Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Perfect Little World” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Perfect Little World

Kevin Wilson (Goodreads Author)

3.64 · Rating details · 9,285 ratings · 1,186 reviews

When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she's just about out of options. She recently graduated from high school and is pregnant with her art teacher's baby. Her mother is dead and her father is a drunk. The art teacher is too much of a head-case to help raise the child. Izzy knows she can be a good mother but without any money or prospects, she's left searching.

So wh ...more

Get A Copy

Kindle Edition, 352 pages

Published January 24th 2017 by Ecco

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Perfect Little World, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Millions' Most Anticipated: The Great 2017 Book Preview

83 books — 175 voters

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Best Books of 2017

1,610 books — 3,068 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.64 ·

Rating details

· 9,285 ratings · 1,186 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Perfect Little World

Oct 29, 2016 karen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: from-publisher-or-author

this is the first book i have read by kevin wilson, although i own both of his others. i wasn't immediately wowed by the synopsis, but from its first sentence (the first chapter 1 sentence, after the confusing-at-the-time prologue), i was hooked:

Three hours after she had graduated from high school, Izzy sat on a park bench next to her art teacher, Mr. Jackson, and told him that she was pregnant.

after that opener, i went on a page-folding frenzy: 9, 11, 15, 28, 43, etc, because his writing insta ...more

flag 132 likes · Like · see review

Feb 01, 2017 Diane S ☔ rated it liked it

Shelves: lor

3.5 In this book, Kevin Wilson tackles another take on the family. Communal parenting, nine couples and one single young girl, Izzy, who has just graduated from high school and finds herself alone and pregnant. Enter Dr. Preston Grind, a man with an unusual upbringing himself, along with a woman raised in an orphanage, now with plenty of money to spend. So am experiment, raising children in an unusual setting, all taking part parenting their own and each others children. Sounds ideal, but famili ...more

flag 60 likes · Like · see review

Dec 17, 2018 da AL rated it liked it · review of another edition

Wonderful premise -- great questions brought up regarding love, bonding, families - interesting characters - but all at the beginning. By the end of the book, I was disappointed. Also, why so much reinforcing of 'older man + very young woman = good'? Audiobook reader Therese Plummer is magnificent. ...more

flag 30 likes · Like · see review

Jul 26, 2020 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I love how Kevin Wilson's mind works - I believe I have a literary crush on him. The pages of A Perfect Little World are filled with empathy and lightness - goodness with a tart edge. I was totally invested. ...more

flag 27 likes · Like · see review

Feb 01, 2017 Book of the Month added it

PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED
By Judge Maris Kreizman

At a time when dystopian novels are all the rage, what a delight to read a novel about striving for perfection, no matter how short the effort may fall. If I could choose one author to write about a flawed yet earnest attempt at utopia, Kevin Wilson would be at the top of my list. Even as he relishes the absurd details in his characters’ lives, he never mocks them, never treats them with anything less than compassion.

Perfect Little World is the s PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED
By Judge Maris Kreizman

At a time when dystopian novels are all the rage, what a delight to read a novel about striving for perfection, no matter how short the effort may fall. If I could choose one author to write about a flawed yet earnest attempt at utopia, Kevin Wilson would be at the top of my list. Even as he relishes the absurd details in his characters’ lives, he never mocks them, never treats them with anything less than compassion.

Perfect Little World is the story of an ambitious sociological experiment called “The Infinite Family Project.” Dr. Preston Grind, a young and idealistic child psychologist, heads up the study with funding from an elderly big box store magnate, taking the “It takes a village” model of co-parenting to a new level.

Dr. Grind picks ten newborns, along with their parents, and stashes them all in a beautiful complex deep in the Tennessee woods to find out what happens when the children grow up parented collectively by all participants. No child will learn who his or her birth parents are until the sixth year of the study. All parents and children will be well provided for, from education and healthcare, to job training for the parents.

Told from the point of view of the only single parent to take place in the experiment, a young mother named Isabelle Poole, Perfect Little World follows the members of this makeshift family as the study evolves over years. We see the development of both the children and the parents, and also the jealousies and broken hearts, petty fights and larger conflicts that emerge as the years pass. It’s a novel that’s so fun to read that you might forget how fundamentally philosophical it is: What is a family? Do more parent mean more love? How long can such a community maintain its harmony? And ultimately, which are the ties that truly bind?

There are darker questions that arise as well: How does a science experiment differ from a cult? How fallible is human nature? And most importantly, will people separated from regular society want to make out with each other all the time? The novel aims to answer these questions, but it never devolves into satire because the author is too generous for that. Ultimately, the novel’s most enduring question might be: isn’t it better try for an idealized version of the world, than not to have tried at all?

For more: https://www.bookofthemonth.com/perfec... ...more

flag 23 likes · Like · see review

Aug 11, 2020 Bianca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020, general-fiction, contemporary, male-author, us-author

It takes a village to raise a child.
But since these metaphorical villages are disappearing, raising a child has, arguably, become quite difficult.

I found the premise of this book quite interesting - children from different families being raised together, loved and cared for by all the adults, while also being provided with a multitude of environmental, educational and emotional advantages. Will all those advantages make for very happy, well -adjusted, very intelligent kids? Will the parents be h ...more

flag 22 likes · Like · see review

Mar 23, 2017 Kara rated it it was ok

Shelves: books-i-own

I think the problem with this book is that it just isn't weird enough. It needed to get weird. The first third or so is a fine piece of contemporary fiction. I liked the characters, I liked how they interacted with each other and with themselves. I liked the world that was built that was both global (from Dr. Grind's perspective) and restrictively local (from Izzy's perspective). It was great.
And then the actual situation happened. The experiment began. And it really really tried to stay ground ...more

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

Feb 28, 2017 Joshua Orf-Rodriguez rated it it was ok

A perfect little premise with a cursory, yet at times enjoyable, execution. I was excited about this book, a crazy experiment where 10 children are raised by 19 adults in a communal-like home. The book's first pages outlines the complicated tree of adults and children. This should have been the first clue that this book would have to embrace brevity over depth, given that it is just over 300 pages.

The book starts out the first 150 pages following "Izzy" and sometimes Doctor Preston Grind who is ...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Dec 14, 2019 Jennifer rated it liked it

Shelves: literary-fiction, read-2019, listened-to-audiobook, stand-alone-novel

Great beginning and ending. Middle was slow and tedious in my opinion. Loved the themes in this book though.

My favorite quote:
“When the world fell apart around you, when the walls of your home cracked and crumbled, Izzy now had some idea how to keep living. You held on to the person you loved, the one who would be there in the aftermath, and you built a new home.” ❤️

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

May 20, 2017 Cricket rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommended to Cricket by: Molly Rosen Marriner

Shelves: glorified-rubbish, realistic-fiction, 2017

This review comes in four parts.

Part One: Pacing

This is the shortest part. The pacing was bad. We're talking: take-half-the-book-to-set-up-the-premise bad. I'm assuming the author wanted to get us good and acquainted with the main character, Izzy, though, and that would be acceptable if it weren't for...

Part Two: Characterization

Who is Isabel Poole? No really; I still want to know. All the book gives me to work with is that she has no motivation to do anything. She's just "strong," as the narrat ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Aug 15, 2016 Alena rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I can't decide between 3 and 4, but it's Kevin Wilson so based on creativity alone I'll round up. I found the "it takes a village utopian background" of this book intriguing and the complexity of the characters well written, but this novel lacks the audacity of The Family Fang, which is one of my all time favorites.

Once again Wilson is playing with the definition of family and the short and long-term effects of parenting choices, but it never quite grabbed me in the same way as the Fangs. For me ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Mar 16, 2020 Sav . 📚 rated it liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really don’t even know where to begin with this book. I liked it...and then I didn’t, and then I did. It had a unique concept. A group of parents who take turns raising each other’s kids. However, it goes much deeper than that. In chapter 11, we’re first introduced to the concept that two of the couples are having an affair..and their significant other is just okay with that. Call me old school, but I’d shit bricks if my husband wanted me to be okay with him kissing another woman.

There was on I really don’t even know where to begin with this book. I liked it...and then I didn’t, and then I did. It had a unique concept. A group of parents who take turns raising each other’s kids. However, it goes much deeper than that. In chapter 11, we’re first introduced to the concept that two of the couples are having an affair..and their significant other is just okay with that. Call me old school, but I’d shit bricks if my husband wanted me to be okay with him kissing another woman.

There was one thing in particular that made me kind of angry. Some of the parents were arguing and one of them goes:”...worried that Dr. Grind was going to somehow make all the children in the Infinite Family Project supremely autistic.” (169) I don’t know. It’s not that it made me angry really, I just didn’t like that saying because first of all, nobody just becomes autistic, they’re born that way and are usually diagnosed very young. Secondly, it was almost as if the author intended to make fun of those who do have autism and I’m just not about that life, and can’t stand it when people dislike other people with special needs. On the other hand, some concepts in this book were humorous and had my dying.

There was one character, David, who I did not like at all. Who the actual hell does he think he is kissing Isabel without her consent? Or even knowing if she even liked him that way or otherwise? Such an ignorant bastard.

Throughout the novel, we learn a lot about Dr. Grind’s life and why he’s the way he is, and I believe his childhood was the whole conspiracy behind why he wanted to help these couples know they’re not alone and provide them with endless support. He’s the way he is because he was abused. At one part, he talks about how his parents used to sit in front of him and force him to eat pot brownies at a very young age. Correct me if I’m wrong, but seems like abuse to me.

Three other things that bothered me in the novel were, one being that all the members of the project were called ‘fellows’ despite there being females involved too. That’s just an awkward word to say...and perhaps that’s why it bugged me. But another little detail I noticed was that after Dr. Grind learned about the affair, the other members held a meeting and took a vote on weather or not to remove the couple. The results ended up being 13 ‘no’s’ and 3 ‘yes’s’ but when Dr. Grind first talked about it, there were 4 ‘no’s’ so isn’t the count actually 12 to 4? The last thing that bugged me was that the characters went back & fourth calling Dr. Grind, ‘Dr. Grind’ and his first name ‘Preston’ which started to get really confusing after a while, even though they’re the same person.

I literally felt chapter 14 because they were tickling each other’s feet to see who was ticklish, and calculating the results for one of the kids’ science projects, and I’m ticklish on my feet so I couldn’t help but giggle.

The book was good overall. Some the concepts were a little off and down of the chapters dragged on and on and I found myself easily getting distracted by other things while trying to engage in some of the chapters, and that’s why it took so long for me to finish this book. ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Jun 02, 2020 Erin Glover rated it it was amazing

Shelves: five-stars

I picked up this book after loving Wilson’s later work, Nothing to See Here. Perfect Little World is just as good. Wilson is intrigued by the relationships between and among children and adults. His stories stress the importance of unconditional love between parents and kids and highlight the ugliness that occurs when that love is not present. In Perfect Little World, we see glimpses of what will be his future work through his fascination with fire as well as children.

Izzy is pregnant from her b I picked up this book after loving Wilson’s later work, Nothing to See Here. Perfect Little World is just as good. Wilson is intrigued by the relationships between and among children and adults. His stories stress the importance of unconditional love between parents and kids and highlight the ugliness that occurs when that love is not present. In Perfect Little World, we see glimpses of what will be his future work through his fascination with fire as well as children.

Izzy is pregnant from her bipolar art teacher. He wants nothing to do with the child, leaving Izzy high and dry because she’s determined to have and raise the boy.

She’s invited to join a study where multiple families with a single child, all of the same age, will reside in a commune-type living environment for ten years. Each parent will love each child. The children will not find out who their birth parents are until they are five years old. The parents get the funds to pursue whatever education, vocations, and careers they like. It seems an idyllic world.

But people are people and they do stupid things. One mother at the end of her rope spanks another child, a clear no-no. Parents develop crushes on each other. Their little setting is a microcosm of the real world. The doctor in charge of the program does his best to hold the project together while the participants seem determined to try to sink it. The project is important to him to counteract the experimental trials of his childhood, where he was subjected to constant “friction” by his psychiatrist parents. So the doctor is actually part of the experiment. Can he heal himself?

All the while, wonderful Izzy does her best to keep it all together since without this opportunity, she would be working two jobs and rarely seeing her child. The “Infinite Family” is a good thing for her as a single mother. She pursues her art and cooking. As the only single parent, we feel her loneliness even in a living arrangement with a dozen other families.

The book is an interesting concept. It shows that no matter how controlled people’s environments are, they are going to act like people and make stupid decisions. It also shows there is no right way to raise a child though unconditional love is a must. Worth a read, especially if you liked Nothing to See Here. ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Mar 28, 2017 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, _own-ebook, rec-book-riot, read-in-2017, recommended-friends-or-blog

I loved his first novel and I think Kevin Wilson has done it again! This was such a fun and interesting read. This novel explores the meaning of family in a really interesting way by placing a group of people and their children into a communal parenting experiment. I found it fascinating to see how different people reacted to this planned ‘utopia’ and how the entire experiment was set up. I love how imaginative Wilson was in pulling this story together. The characters were really interesting and ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Apr 04, 2017 Terry ~ Huntress of Erudition rated it liked it

Not bad, just not great, either. In fact, a little boring. I suspected what was going to happen at the end pretty early on in the book and it was no big shocker. Interesting concept, but no original spin on communal living. I kept waiting for something out of the ordinary to happen, but it didn't. ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Nov 02, 2017 Aj Sterkel rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: adult

Judging by the synopsis, this is a very “me” book. Utopian compounds, nontraditional families, strange experiments, eccentric billionaires. It sounds like this should be my favorite book ever.

Unfortunately, I didn’t like it. I think this is an example of a brilliant premise that’s executed poorly.

It didn’t start off bad. I actually flew through the first third of the book because the dysfunctional relationships intrigued me. The story hooked me right at the start:

“Three hours after she had gradu

...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Feb 01, 2017 Kristen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: book-of-the-month, book-group

4.5 stars.

I really, really enjoyed this book. The moment I was done with it, I slammed it shut with absolute satisfaction, leapt up from my chair with a clap, and loudly declared to my husband, "THAT WAS A GOOD BOOK!" So, that's probably a good sign.

Some reviews claim that Izzy is a flat character, but I disagree. What she lacks in warmth, she makes up for in careful consideration, thoughtful evaluation, and complexities for a person who clearly never fit in with her age group, and growing up 4.5 stars.

I really, really enjoyed this book. The moment I was done with it, I slammed it shut with absolute satisfaction, leapt up from my chair with a clap, and loudly declared to my husband, "THAT WAS A GOOD BOOK!" So, that's probably a good sign.

Some reviews claim that Izzy is a flat character, but I disagree. What she lacks in warmth, she makes up for in careful consideration, thoughtful evaluation, and complexities for a person who clearly never fit in with her age group, and growing up faster than her peers (especially after the illicit relationship with a teacher [ICK] and then being a single mom at 18). I found myself cheering for Izzy the whole time. I cried when she went into labor and Mr. Tannehill came to meet Cap for the first time. I absolutely adored their relationship and dynamic. I would not have minded more of it one bit! Every time he came back after Izzy moves into the IFP, I was elated. I had ~a lot of feels~ when Cap played "You Are My Sunshine" because I'm a crybaby brat and of course it's precious and special. (view spoiler)

While Kevin Wilson's writing isn't beautiful, like Amor Towles or Mohsin Hamid, I found his writing interesting, captivating, and shoutout to an author who's not averse from using a well-placed "fuck" in the narration.

The book fell a bit short with giving us a clear sense of all the members of the IFP project. While some are easier to figure out than others, I frequently had to go back to the beginning of the book and check out the little character map, or flip back to previous chapters to double check who was who.

I flagged a bunch of pages with quotes I enjoyed or moments that I felt were special, but without context, I worry they will feel lackluster. Just know that I ultimately really, really enjoyed this book and I want everyone to read it. It raises great questions of what a family is (and isn't), the depth and reach of love, what it means to be in a community, and the importance of the collective versus the individual.

No dogs barking, as far as I can remember (and I didn't mark any pages for it), but pet fish are bought, which felt great for me, since I'm 100% turning into a crazy fish lady lately. ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2017 Kayla Perry rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

To start off, I rank Kevin Wilson among the top 5 authors I love most and any book from him is a cause for celebration to me; on the other hand, when I take a book on its own merits, I have to say that Perfect Little World is not among my favorites.

It's not that the book is bad, insomuch, it's that the book is too short to accomplish what it sets out to do- which is give depth to the many characters that comprise it so the impact of the story is greater. I like Izzy and Dr. Grind, but I want mo ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Aug 12, 2016 Aaron Burch rated it it was amazing

I love Kevin's writing, and was so excited both to hear about this new one, and then to finagle myself an ARC! What a fun read. Reminded me a tad of one of my other fave reads of the last year or two, J Ryan Stradal's Kitchens of the Great Midwest--not really in content, but in feeling a little weirder than at-first-glance seems, and also at interesting looks at character and family (and angles and lenses through with we look at them), and maybe most of all just in enjoyability of the read.

Will ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 16, 2017 Leah Bayer rated it liked it

Shelves: idiot-heroine

Sometimes I'll be really enjoying a book, and suddenly come to a part where you can see the seams coming undone. It begins to drift further and further from what I want it to be, until I wind up at a hot mess of an ending. Sadly, that happened with Perfect Little World: a book with a lot of potential that somehow manages to squander every one of its interesting premises.

I'll start with the good, because I really don't want to be massively negative about this. I gave it 3 stars, after all! And th Sometimes I'll be really enjoying a book, and suddenly come to a part where you can see the seams coming undone. It begins to drift further and further from what I want it to be, until I wind up at a hot mess of an ending. Sadly, that happened with Perfect Little World: a book with a lot of potential that somehow manages to squander every one of its interesting premises.

I'll start with the good, because I really don't want to be massively negative about this. I gave it 3 stars, after all! And that is mostly because of how much I enjoyed the first 2/3rds or so. PLW is about the 'Infinite Family Project,' where ten families (9 sets of parents and one single mom, Izzy, our main character) raise their children communally. It sounds like a hippie commune, but it's led by a child psychologist and funded by a billionaire. So it's a really scientific commune! With a premise like that, you expect one of two things: a really annoying utopia, or a utopia-turned-dystopia narrative. Thankfully, PLW skirts the border between the two and gives us a story grounded in humanity.

It's not perfect, but it's not the wreck the reader (and the outside world in the novel) expect. Sure, there is tension and not all the parents get along. Sure, our main doctor has a host of issues from his parent's bizarre choices when raising him. Sure, the woman funding the project is really, really old. But for the most part, it presents a nuanced and mainly positive spin on the idea.

However... I had a lot of issues. Many of them I could have overlooked had the ending not been so terribly trite, rushed, and sappy. For instance, our main character Izzy is so annoying. She's perfect. Perfect grades in school (literally), she's good at everything she does, she's beautiful, she's kind. Kevin Wilson tries to balance her away from being a Mary Sue with a tragic backstory (ironically one of the trademarks of a Mary Sue) and her strange sense of aloofness. Izzy doesn't like being close to people. She comes off very holier-than-thou yet incredibly boring at the same time. But she's a decent narrator when she is not talking about herself, so the whole book is not through this "woe is me, poor damaged but perfect girl" lens.

I think the moment I realized I was not going to love this book was when Izzy started falling for the doctor leading the project (this is not a spoiler, it's mentioned in the prologue). I actually said "oh god really? We're going there?" when it happened. It's SO TRITE. Only single woman on the project, only single man, both are damaged by ~rough childhood~, of course they end up together. I though Izzy was actually going to get the "you know what? I don't need a man" narrative which I would have really respected. Instead it's so chick-lit-y and sappy and bleh.

The last half of the book feels very rushed. We get quite a few pre-IFP chapters with Izzy, and the intro chapters to the project itself are quite long. And after that, every year in the IFP is only one chapter, with some of them being quite short (like 20 pages short). It's so rushed! We don't get the in-depth look at either the children's development or the parental relations. A LOT of these chapters are spent on Izzy at art school (a plot that goes nowhere because she doesn't even want to be an artist, sigh).

And the ending! Oh god. It's so sappy and wrapped in a bow. I was really disappointed in it, mainly because it doesn't fit at all what we are told about the family & children. Literally makes no sense in its own universe, which is one of the worst things you can do with an ending.

I do think this book had a lot of potential. I think Wilson was too smitten with Izzy as a character, and needed to cut that cord badly. The book should have had a different narrator every year (we follow a different set of parents, for example) and should have been much longer (or the intro chapters should have been cut). Too much of this novel felt like useless fluff to the narrative, and we were left with so little meat on the bone. ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Jul 25, 2017 Aliana Zamorano rated it it was ok

Completely and utterly shocked. The premise of this novel really really intrigued me. It intrigued me so much that I got through the slow beginning anticipating a meaty core. It was such a great premise that I kept reading through more of the same slow paced nothingness until I reached the end and was completely and utterly shocked to find I had arrived at the last page.

There was such an incredible opportunity for exploration of controversial content on family, social normals, behavior renderin ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

May 06, 2017 Melanie rated it liked it

Shelves: book-of-the-month

I had not read anything along this line before so my sister and I picked this as a Book Of The Month selection. Young parents living a communal existance and raising their children as one big family. All this being funded by an elderly billionare as an experiment so the families also live with professionals who observe and record their lives. The kids don't know who their biological parents are for the first few years of their lives. One of the book's outcomes I saw coming pretty early on but it ...more

flag 21 likes · Like · see review

Apr 25, 2017 Claire rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Perfect Little World is a gentle and somewhat whimsical novel about the meaning of family. Wilson's skill lies in his ability to interrogate quite intense ideas about the meaning and form of family, human nature, and how we would behave if isolated from society- in a light and engaging way that never feels taxing. Izzy and Preston Grind are both complex and engaging characters, although I was somewhat disappointed that many of the peripheral characters remained so peripheral. An interesting and ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Feb 17, 2017 Barbara rated it it was ok

Shelves: big-girl-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Apr 13, 2017 andrew y rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I made a mistake by reading this in two discrete time periods - my library reserve came in way faster than I anticipated and was wanted back right away. So this is my fault, since my complaints all center around a feeling of disconnect between two portions of the plot.
So this is actually probably my favorite book of the year?

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2020 britt_brooke rated it it was ok

A ten-year science experiment; a psychological take on communal living and child rearing. Sometimes thought-provoking, but overall, a tedious snooze fest. Too many characters, too much dialogue, not enough focus. It’s unfortunate because I LOVED Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang.

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Sep 12, 2018 Megan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Um, wow.

First off, there are trigger warnings for self harm!!!! (I did not see this in any reviews and wow was it graphic!) and suicide and some borderline abuse.

(This review isn't explicitly spoilery at all, however i am kind of detailed so it might alluded to things so if you're super anti spoiler then don't read but it doesn't ruin anything important really)

Disclaimer: This book tackles a lot of very important issues, just not correctly. I say this so many times in the review, i just don't ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

May 12, 2017 Oreoandlucy rated it it was amazing

A more complete review is available on my blog:
http://reviewsofbooksonmynightstand.b...

Perfect Little World was one book that I had trouble putting down from the very first chapter. The writing was superb and the story was incredible. It was the perfect example of how plans for a utopia can quickly spiral out of control. I really enjoyed the different characters. Izzy is very mature for her age but also struggles with the responsibilities that she is now facing being a new, young mom. She finds ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 17, 2017 Catherine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: cults-and-other-alternative-lifesty, dysfunctional-family, 2017

"Three hours after she graduated from high school, Izzy sat on a park bench next to her art teacher, Mr. Jackson, and told him that she was pregnant. Despite the awkwardness of the confession, she felt a buzzing excitement that kept pushing against her dread. She had graduated from high school, had hated almost every minute of it; now she was on the other side and free, those four years simply a scar that would add character in the long run. She was wearing the best dress she owned, a thin summe "Three hours after she graduated from high school, Izzy sat on a park bench next to her art teacher, Mr. Jackson, and told him that she was pregnant. Despite the awkwardness of the confession, she felt a buzzing excitement that kept pushing against her dread. She had graduated from high school, had hated almost every minute of it; now she was on the other side and free, those four years simply a scar that would add character in the long run. She was wearing the best dress she owned, a thin summer dress from the Target in Murfreesboro, green and white, like the flag for some exotic African nation."

Our introduction to Izzy, after a weird little prologue that belongs chronologically in the middle of the book and is more distracting than anything, is instantly captivating. Izzy is a misfit, an old soul, extremely intelligent but seemingly unmotivated. Her illicit relationship with Hal Jackson began when she asked him to give her a failing grade to save her from having to give the valedictorian's speech. She finds herself unable to not do her best in her classes, but she has no intentions of going to college. Her alcoholic father barely notices she's around. Her morbidly obese mother, who tried to live vicariously through Izzy, died when she was 13. The closest thing to a parental figure or friend that Izzy has is Mr. Tannehill, the old man who runs the smoker at The Whole Hog, the barbecue restaurant where Izzy has worked since she was fourteen.

Tormented by his own demons, Hal quickly disappears from the picture, and Izzy finds herself on her own -- no family support, no financial support, and no idea how to raise a baby that she is, nevertheless, determined to keep. In steps Dr. Preston Grind, "an awkwardly charming child psychologist," who is putting together an experiment in communal parenting. If she accepts his offer, she and her baby will live in a compound with 9 other couples, many equally unmoored, their infants, Dr. Grind, and three post doc researchers (and various non-resident support staff). While this will solve all of Izzy's financial concerns, this experiment goes against her solitary, independent nature. (Of course, she accepts, but not without a few second thoughts.)

Dr. Grind is semi-famous for being raised using the "constant friction" childrearing method that his psychologist parents pioneered. Under the premise that the world is unpredictable and unfair, they purposely put their own child into circumstances that would unsettle him. The one that sticks in my mind is young Preston, an only child, being given a puppy. After two weeks of constant companionship, the puppy disappears. When he asks his parents if he'll ever see the puppy again, they are noncommital. He never sees it again. As a result of this unconventional childhood, Dr. Grind is unflappably self-controlled, even when conflicts arises in the compound. (The ways he internally processes conflicts are not always so healthy.)

The cast of characters is understandably large: 18 other parents, 10 children, four doctors, various other support staff, along with others outside "The Infinite Family Project." While Wilson provides a handy little "family tree" at the beginning of the novel, and we get a brief synopsis of the parents and their educational/occupational situation as the experiment begins (pages 136-138 in my hardback copy, which I referred back to throughout the rest of the novel), not all of them are main characters. Those closest to Izzy appear the most, along with those who cause drama (in general or with Izzy), while others remain mostly in the background. Wilson's characters are sympathetic, but complex, and all a little broken.

The premise itself was fascinating to me -- a little like The Real World: The Parenting Years -- indulging my voyeuristic nature, while tugging at my heartstrings. Izzy and Dr. Grind in particular are odd, but sweet characters that left me fearing for the worst, but hoping for the best. If you need to know the overall mood of the ending, (view spoiler)

Wilson's first novel, The Family Fang, was captivating, but too disturbing for my taste. I was traumatized by the careless way the Fang parents raised their children, making them part of their "performance art" that often seemed more like psychological torture. Dr. Grind's childhood is similarly scarring, although his parents did their damage for the sake of science, which feels a little less narcissistic than the Fangs' art. (Wilson's focus on the many ways parents screw up their children makes me wonder what his own childhood was like.) Perfect Little World was much easier to stomach, with the level of obsurdity kept to a tolerable level. I'm really glad that I gave Wilson a second chance. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

May 22, 2017 Stephanie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017, book-in-scpl-catalogue, fiction-contemporary

3.5★

Izzy Poole, up to the point in which the book began, went through life essentially alone. She did not have friends: Her lover was her teacher and her closest (probably only) friend was an old man she worked with at a BBQ joint.

"Happiness, she believed was small and quiet and you expressed it when no one else was around."

Once you get to know Izzy (it doesn't take long to realize) she is the last person you would expect to willingly go into a situation in which EVERYTHING is communal, even 3.5★

Izzy Poole, up to the point in which the book began, went through life essentially alone. She did not have friends: Her lover was her teacher and her closest (probably only) friend was an old man she worked with at a BBQ joint.

"Happiness, she believed was small and quiet and you expressed it when no one else was around."

Once you get to know Izzy (it doesn't take long to realize) she is the last person you would expect to willingly go into a situation in which EVERYTHING is communal, even her son. Which, of course, was one of the main questions of the Infinite Family Project; how children raised within a tight-knit community would test differently from their nuclear peers.

This was an interesting book. I am always interested in people who choose to live their lives in unconventional ways. Izzy decided this "Scientific Family" *cough* commune *cough* was the best option to raise her child when she otherwise would have to work two jobs just to keep food on their table.

There were questions before the experiment even started about whether it was a commune, or a cult, or what exactly? As you will see during the course of the novel, these questions about the nature of the experiment and what it is turning into do change.
When Izzy first meets Dr. Grind, she says,

"It sounds like some sort of commune"

His response to that is,

"Well, not exactly. It's not exactly like a commune. It's a scientific family."

You cannot put 19 adults and 10 children together and expect that the human experience will not get in the way of scientific love. That is where it get's interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think, perhaps, the book may have benefitted from another point of view; Another parent on the compound would have made for a more dynamic read in my opinion. It would have been very interesting to compare and contrast the differences between Izzy's experience as Izzy and as a single mother, and another parent's experience, such as Asean as Asean and as part of a couple.

Below is a sort of spoiler but it will not ruin the book for you if you read it.

The one thing that did bother me about this book is (view spoiler) ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Reading For P...: April 2017 - Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson Buddy Read with Terry and Tracy Marie	19	23	Apr 18, 2017 07:17AM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Fiction

273 users

Contemporary

63 users

Adult Fiction

26 users

Literary Fiction

25 users

Adult

25 users

Audiobook

21 users

Family

17 users

Novels

15 users

Science Fiction > Dystopia

8 users

Literature

7 users

See top shelves…

About Kevin Wilson

Kevin Wilson

1,516 followers

Kevin Wilson was born, raised, and still lives in Tennessee. His writing has appeared in Ploughshares, One Story, Greensboro Review, The Oxford American, Carolina Quarterly and elsewhere. His work has twice been included in the New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best anthology (2005, 2006). He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the KHN Center for the Arts. A graduat ...more

Books by Kevin Wilson

Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories

More…

November's Most Anticipated New Books

November is the honored month of Thanksgiving, when we gather with our loved ones, attend requisite family rituals, and then—with any...

Trivia About Perfect Little World

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Perfect Little World

“It amazed Izzy the way the children rushed through so many complicated emotions without space between each one. Everything rose so quickly to the surface and then subsided, like firecrackers, and what had originally been so jarring to her, their unguarded emotion, now filled her with great comfort, that anything, no matter what it was, would eventually give way to something else.” — 3 likes

“If I can’t find something on this plate to eat, that’s my fault,” she replied.” — 0 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson

Perfect Little World

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Kevin Wilson

Books by Kevin Wilson

Related Articles

Trivia About Perfect Little World

Quotes from Perfect Little World

See a Problem?

Preview — Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson

Perfect Little World

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Kevin Wilson

Books by Kevin Wilson

Related Articles

Trivia About Perfect Little World

Quotes from Perfect Little World

new topic
Discuss This Book