Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Perfect Little World

Having just finished listening to Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality, it was quite an act of kismet that my random generator selected Perfect Little World as my next read. I was in the right mind to read about a psychological experiment focusing on communal living in regards to child rearing.

Interesting plot, loads of foreshadowing but there were some surprises. I really enjoy how Wilson writes. I will definitely add his other works to my TBR shelf soon.

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library_dreamer's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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karlybug's review

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challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

listen. this was fine. absolutely just fine. but i’m kind of annoyed i wasted time on it. i’ve never gotten to the end of a book and felt… “okay but what was the point?” also the author does several of those little things that, for lack of a better way to phrase it, i’ve started calling “white guy writer whoops” — just those things that make it obvious this was written by a white man.

*i still stand by my opinion that the experiment would’ve been more successful and honest and less problematic (and the story more interesting) if even the parents hadn’t known which kid belonged to which parent(s). maybe harder to pull off, but certainly more interesting.

i didn’t particularly like any of the characters really, besides Mr. Tannehill; i don’t even think i liked Izzy, i just think the narrative convention of her being the protagonist made me feel as though i liked her. i kept thinking i should feel really emotional about everything like the characters did because they were one giant family, but the author gives us so little of each of them that i didn’t care about anyone. this book is almost like reading the research reports: just a long boring list of a bunch of things these people did, with names attached for reference. there’s no emotional resonance or connection to any of them. that’s got to have at least something to do with the writing style which was so incredibly detached and boring and repetitive i kept having to reread huge passages because my brain had tuned out.

the romantic relationship between Izzy & Preston is so unearned and underwritten it’s like he just went, “these two are left over; match em up!” it comes out of nowhere emotionally, with like two paragraphs in previous chapters to back it up, but it doesn’t feel honest at all.

i was so annoyed because Cap’s namesake was my favorite character and we spend so little time with him; the bulk of the story is with these nothing characters who exist as cardboard cutouts. and what is the point of the early stuff with his father? also nothing.

why give us all this stuff about his mental health if Izzy doesn’t take even a sentence to worry that Cap has inherited it???

the ending is rushed and unrealistic and overly saccharine, really, in comparison to the dry emotionless majority of the story. the more i think about it the angrier i get because this was such an interesting premise and the author sort of just tossed it aside for an easy, basic “family is what you make it” lecture.

ALSO I AM ANNOYED bc i bought Nothing to See Here not realizing these were from the same author and NOW I DON’T WANT TO READ IT AND IT SOUNDED REALLY GOOD

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mochi21's review

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challenging hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I can see why this book wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but the more that I think about it, the more I know I can't rate it anything less than five stars.

Don't read this book if you want something plot heavy. It's not. It's a narrative that reads somewhere in between child psychology study and a drama.

I feel that, given its speculative nature, it manages to remain pretty realistic. All the characters, including the children, are pretty believable and I liked seeing how they grew together.

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miachalupa's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced

3.5

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emilyhawk's review

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emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

A fascinating premise and a book I really enjoyed - the protagonist(s) were interesting, complex characters and I really loved following their journeys in this strange world.
There were a lot of additional secondary characters that never really clicked, though, particularly in the family - it was hard to remember who was who, and to give anyone besides Izzy and Preston any notable personality trait. The narrative was a bit lopsided too, heavy on Izzy’s life before the complex and then rushing through certain key moments in the IFP. For those reasons, even though I recommend the read, I rate it 3.5 stars.

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rix's review

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hopeful mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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