Perfect Escape Review

TITLE Perfect Escape
AUTHOR Jennifer Brown
PUBLICATION July 10th 2012 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
READ November 07, 2012
SOURCE Hachette Book Group Canada for review

Kendra has always felt overshadowed by her older brother, Grayson, whose OCD forces him to live a life of carefully coordinated routines. The only way Kendra can stand out next to Grayson is to be perfect, and she has perfection down to an art -- until a cheating scandal threatens her flawless reputation.

Behind the wheel of her car, with Grayson asleep beside her, Kendra decides to drive away from it all -- with enough distance, maybe she'll be able to figure everything out. But eventually, Kendra must stop running and come to terms with herself, her brother, and her past.

With undeniable grace and humor, acclaimed author Jennifer Brown explores OCD, the pressure for perfection, and the emotional highs and lows of a complex sibling relationship.

As we all know, I am a sucker for a good contemporary story. I am also a proven lover of Jennifer Brown; her writing is beautiful and I always find her novels heartbreaking and yet uplifting. So when I saw Perfect Escape, I knew it was one I had to get my hands on.

I'm always on the lookout for a novel that will pull at my heartstrings, and at the center of achieving that lies great characters. In each of the novels by Brown I have read I became friends with the characters. I haven't come across any that are as easily relatable as hers and I always find myself emotionally invested in their well being and the outcome of the story. In Perfect Escape we meet Kendra who is a 17 year old high school student living in the shadow of her older brother's OCD. All her life she has strived to be perfect and at the top of her class because she has always felt that her brother's shortcomings fell into her lap. She wanted to be the smart, good child that she felt her parents deserved. It was so engrossing to see the family from Kendra's eyes. Being the sister of someone with a debilitating mental disorder could never be easy but the extent to which it affected her everyday life was heartbreaking.

Kendra was an amazing MC. She was funny, she was smart and she was flawed. Choosing to have the story unfold from her perspective was such a fantastic idea. On her path to achieve the perfection she strived for she took some missteps along the way and I really enjoyed how the depth of her troubling situation remained a mystery throughout much of the novel. The mystery left you wondering what happened that was so serious that she felt the need to run away for a while. While I didn't always agree with how she handled the situations she got herself into I could understand why she acted the way that she did. I often found myself holding my breath when she put Grayson into situations that were definitely not good for him. He was also a character that I came to love and it broke my heart that there was a mentality in some of the people around him that he could be "fixed" like it was his choice to have OCD. At the end of the novel we really get to see how this sickness has affected both of their lives in a very strong way and I truly felt terrible for both of them.

Perfect Escape is a touching story that takes you through a roller coaster emotions. At its heart it is a tale of love, sibling rivalry and acceptance. I think it changed my perception on how something like OCD can affect a family, and made me realize the potential severity of the illness. I definitely recommend Perfect Escape to contemporary lovers and people who love a good character driven story.