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was just that little bit different to the other stories that YA fiction seems to be getting swamped with – brutality, issues that focus purely on girls for some reason, and serious mental health problems. While these most certainly have their place, it can get a little overwhelming and difficult to read after a while – and, dare I say it, it’s almost becoming the new vogue subject. Mental health is obviously something we should be aware of and something we should face head on, but it shouldn’t be something that is the new Dystopia in my humble opinion. We all need some escapism and happiness at times. I digress, that’s another blog some other time. Perfect gave me what I was looking a for – a mystery, excitement and intrigue and a creepy setting to go with it.
The book reads like something from the Stepford Wives – it’s all very perfect and lovely and everyone is slowly morphing into the same person. The changes in Violet’s mother are very creepy and the way Violet feels about this is so sad in places – she feels like Perfect has taken her parents away from her, both literally and metaphorically. The methods of control that the Archers use through the tea and the glasses takes away any imagination and free will that the people have; they cannot control anything at all after a while. When Violet receives the glasses that allow her to see everything she sees all the rose glasses take away: the Watchers and No Man’s Land. She can also see Boy who has also lost everything because of the Archers. No Man’s Land is the ghetto they have created and it’s a much nicer place to be than anything the Archers create.
What Duggan has done well is create intriguing characters, each with their own little quirks. Violet is inquisitive, Boy is a mystery, Edward and George Archer are just plain creepy and all the kids in the town have their own personalities. I really liked how they all developed over time and it was interesting to see what they would discover next. I also liked how Boy’s name remained Boy – it wasn’t like he had some hidden secret name we would discover in a shock twist. He is just Boy and stays that way!
It’s quite scary to think what life would be like without imagination. How we could all end up morphing into the same person over time or only being interested in a limited number of things. The Archer’s quest to take over people’s minds is very dark compared to some other plots I have read. It is handled in a way that it never goes too far into the dark side, but it is unpleasant all the same. Violet sees people losing the traits that make them the person they are and sees how people seek to change her so that she becomes the same as everyone else. She is classed as troublesome and even given medication – which really makes you think about some of the people in the real world and the need to make people more ‘normal’. Should we just celebrate these quirks instead of trying to get rid of them is what this book is asking. Using all the things we know and use daily, such as glasses and tea, and making them into something we can be controlled by is both a genius idea and quite terrifying! It could easily be done without anyone really noticing in a small place – such as Perfect.
Some parts of this book are funny but then alongside that it is equally shocking and a bit “eep” in places – I won’t spoil it but there is a scene inside a greenhouse that actually made my skin crawl! Duggan has created fab scenery and settings and this is becoming a place in its own right that I look forward to visiting again. It was really good to read something fun and adventurous and mysterious without feeling drained of emotion or reading something contrived and similar to all the others. This was fun; in a similar vein to Christopher William Hill’s Schwartzgarten series. The contrasts between the town and No Man’s Land are interesting. No Man’s Land should be somewhere no one wants to go, yet it sounds far more welcoming and together than Perfect ever does. However it has its downsides – it is full of children whose parents have forgotten about them over time. Something I found incredibly sad as a Mum!
I am now throwing this book at anyone who is interested in school as I often think kids are getting bogged down in stuff that is too much like real life and books should also be about escapism and fun – which is exactly what we have here. I have also learned the sequel is out so have this ready to go! I realise this book has been out a while but with the sequel now here it’s time that people remember it was there in the first place. Seek it out!