With this morning’s painful events, I tried to focus on the positive. In just 10 more hours, I would see zombie Kate again.

After dealing with a hectic move & other projects that kept me from it, I finally have time to review The Perfect Escape, which was gifted to me by the author! I have to start out by saying this book surprised me. I went in thinking it would be generally cute & enjoyable, but maybe a little too basic for me to hang on to after reading. Lo & behold, Park brought in elements of family & teenagerdom that really got to me with their sincerity. I loved the main characters’ relationships with their families, but especially Kate’s. In fact, if Kate didn’t have such a heavy relationship with her family, I don’t think I would’ve found her as compelling of a character or the story as poignant.

There were some elements that I didn’t enjoy. However, within the context of the story, even the parts I didn’t like made sense. One such example is just how many things go on in the story. It felt less suspenseful and more annoying there was ANOTHER plot point to keep track of - it felt like I was being asked to be concerned about a lot. That’s how I felt dealing with everything in late high school, though, so perhaps my distaste could be due to feeling that senior year stress again.

Overall, I felt like the main characters were pretty solid & the plot was entertaining. I also think this narrative would make a really good movie a la TATBILB. I’m glad to have read such a fun book & am looking forward to reading more of Park’s work in the future!