A Place Called Perfect: 1

Product Information

A Place Called Perfect was my first book. It was published in August 2017 and was a Waterstones Book of the Month. It won numerous awards including Crimefest Children's Book of the Year and was nominated for the Irish Book Awards and Waterstones Children's Prize. This is one of those books that you think about when you’re not reading it and can’t wait to find out what happens next.

Really enjoyed this story and loved the idea of the townsfolk seeing everything through rose tinted glasses. Violet is a very brave young girl, determined to make people aware that all is not perfect in the town of Perfect. It’s a fun book with a dark side and a rather frightening premise that we can all see things through a different lens and lose our own power of thought – alarming similarities to our media driven world that sways public opinion on a single tweet. Violet is a spunky and fun character, and I loved seeing her character arc progress throughout the book. She went through quite the time, what with seeing her parents change into people she could barely recognize under her own eyes and all. Boy had a significant role throughout the book- I do wish his character had more in terms of growth, but together he and Violet were a, well, perfect pair. They were both extremely realistic and quirky and quite fun to be with throughout the course of the story. The evil twin Archer brothers are quite very menacing and their plans for Perfect were quite very appalling- they were honestly brilliantly evil villains! This book was so exitingand full of mystery. So much happens in just the first few chapters. It can also be creepy but I loved this book and would 100% recommend it to anyone over 7.

Violet is a fantastic heroine in the tale, she feels fear, sorrow and frustration yet works to conquer them and with help from new found friendships becomes a strong, resilient and a great leader. Violet und ihre Eltern ziehen nach Perfect und hier scheint wirklich alles perfekt zu sein. Alles ist sauber, die Menschen freundlich, alle tragen rosarote Brillen und sind begeisterte Teetrinker. Doch warum darf man nachts das Haus nicht verlassen und warum patrouillieren Hüter durch die Straßen und achten darauf, dass die Regeln eingehalten werden?Violet hat das starke Gefühl, dass hier etwas nicht mit rechten Dingen zugeht. When she meets Boy she realizes that her dad is not the only person to have vanished… and that the mysterious Watchers are guarding a perfectly creepy secret!” The synopsis was said to be a book fans of Roald Dahl would like. I’m happy to report that this pitch is quite accurate! However, it did miss the mark for me in some places.

RE-READ 22.10.21 - Kept my rating at 4 stars. Will hopefully be getting to the sequel FINALLY next month, after reading this for the first time in May 2020. Violet never wanted to move to Perfect. Who wants to live in a town where everyone has to wear glasses to stop them going blind? And who wants to be perfectly behaved all the time?It is a lovely, enjoyable book that is just as good on the inside as the front cover looks. I also hear that there is going to be a sequel too. On a better note, the writing was deliciously eerie and gripping. It definitely reads like a thriller-mystery. The book is also quite easy to read, which is a plus since the target audience is under thirteen. My only complaint is that the pacing felt off at times. It went from 0 to 100 far too many times, and the transitions weren’t very smooth. Nevertheless, Helena Duggan still delivers a great story! A Place Called Perfect delivers a creepy and whimsical tale on friendship, and fighting for what you believe in. Then Violet met Boy, a little lad from a place called, No-Man’s Land, whom she could only hear when she didn’t have her glasses on, and only see with a pair of gold rimmed glasses that she found. Boy agreed with Violet that something was not right in Perfect. The two set off on an adventure to locate Violet’s dad and find out just what it was that Perfect was hiding. I loved this book because it was fiction.Also my favourite character was Violet because she is adventurous and unique.She is unique because she doesn’t come from perfect and the tea and glasses don’t work on her meaning she still has full imagination.I really recommend this book for someone any age!!!

There may be a few things I missed, but I think I got most of the things I wanted to say in my review. After university, she travelled the world experiencing everything from climbing Mayan jungle ruins to meeting witch doctors in Thailand's misty mountains before embarking on her next adventure: having children. A Place Called Perfect by Helena Duggan, published by Usborne, is a fabulous, inventive read. It is as if the phrase ‘rose-tinted glasses’ has been created just for this book which, if you loved Beetle Boy, you will enjoy immensely. Violet Brown and her parents Eugene and Rose, move to Perfect. Perfect is a perfect town, with perfect citizens who drink perfect tea, but if they take off their special rose tinted glasses, the people are totally blind.This is not all. There is dark magic and some creepy macabre elements. There are scary plotting villains. So all in all, this book has everything that makes a magical story and I sort of loved it. This book is perfect for Children, young adults and even adults. It's just too alluring and tempting with an enticing storyline. Violet then meets Boy. Boy is different from the other people she has so far seen at Perfect, and with Boy helping her, Violet discovers that the two Archer brothers- her father's employers- are not who they seem to be. In fact, so cunning and dangerous are they that it's up to Violet and Boy to put their heads together and decide how to save the oblivious people of Perfect from the cunning Archer brothers.