Perfect Fifths
by Megan McCafferty
★★★★
This is the fifth and final book in the Jessica Darling series. I’m not going to spoil anything about this book, but I’d skip this review if you haven’t read the rest of the series.
This series perfectly corresponded with my personal timeline. I graduated from high school in 2002, just like Jessica. I have always been sarcastic and snarky and felt like I finally found a character who was the same way. She was smart and funny, when so many teenage or twenty-something "heroines" are ditzy or struggling with shopping issues or how to talk to the cute boy next door. Obviously our lives are very different, but there was something about her personality that I immediately connected to.
In this final book, which came out in 2009, we are the same age and I love that. I don't know if I would have become so attached to this series if I hadn't read each book around the same time Jessica was going through the same things I was. I read the first book my senior year of high school and each time a new one came out I read it immediately. We finished high school at the same time, went to college, graduated, started real jobs, watched our friends marry, etc.
Jessica and Marcus have a long and complicated relationship. They’ve been on and off and then finally, in the fourth book, they broke up for good. Now, a few years later, they run into each other in an airport and we readers get to reconnect with the unlikely pair. The scales are tipped a bit as Marcus realizes just how badly he wants to reconnect with Jessica and that gives an added sweetness to the books.
I didn’t love this one as much as the earlier books, but I really wanted closure and that’s what I got. If you aren’t a fan of the series, obviously you don’t need to read this one, but if you love Jessica and Marcus in all their quirky brilliance, this book is a must.
"...writing those editorials when I was sixteen, seventeen... it was the first time I found the courage to speak aloud about issues that were important to me."
Top image from Write Meg.
4 comments:
I'd never heard about this series until this year. What I have heard is good, though. My library system doesn't have any of the books, so I'm debating buying them or just waiting until I move back to San Diego to read them. I did skip the last part of the review to avoid spoilers, since I do plan on reading them eventually. I'm glad to see that you've connected with them so much.
I don't know if I would have loved them as much if I didn't read them at the perfect time, but I'm lucky I did!
I didn't know you read these books! One of my friends from high school and I swapped the first book back and forth during our senior year so we could read each chapter together. I've only read up to Charmed Thirds and then lost touch with the series. I will definitely check out the last 2 soon. xo Care
Care - I didn't know you read them either! I liked the earlier books more, but I think that was because of when I read them.
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