Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty

Jessica hasn't seen or heard from Marcus in years.  Not since she gave him the notebooks explaining why she didn't want to marry him.  That's all about to change when she literally runs into him at the airport.  After missing her flight and learning that it will be hours before she can get another flight, she ends up sitting down with Marcus and hashing out/catching up on what's happened in their lives.  

For the first time we get to hear from Marcus's POV... and find out once and for all what the future holds for this couple.












I should've known, I should've known, I Should Have Known!!  After the 4th book pissed me off so bad (even though I took an entire year to cool off from it), I should have known better than to read this book.  It's just I SO wanted to like it.  I freaking loved the first 2 books in the series, and then...  book 3 was okay, but borderline annoying, and book 4 left me wanting to punch JD in the face.  Now we have this super weird 3rd person dialogue between Jessica Darling and Marcus Flutie that really was just so pretentious and barf inducing that I had to FORCE myself to finish the book.

My thought while eye-rolling:

or more like

Marcus in this book = sex on a stick.  And it's annoying.  I get it, the author thinks Marcus is hot.  So do a lot of other people.  But is he like Ryan Gosling or something??  I was waiting for girls to start throwing panties at him as he was walking through the airport or hotel.... I really was.  Case in point: Jessica hasn't seen him in 3 years, but feels the need to immediately lie and say she has her period so that he (and she) knows that no sex can happen.  Ummm you are in an airport waiting for a plane to take you a thousand miles away and haven't said 3 words to him yet.  Why do you automatically assume he's even interested??

The format of the book- It's basically just one long drawn out convo where it's hard to even get at who is talking.  There is  no he said... she said.  And they both talk like they're trying too hard to be smart, so at times I got lost.  But eventually I could always count on Jessica doing her usual judgy-mcjudgey, trying too hard to be funny and mean, "banter" to clue me in on who was who.  She literally says that when Marcus and her talk it's always a battle of wits.  What's wrong with actually CARING what a person has been up to and GENUINELY wanting to hear it instead of looking to one-up and outsmart them??  I don't get it.

I feel so bad because in Sloppy Firsts, I felt like the author was writing that book just for me.  I know that sounds silly, but I felt so connected with that book.  Like it was EXACTLY the type of book I had been wishing for and there is was.  I guess I just wanted Jessica to evolve and change a little as she grew up... and she never ever did.  In the end I really really didn't WANT Marcus to want Jessica anymore.  And that surprised me because I always liked those 2 together.  Jessica is just is not capable of the feelings that I feel Marcus could get from someone else.  I think he'd be happier with someone more human.

The whole time they were talking the convo felt awkward.  And I think partly that's because Jessica does not "get" Marcus at all.  She sees him as an ex-junkie, ex-manwhore, Buddhist, hippie, enigma.  She wants to label him.  She could care less about the person he has become.  Can't he do any better than that??

I didn't think this book could possibly piss me off worst than the 4th one did, but that ENTIRE chapter of Haiku's or whatever weird poetry they were writing was, ensured I was even more so.  This book EASILY could and should have been a Novella.  An 80 page Novella.  Just let me know what's happened to all my favorite characters, figure out what's next for the Jessica/Marcus relationship and get the F out.  No need for 258 pages... no need at all.  Now am I supposed to be excited to read the prequel series??... cause I gotta tell you I'm not.

Maybe I'm just not getting this book.  Maybe I'm not smart enough or I don't watch enough "artsy" movies or read enough philosophy or something.  Maybe if I understood what exactly this book was trying to accomplish I would appreciate it more???  I don't know, I'm grasping here....

OVERALL:  If you want to read this series, I totally recommend books 1 & 2.  The rest of the series... not so much.  And this final hot mess... JUST NO!!!  Do yourself a favor and skip it!!

This Book Contains:

• A New York Airport
• Pages and pages and pages of conversation with no pronouns
• An entire chapter of flirty poems
• A fake menstrual cycle
• Barry Manilow
• Lots of pompousness

Add it to your To-Read List!!

My Rating:

1/4

How I got this book: Library

Date Published: 4/14/2009