Randi strives for perfection in life while seeking out her destiny. Gavin loves sports but struggles with school and doesn’t want to end up like his high school dropout dad. Trevor’s got the tough guy routine down pat but would rather be in school than at home. Scott has brains for days but maybe not the greatest of ideas even if his heart is in the right place. Natalie acts like she’s already senior partner at her own law-firm even if she’s still in sixth grade. What will bring these five together? Destiny, the statewide assessment tests and their crackbrained scheme to make sure they all do well on said tests.
If you think that blurb was kind of hard to keep up with, then you’ve got a taste of this story told from five points of view that spans the sojourn of these kids from a fractured unlikely set of acquaintances to friends tied together by fate and the consequences of their actions.
For someone whose cup of tea isn’t contemporary fiction (Gimme my gorram dragons already!), this book was slightly tough to follow. The characters grow on you, but only towards the end. It might be that a lot of the good stuff flew over my head, because I found it hard trying to connect to five nuanced characters all at once. And after the characters finally grew on me (oddly enough it’s when they started to really gel together), things suddenly take a turn for the worst. And the rest of the book became a matter of what are they going to do to resolve the mess they created together.
I’d recommend it if you like multiple POVs and characters that are closer to feeling realistic than most book characters. Even though it’s not my cup of tea, it doesn't mean that it isn't a decent cup to begin with. It’s a good story with a fun concept, specifically having five streams of consciousness unite into this one friendship hive mind.
Five kids. One decision. Five families impacted. One school to pay the price, and all the good you can salvage from some serious childhood mistakes. There’s a lot of heart here, so if you like cautionary tales that end fairly well, The Perfect Score is the book for you.
The Perfect Score by Rob Buyea
Publisher: Delacorte Press | Publication Date: October 3, 2017
Source: ARC received at BEA 2017 (Thanks!)
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