This book was very different from Laura Silverman's debut novel, which I loved, but this one was also very good and one that I think many of my students will be able to relate to. Ariel's anxiety was portrayed so well that it made me anxious just reading the book, and I liked that his Jewish faith was such an integral part of his life and not just a side note or throwaway character trait. I'll be pre-ordering this title for my classroom library.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ariel Stone is a high school senior who has worked hard since his freshmen year to get into Harvard. He has a plan. He wants to be the first chair violinist and the class valedictorian, and he believes he has both firmly secured. However, when he fails an AP Calc quiz, everything that he has worked for feels like it’s slipping away.

He visits his guidance counselor’s office to discuss how to best handle this, and his guidance counselor suggests a tutor. Ariel decides to ask Amir, a fellow classmate who graded Ariel’s failed quiz for help. However, Ariel realizes that he may have asked the wrong person to tutor him because he may actually be falling for Amir.

Laura Silverman’s You Asked for Perfect is a brilliant book that a very specific number of teenagers need to read. I’ve gone through this high stress cycle of constantly doing homework, feeling like I have no time to do anything but that and volunteering for college applications. I’ve felt the exact pressure of what it’s like to finally get that coveted position in band, only for it to not be what I expected. I even ended up as the valedictorian.

But at what cost?

I wish I had this book earlier because I was doing to myself the same things that Ariel is doing to himself, but I didn’t realize what I was doing until I was no longer in that high pressure place.

Other high points: Ariel is Jewish, and this is very much a part of who he is. We see his family celebrate some of the high holidays, and he and his family regularly attend synagogue. His faith is important to him. Ariel is also bisexual, and this is not an issue at all in the story to anyone. His parents actually encourage a relationship with a male before Ariel is firmly committed to wanting to pursue a relationship. There are also strong family relationships, and parental figures are very present in this book. The diversity in this book is also very present and very real.

This is a book that’s just too perfect (sorry for the accidental pun) to fully convey how awesome it is so you will need to pick this one up to see for yourself how amazing it is.

Ariel Stone is determined to go to Harvard. But to go to Harvard, he needs to ace his classes, be first chair in violin in his school orchestra, keep up with his volunteer work, and still maintain relationships with his friends and family. His anxiety starts to build up when he fails a calculus test; everything feels like it's falling apart. When it's recommended that he get a tutor for calc, he almost says no, he realizes that his sister's friend's brother is doing great in calc. Ariel and Amir have known each other for years but haven't really become friends. Yet when they begin studying together something more than friendship sparks between them. But can Ariel add something else to his already busy life? How much more can he take before it all all comes crumbling down?

YOU ASKED FOR PERFECT has great Jewish and lgbtq representation in it! There is also positive representation of Muslim characters. It also portrays anxiety well and how doing too much can make it hard to function and just be.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book!

Loved this! I think it’s an Important topic for those of us that struggle with perfectionism. A good balance of insight Into the importance of mental health.

I thank you Netgalley! All opinions are my own.

That being siad, this book was a good time. The characters were interesting, and the problems very real.

The biggest con is I had with this book was that the main character is always obsessing over school and sometimes It was too much. Even though that's part of his character flaw I'm guessing.

The romance was very cute and honestly I wish there was more of a focus on it.

Let's start with what I liked about this book. Ariel's struggle to maintain academic excellency in a high achieving school environment was all-too realistic. He taught himself to play the system to earn extra credit on poor assignments, insert as many AP classes into his schedule as possible, and choose hobbies a college would look favourably upon. Ariel found little joy in what he did. He carved more and more time from his family (the one thing he still kept for himself) and became sleep deprived, irritable, and reckless.

It was a scary journey into the effects of academic pressure. I saw myself in Ariel's pains, as I know so many readers will. Sometimes, I even caught myself thinking, "Okay, Ariel, quit chatting with your friends and finish that essay and maybe you won't be so stressed." He was stressed because of all the work, and the little time he had with friends was the reprieve. It's so, so sad how we are conditioned into believing more work is the answer. Not smarter work. Not better priorities. 

As much as I ached for Ariel's journey with schooling, I halted when it came to him as a person. He started his senior year, and it was like all of a sudden he didn't understand math and really, really found Amir (his close family friend) super sexy. As a reader, I'm told that Ariel is the top student in the school and that everyone thought he hated Amir. The introduction of these plot points just felt like poor writing to get the story rolling. 

Ariel and Amir's romance was very cringe-worthy. Leading up to the first tutoring session (and then during), every time Ariel looks at Amir he notes a different sexy/extremely attractive part of his body that he somehow never saw in all the years they knew each other. The fact that this attraction comes out of nowhere and is put in almost every thought Ariel has about Amir was overwhelming. What is worse is that before they make the relationship official, the pair do not talk of anything of substance. It's largely based on attraction. Afterwards, they have a running joke about Harry Potter but for as much as Amir seems to love HP, I never got the same interest from Ariel (he has nothing in his personal life that suggested it.)

I enjoyed the relationship between Ariel and his sister, Rachel. The way academic pressure pops up in her life was a surprise, but not unknown. Despite only being in fifth-grade, the realities she faces are happening more and more. I'm glad her story was brought in, too. And of course, Rachel is absolutely so sweet. 

I saved the possibly worst for last. I got so, so annoyed with Sook, Ariel's best friend. I really wish this character was not in the book. Sook's family is rich and has ties to Dartmouth. They want their daughter to go to Dartmouth (and have pulled ties for her to go there), but she wants to be a musician instead. The narrative is interesting in the beginning. Everyone in this book is focused on the traditional college track, but Sook wants to carve her own path. But Sook ends up representing the worst of "spoiled rich girl" stereotypes. The way this happened infuriated me because it diminished the entire beginning of her narrative AND reflected horribly on her friendship with Ariel. 

I would recommend this book for its accuracy in the effects of academic pressures. Halfway through I started wondering if there was something I was forgetting to do, a to-do list I should make. The ending could have been stronger and I didn't like Sook's character, but those aren't deal breakers. 

Review posting on blog (https://bookprincessreviews.wordpress.com/): Feb. 18 2018
Review posting on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2566524230): Feb 18 2018

I was drawn to this novel for two reasons: the same-sex relationship and the extreme similarity of the protagonist's situation to my own when I was in high school. Reading this story was almost painful for me, not because it was a bad story (it wasn't!) but because it stirred up so many memories and emotions that I haven't had to access since I graduated high school.

Ariel, the protagonist, is on track to be valedictorian (I was salutatorian). He's taking a million AP classes and has given up his lunch periods to cram as many classes in as he can to inflate his GPA (check). He's first chair violin in his orchestra (I played clarinet), and volunteers on the weekends not because he really wants to, but because it'll look good on his college applications (check). His days are scheduled by the hour, crammed with homework, studying, and extracurriculars, leaving barely any time for relaxation or even sleep. He does all this because he has his sights set on getting into Harvard (I wanted Yale). Ariel has no idea what he wants to study or what career he wants to pursue, but he's sure that if he gets into Harvard he'll eventually figure it out. And to get into Harvard he needs to be perfect -- he needs an A in every class, he needs to be first chair in orchestra, he needs to beat everyone else to get the top spot, no matter the consequences.

The physical and social ramifications of Ariel's obsessive need to be perfect are spot on. He loses touch with his friends because he can't make time for them. He becomes sleep deprived after pulling all-nighters to complete schoolwork and almost gets into a car accident. The psychological effects manifest in paranoid thoughts that anyone close to his GPA, like his main competition for valedictorian, wants him to fail (which is not so far-fetched, considering his feelings for her).

Ariel's relationship with Amir is sweet, but it is secondary to Ariel coming to terms with the fact that perfection is an unachievable goal. The romance almost seems unnecessary, like it doesn't fit in with this storyline. But I do appreciate the diverse ethnicities, religions and sexual identities in the story. I haven't read many YA books with Jewish characters that have such dedication to their faith, so that was a nice surprise. One thing I wish the book addressed more is the mental health aspect of Ariel's obsession. At many points in the book he seems to be spiraling, and I just wanted someone to notice and get him the help he needs. Therapy does wonders for kids who have perfection complexes and it would have been so nice for him to realize that.

I would hand this book to any teen who struggles with wanting to be perfect. There's also an audience here for those looking for LGBTQ and diverse reads. That being said, it might be hard to sell this one to kids who have struggles beyond being in the top ten of the graduating class. Ariel doesn't seem to have to address the question of "How will I pay for Harvard?" which is not the most relatable position for the majority of teens.

Like I said, this one was painful for me to read because I saw myself in Ariel. At one point in the book he gets annoyed when someone says high school doesn't matter after you graduate. How could that be true? How could he put in all that hard work for it to not matter? Well, of course it matters -- every experience matters, and leads you to where you are in life right now. But at the same time, high school doesn't really matter. I didn't get the top GPA and I didn't get into Yale, but I'm glad I didn't, because my life is amazing now. I hope kids who read this book realize it's okay to relax, enjoy being a kid, and not put too much pressure on themselves. Because things will work out. I promise.

I will be writing/posting a more complete review for this closer to the release date, but I absolutely LOVED this book. It's a love letter to overachievers, and it made me feel more understood than any other high school book I've read. I was fully invested from the first chapter, and I'm so excited for this book to be released so I can recommend it to all of my friends.

Interesting book. Would really be good in schools where there is a lot of pressure to excel. Interesting book. Would really be good in schools where there is a lot of pressure to excel.

I absolutely LOVED "You Asked For Perfect". The characters were great, especially Ariel, the main protagonist. The connection he had with his family was great to read about, especially the role of religion and family. Since I am Jewish, I personally connected with a lot of the religious parts in the book, and all that was said about them were very accurate. I also loved the high school setting and the discussions he had with his guidance counsellor. Being in high school currently, I connected with a lot of the stressful situations Ariel and his peers went through. Overall, I adored this book and gave it 5/5 stars. I believe this book should be mandatory reading for high school students, since the main plot line will connect with the majority of them, and they will learn some great lessons from this book. Thanks for the e-ARC!
(I will be posting a full review on my blog closer to the release date!)

I really liked this book. I think it worked really well, although I think that there could have been more character development, especially in regards to the supporting characters. Overall though a great book.

Where do I begin.....
This book was amazing, I really enjoyed all the Jewish traditions and customs incorporated into the story, it added character and really drew me in. The characters were also relatable and the author really drew out my emotions and had me intrigued in the book.

WOW. This book was very relateable and i think all teachers should read this.Honestly overworking is very common these days. After 7-8 hours of school a day kids come home with 3-4 hours of homework and it is kind of ridiculous. The book captured the subject very well and i will re-read it.

This book is so relatable! It really captures what it is like to be a student that is striving to get into their dream university, while also trying to juggle their personal life. Ariel is in his senior year of high school and has always had perfect grades until he failed a Calculus quiz. If he can’t pull up his grade everything he has worked towards will have been for nothing.

The only person that knows about Ariel’s slipping grade is Amir, a fellow student that Ariel has never really gotten along with. Amir agrees to tutor Ariel in Calc and sparks start to fly. Ariel thinks his life is finally back on track, but he continues to find it difficult to balance all of his commitments.

This book was so wonderfully written and full of detail. It is such a real book full of relevant academic pressure that everyone needs to read. When I read the description, I knew I had to read it, but it surpassed all of my expectations in the best of ways! This book is unlike anything that I have read before and is completely perfect. I highly recommend reading it!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for giving me the chance to read and review this book early!