Wow, this book was absolutely terrifying at times. Thrillers aren't always my thing but I really enjoyed this book. The pacing was fast, mixed with having flashbacks to another girl's story as well. There were a lot of surprise moments, and scary ones, that make you worried to be home alone in a thunderstorm ever again. Overall, I really enjoyed the plot, and the how the character's handled their situation.

I started this book at around 2am and closed it out at 5:37am. This was thrilling and thoroughly entertaining I didn’t take many notes with is always a good sign. It felt like the April Henry books I read when I was in 6th grade and I have no doubt I would have loved this book back then. I was so excited to see Henry praised this book because I already knew I wanted to bring her up in my review.
It’s a simple, fast paced, exciting read and the settings, I don’t know how to describe it was just everything I wanted. We didn’t stray far from the things I was excited about and wanted more of.
My biggest complaint was towards the beginning, I’m not the biggest fan of pop cultural messages that make a book feel dated but I also want there to be capsules of when they were written, instead of pretending things like COVID and specific but impactful social media trends never existed. Those complaints are totally absent once we get to the meat of the book.
We see development from the characters and the mystery unravels at a pace I love. I truly was so excited to keep reading. I want to purchase a copy for my niece once it comes out. Will she read it? Mm probably not, but it’s a good enough book that the gamble is worth it.
And the over arching message, especially the moments where it’s clear you should not be polite instead of concerned for your safety, is incredibly important for girls to hear especially today.

I have been loving YA thrillers recently, and “Perfect Girl” was another fun, fast-paced page-turner. I loved the spooky “haunted house” atmosphere combined with the stormy night and secluded setting. This book isn’t necessarily scary or gory, but I also don’t recommend reading it late into the night while home alone like I did! The story is full of tension, suspense, and teenage drama. It is definitely a book that you can (and will want to!) read in one-sitting. This is a great book to read this fall, especially on a stormy night!

Thank you to TBR and Beyond Tours, Tracy Banghart, Feiwel & Friends, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The quick cut: A teen girl who was raised to be perfectly polite finds her life rocked when a freak storm knocks the power out and truths are revealed.

A real review:
Thank you to Feiwel & Friends for providing the arc for an honest review.

The pressure to reflect the correct image of yourself can be intense, especially as a teenager. Parents, teachers, and adults love pointing out how important it can be when you're deciding how you want to live your life. For Jessa, though, this pressure is an actual risk to her life.

Jessa has spent her life trying to be the perfect girl: always patient and kind, good grades, and a strict rule follower. So when her parents leave her home alone overnight, they allow her to have her closest friends stay over for a sleepover. Sounds innocuous enough right? But when a freak storm knocks out power and they're forced to venture out in the dark for help, unexpected dangers threaten their lives. Can Jessa shed her perfect image long enough to survive?

I adore the concept behind this book because I do think it's timely. We'd love to think that society today is more wise to how gender specific pressures can only create issues, but the reality is that it's still a problem. For whatever reason, the expectation for girls to be pretty and polite and perfectly imaged still happens far too often. Life is messy, so why tell someone they need to pretend that isn't true? It creates so much unnecessary emotional trauma.

That being said, this book did have some rough patches. I love the fast pace of the overall book. When the plot twist is revealed though, it switches into overdrive and doesn't take enough time to really play out. The result is that it feels like someone slapped the ending of a different book onto this one. A longer transition and reveal of details was needed here.

I am far from perfect and so is Jessa. I do relate to her struggle though. At her age, I felt like I had to be that way too and be the daughter my parents needed me to be. Seeing events force her to face who she really is and be that instead is an important one. It's a storyline a lot of readers can relate to: be yourself instead the person others expect you to be.

A fun horror story with an unevenly paced plotline.

My rating: 4 out of 5

This book was incredible; I loved its fast pace. Jessa, portrayed as the perfect girl, can't always maintain that facade. She must relinquish her 'good girl' image, especially when she's trapped in a creepy, powerless house, and everything spirals out of control. The presence of ghosts adds to the intrigue, although I would have loved to see them featured more prominently throughout the story. This horror novel for young adults is captivating, despite the excessive COVID-19 references. The writing is enjoyable, making it a wonderfully cozy and spooky read. Definitely worth picking up!

2.5 ✨

what the actual fuck happened to the last 30% of this book

she was a cutie lil ya thriller and then she just got weird idk

the doll-house thing and the multiple druggings got a lil confusing and freaky and not in a cutie thriller way

Jessa, the "perfect" daughter, sister, and friend is preparing for college and has a sleepover while her parents are off at the ballet. They make an exception to her having a sleepover, as a mysterious serial killer has been lurking around and has taken six girls in the neighborhood lately.
Jessa invited one of her friends who has seemed distant lately, Tiny. During a 'fight', the power goes out and Jessa must navigate the night to survive with her friends, while no longer being "the perfect girl". That's what ends up making Jessa the perfect target, because she is the "perfect girl" after all.
With time not being on her side, a thunderstorm raging outside, through the darkness, she has to learn to fight with all she has to be "rude" in order to stay alive.
I definitely suggest NOT reading it when you're alone, especially in the middle of the night, so you don't get rattled by noises/voices in the house or just plan to stay up all night and read the entire thing in one sitting, like I did!!
I love survive the night stories and felt like the author hit the nail on the head with this one. I enjoyed the before POV, since we mostly see everything from Jessa's POV.
I think it lacked somewhat in the before parts and also the fact that Jessa was more worried about kissing a boy in the middle of the woods ALONE while her friends are missing, because #priorities.

"Life of a chaos demon is tough."

"Fine by me. I'd rather be a b**** than your perfect girl."

"You are safe. You are strong. You are beautiful, inside and out."

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for a digital copy of this wonderful thriller! I thoroughly enjoyed it so much and look forward to reading more by this author.

You boil with feminine rage, and then feminine pride, as our main character Jessa defies the constraints of her life to bust out and save herself and her friends.

Jessa is the good girl. She never breaks rules, and the adults in her life have trapped her inside expectations as being the one with the plan, the clean one, the polite one, and even when she's unhappy or uncomfortable. Her brother, Josh, the boy, gets away with being lazy, rude, and messy, and every time he does something wrong they BOTH get a new rule even if Jessa hasn't earned the restriction. She loves her brother but it definitely builds tension between the two of them...also because she has a crush on his best friend.

Her parents bend the "no friends when we aren't home" rule (Josh's fault) to let her have a sleepover when she would've been home alone. Especially because girls in a town not far from them have been going missing. At her house in the middle of nowhere. With faulty internet. And neighbors she doesn't know well if at all. Obviously, things are going to go badly...stalkers, power outages and a massive storm, stress, drama, and Jessa obeying when she should be questioning.

Once this really gets going the tension ratchets up until I was barely breathing I was waiting to figure out what the heck was going on. It's got a decent mystery, a haunted house, a great monologue when things finally snap, and true blue girl's girls friendship.

Note: Josh is oblivious, not overtly a butthead, and he very much loves and respects his sister. He's just a teenage boy who doesn't get it, or know how to express it yet. He learns better.

This is a fast-paced, easy to read YA thriller that took me just under 3hr to read. The stormy night and secluded house is a good backdrop for the mystery, and there were several other elements that added a little depth to the story.

It's not particularly scary (or even graphic), but I think it hits the mark for the target audience.

Overall: 3.5 stars (I liked it)

**Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Children's Publishing Group | Feiwel & Friends for the free ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

My Top 5 Reasons to Read Perfect Girl:
1. Exploring the ebbs and flows of friendships.
2. Lots of jump scares and thrills, including a ghost named Betty!
3. Truth or dare…
4. When a storm knocks the power out, all bets are off for the sleepover.
5. A super fun, engaging book with the right amount of horror that will delight readers of all ages!

This is a YA thriller about a sleepover that goes very wrong.
I was enjoying it in the beginning, although you are halfway through the book before anything scary happens. When that part hit I just thought it was okay.

🎀Book Review🎀
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Summary- Jessa has been raised to be the “perfect girl.” She is unfailingly polite, never rocks the boat, and always follows the rules—no matter what. Her friends love to give her a hard time for being such a goody two-shoes, but Jessa likes it this way. She knows what's expected of her, and she's happy to be the person her parents (and society) want.

When a freak storm takes out the power during a sleepover at Jessa’s creepy, old house, things go south before the pizza gets cold. Her friends are at each other’s throats, unexpected guests keep showing up (some more welcome than others), and it’s not just her brother serving up jump scares. A killer looking for the perfect girl has targeted Jessa, and she’ll have to reject everything she’s been taught if she wants to keep herself—and her friends—alive until sunrise.

Who knew perfection could be so dangerous?
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Rating- ⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My thoughts- Thank you @netgalley and @macmillianchildrenpublishinggroup for the advanced copy, this one releases next week. It was a perfectly fine YA thriller that was super predictable. My main issue with YA mysteries is that the main character is often naive and self righteous, this one is no different. I found Jessa to be just so annoying, I was siding with Tiny the antagonist most of the book. It was fun but the villain definitely needed a little more backstory, it was a bit ridiculous at the end. But I was engaged and wanted to finish this one!
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QOTD- do you read YA books ?! What is one that you definitely recommend ?
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What does it mean being the perfect girl. No one thinks that you would ever step out of line. To be fair most of your life this has been true. The one to always mess up has been your brother. Yet with girls going missing in town, it seems better to stay with others in large numbers, so when Jessa’s parents allow her to have some friends over while they aren’t at home, she is going to make sure it is a fun but perfect night. Yet a storm and some unexpected guests have other plans for the night.
This is a lovely fast paced horror novel. It is not super dark and hits all the right notes for someone looking for a horror novel without all the gore. The antagonists hit all the right notes and come of as just the right amount of crazy. I think that teens are truly going to love going on this crazy ride.
Thank you so much to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Such a scary good book!

It really makes you think about how sometimes people can be nice to a fault and what happens when you are too nice and polite to the wrong person. Especially when you put other people's feelings first consistently just because you don't to be rude, even if that person gives you a weird feeling.

That's exactly what happens in this book and the consequences are potentially deadly when you are too nice. You learn from her mistakes that, yes it is good to be a kind person, but it is also important to speak up and stand up for yourself, even if it means you are "rude".

Such an amazing book and will recommend to everyone!

This was such a fun read for me. I liked how mysterious & spooky everything was at the beginning of the book, however, I think it wasn't higher up on the list for me because it talked about COVID and quarantine. There's nothing wrong with that, I just personally don't like it being brought up in my books.

In this, we follow Jessa, the perfect girl. Polite to a fault, she's struggling to make decisions about her own life without feeling guilty. When she has a sleepover with her friends without supervision for the first time ever, she's visited by a classmate thst seems to know a bit too much about her. A huge thunderstorm hits her small hometown and knocks out all of the lights, she'll have to leve behind her politeness to survive the events that transpire next.
I think it was wonderful social commentary on not only societal expectations of women and how they don't even begin to match mens, but also how feminism can be dangerous when it isn't used with an intersectional lens.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tracy Banghart for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Perfect Girl coming out November 19, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I’ve read books by this author before and I really enjoy her writing. I know this is YA and the characters are in high school, but the characters felt a little younger than HS. There was a lot about Jessa crushing on Ryan and being embarrassed if anyone said anything to him. Then the not wanting to make a mess was a whole thing. I was just expecting a little more. I enjoyed the creepy haunted house and the horror vibes. I liked parts of the book, but I just wanted something different. I would read more books by this author.

THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN! It reminded me literally of Scream with teenagers having a sleepover and their teenage angst and drama but also being kidnapped and hunted. It was a super fast read. I finished it in one sitting, no regrets. It was very YA but still such a good time.

What a wild ride! Reading this felt like watching an old teenage slasher movie. I read this in one sitting and couldn't put it down. It read more like a horror book than a thriller, but I loved the girly spin on the usual scary storyline. If you need a quick, creepy book to get you out of a reading rut this is it! I gave it 4.5 stars and rounded it to a 5 because it was a little predictable, but I liked it so much anyway.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group | Feiwel & Friends for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I read this! I had to read it in one setting because I had to know what was going to happen. The perfect book to leave you guessing and to give you some jump scares along the way.