While I found the style of this book ennervating, I was intrigued and entertained by Piper. This is very good YA novel, with a heroine who faces and deals with very real issues such as a challenging sibling and a desire to be somewhere else. Piper might seem self centered at times but isn't that typical of most of us at her age? Liked the art aspects of this; it's more or less a classic story in that sense but Cagan has updated it for our times. I'd like to know where Piper is 20 years from now. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

The concept of this book is great. But it's like being in a teen girl's head... and I have already lived that in my life. Unfortunately, I can't get over the "adorbs" "obvi" and teen speak. It just doesn't work for me and it made me cringe reading it. The author does a great job putting you in that head space and so for those who aren't irked by such things, this is really a great read.

Just finished reading Piper Perish, I have dried tears in my cheeks and it's 3:30 am (at the time I'm writing this). I was planning on going to sleep and writing my review when I wake up in a few hours with one heck of a book hangover but I HAD to write it now.

Piper Perish is an eighteen year old girl who's dream is to go to art school in New York City with her two best friends, Enzo and Kit. She's a big fan of Andy Warhol, such a fan that she even looks like him. Her last months as a high school senior are bananas. The book begins on New Year's Eve, Piper has a terrible first day of the year. Let's just say it involves someone getting out of a closet (who may or may not be her boyfriend), a whole lot of nudity in front of a whole lot of people and a very, very strange dance with some scarves involved. I would be lying if I told you her year got better from that moment on. For about seven months it is just one unfortunate event after another. And I'm not saying more because I want to keep this as spoiler free as I can. I will only add that she has the coolest art teacher ever (I need an Adams in my life ASAP). And she has the worst, THE WORST, sister ever. I can't even tell you how many times throughout the book I wanted to kick her butt. Go read the book so you know what I'm talking about.

Now, onto the things I like about this book. Wish I could write just one big I LOVE EVERYTHING. But I want this to be longer than three words so I'm going to mention some of the things that like the most.
Piper Perish is written as if it was her diary. It is very emotional and raw. I like it because I feel as if I was actually sneaking around reading someone's diary, LOL. And that makes it very easy and fun to read.
Art is my life. So I fell in love with the art theme of the book. Love the cover, love that she's an artist, love that her friends are artists. It also has some of Piper's paintings/drawings and streaks of paint and doodles here and there and it makes everything feel very real.
There are a lot of moments during the book where I felt connected to Piper. I felt her anger or her sadness. Maybe because I've gone through some of the things she went through in the book or maybe because Kayla Cagan has some secret super power to make you feel as I you were actually living Piper's life.
I cried like a baby at the end of the book. Don't worry, it's not a sad ending and I think most people won't shed a single tear and but I ADORE the ending so much that I had to cry some happy tears.
When you finish reading it with dry eyes you'll think that I'm a crazy cry baby (that's 100% true).
WHY did it have to end?! I wanted this book to last forever.

Reading Piper Perish is such an amazing experience. It doesn't have a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, not that I remember anyways. Then again I have the worst memory. Just know that you are for sure going to have a fun time reading it. There are zero boring moments in Piper Perish's life.
I do think people who are no longer young adults (sorry, my old folks out there) might not appreciate and/or like this book as much as a young mind would.
If you are a teenager then I suggest you go to your nearest bookstore (right now) to buy this book and then go back (running as fast as you can) to your house and settle in your favorite place to read and devour this lovely book.

Tiny warning: Piper's sister may give you murderous thoughts in some (read: most) scenes. Don't you hate not knowing what I'm talking about? Go read this book.

Piper is driven and talented, with a vibrant social life -- something I don't often find in contemporary YA heroines. Her sibling dynamic is also complex. At times, the plot felt weighed down by superfluous subplots and betrayals. Still, this is a dynamic debut.

My Review:
Kayla Cagan’s debut novel, Piper Perish, is what I would consider to be a coming of age story. It follows high school senior and artist Piper Perish and her best friends, Kit and Enzo, also artists, as they navigate the trials and tribulations of that final year of high school and prepare for what comes next. As the novel opens, we’re already at the halfway point of their senior year, and we learn that Piper, Kit, and Enzo have devised a plan where they will all leave Texas after graduation and move to New York City to attend art school together. While it sounds like a fantastic plan in theory, it leaves a lot to chance. What if they don’t all get into the schools they apply to? Will they be able to afford it, etc.? All of the ‘What ifs’ weigh heavily on Piper’s mind throughout the novel because moving to New York to study art has always been her dream. She doesn’t know how she’ll cope if things don’t go according to their plan. I know it sounds like a heavy read at first glance, but don't let that fool you. It's actually quite fun. The bright, artsy cover was what initially caught my eye and, after reading the synopsis, I picked it up because I was looking for a light contemporary read to offset all of the heavy dystopian fiction I've been reading lately and it sounded like Piper Perish would fit the bill.

What I Enjoyed:
I’d have to say that Piper herself is probably my favorite part of the book. Piper’s passion for art, her obsession with artist Andy Warhol (She’s totally a ‘What Would Andy Do?’ kind of girl), her quirky flair for fashion, among other things, just make her someone that you wish you knew and could just hang out with. Written in the form of a diary, the novel really lets us inside Piper’s head and heart as she pours all of her thoughts, dreams, and frustrations, into her diary. I thought Cagan did a tremendous job of creating an authentic high school experience and in giving Piper an equally authentic and vibrant teenage girl voice. As I read Piper’s thoughts, I was transported back to my own high school senior year and could vividly remember going through so many of the same experiences. Piper is a very relatable character precisely because she does represent so many things that we all went through in high school: the dreams, the worrying, the self-doubt, and so on. I found myself starting to care about her from that very first page and really wanting her to push through all of the obstacles standing in her way so that her dreams could become a reality.
What I especially liked about Piper was watching her really grow up and mature throughout the second half of her senior year. She is definitely not the same girl at the end of the novel that she is when we first meet her. Yes, she’s still quirky, fun, and lives and breathes art, but she’s also braver, more willing to stand up for herself and fight for what she wants, and she definitely has a greater sense of who she is and where she belongs. I really liked the evolution of her character.
Aside from Piper, I also really liked all of the themes that the book covered. In addition to the everyday dramas of high school, it also tackles bigger themes like friendship, family, and love. Piper spends much of her senior year learning what it means to be a friend through thick and thin as she and her friends each encounter obstacles, some of which put them at odds with each other. Piper also spends a lot of time reflecting on the different degrees of love as relationships around her evolve and change – the love of a boyfriend and girlfriend, the love between friends, the love of family members no matter how frustrated you get with them (or in the case of Piper’s sister, Marli, how much they deliberately try to make you miserable).
The discussion of art also fascinated me as I read this book. I’m about as artistic as a rock, so I loved watching the creative process at work as Piper, Kit, Enzo, and their fellow classmates worked to create their senior projects. I actually found myself wishing I had a paper copy of the book rather than an e-galley as well because there are little sketches here and there throughout the novel that I’m sure are much cooler in full color.
Anything I Didn’t Like:
I have to say I wasn’t big on the way the book was put together. I did love the first person point of view because I think it really helped me connect with Piper better. The diary style just didn’t really work for me. It did at first because it really felt like I was reading the diary of a teenage girl, but then it started to feel less like a diary or journal and more just like a standard first person narrative broken up by dates. I never kept a diary or journal myself, but I still just couldn’t imagine that one would contain whole conversations between people quoted verbatim or that it would contain complete emails that Piper was receiving from her friend Silas. I can’t say that it took away from my enjoyment of the story at all, but I did feel like it had me pondering the structure of the book more than I would have liked.
I hate to say it, but I was not a big fan of either Piper’s sister, Marli, or of their parents. Marli, who has just moved back home because she got pregnant while away at college, spends the bulk of the novel storming around screaming and yelling at anyone and everyone who crosses her path, especially Piper, who seems to be her favorite target. I found it incredibly frustrating that Piper’s parents basically allowed Marli to verbally abuse Piper on a daily basis and that all of them, including Marli’s baby daddy once he moved in with them, simply tiptoed around her to try to keep the venomous raging to a minimum. Most of the time their parents just chalked her outrageous behavior up to pregnancy hormones, but every once in a while particularly when Piper was really about to lose it and really go off on Marlie, then they would admit that Marli has been like this her entire life. My question at this point is then why haven’t her parents done more to get her help – her behavior is clearly not normal. I’m not a psychologist or a therapist, but it seems like Marli is living her life with an undiagnosed mental illness. I was sympathetic to Marli in that sense and really wanted something to happen to acknowledge that she was going through some kind of mental health issue. Nothing did though so I ultimately just found her very hard to stomach because as she was presented, she was little more than a constant source of over-the-top drama.
As much as Marli bothered me, I think her parents actually bothered me more -- not just because of how they let things go with Marli, but also because they were overall so unsupportive of Piper and her dreams. Throughout the course of the book, they were probably the biggest obstacle that Piper faced because everything Piper wanted took a back seat to Marli and her drama and then to her parent’s poor planning when it came to their children’s college funds. If you know your daughter has been dreaming her entire life of moving to New York City to study art, and she is clearly a gifted artist, wouldn’t you be doing everything you possibly can to try to make that dream a reality? I hate to judge, but I was just very disappointed in their parenting abilities.
One other minor quibble I had with the storyline was how conveniently some obstacles were wrapped up in the closing pages of the book. I can’t say much without giving away major plot points, but I just thought that what happened to Piper was something that would never happen in real life. Younger readers will probably love it, but the jaded old lady in me was just like ‘Umm no, that would never happen in real life.’
Who Would I Recommend Piper Perish to?

I would most definitely recommend it to teenagers. It’s a fast and entertaining read, and I think teens will easily related to Piper’s journey. I honestly can’t decide if this is one of those YA books that translates well for older readers though. I could see some older readers finding it a little over dramatic at times and thinking “Kid, you think your life is stressful now, wait until you’re out on your own.”

Thanks so much to Netgalley, Chronicle, and Kayla Cagan for allowing me to preview this book in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Piper Perish is an artist. Obsessed with Andy Warhol, she can't wait to get out of her small Texas town and go to NYC. Her dream slips away from her, however, when her boyfriend dumps her for a guy, and her sociopathic older sister moves back in, pregnant, and needing money that could have gone to Piper for school. Piper keeps her head up, however, working hard on her art, and pursuing her dream. No matter what life throws at her, she is determined to do it all.

I couldn't put this down. Piper is naive, but strong, and I found the character of the sister as well as the unhealthy co-dependant style family super interesting. Sure, there is a bit of wish fulfillment at the end, but Piper is still stuck in a precarious situation that just might not work out in her favor. Fascinating read.

I'm sure some people will love this one, but it just wasn't for me. The characters, especially Piper, were too annoying for me to power through 400+ pages. If you like quirky™ characters or are really into art, maybe give Piper Perish a shot.

Piper Perish is in her senior year of high school. She is an exceptional artist, surrounded by an artistic friend and boyfriend. They are all trying to get into an exceptional art college in New York, until everything blows up. Piper's psychotic older sister Marli moves back home from college because she is pregnant. Piper's boyfriend emotionally hurts her and her best becomes a less reliable presence in her life. Will Piper be able to find happiness with everything evolving?

Every character in this book was a despicable form of humanity. The terrible things that Marli spewed and the hope that the other characters would eventually rise above her crap spurred me on in various sections, but overall this book was hard to get through. Actually, Piper's life gave me serious anxiety. I found myself uncomfortably anxious by Piper's actions and her future. I just wish that something more action-packed could have happened between the family and the sister...or Piper calling her family members on their BS.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1919585996?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Piper is written entirely in a very casual stream-of-consciousness diary style, which did take some getting used to at first, but quickly turned into an absolute delight to read. It reads as exactly the style I like to write ~ no planning, little punctuation and a whole lot of feeling. This format makes it extremely easy to fall into Piper’s world and become invested in her messy family situation and her obsession with art, Andy Warhol, and getting the heck out of Texas and to NYC. The art focus is a joy to find in the YA market, as there just aren’t all that many books to hand to budding artists that this closely speak to the artist’s obsession with creation and design. I can’t wait to share this with my high school students!

One story line that I became especially interested in was Piper’s relationship with her sister, Marli. As you will find in the book, Marli is emotionally volatile and creates much tension for the entire family, as she has her entire life. I connected with this closely as a former special education teacher. In my work with students with emotional behavioral disabilities, many of the families I worked with were at a loss as to how to deal with the emotional turmoil their children exposed their families to. While Marli in this book is not technically labeled with a disorder or disability, the symptoms remain the same. I was heartbroken for both Piper and her parents as they struggled to absorb Marli’s wild mood swings. I was also heartbroken for Marli as she (in my opinion) needed professional help for her struggles. This part of the story was woven in throughout the book, and was probably supposed to be a backdrop for the art focus, but I didn’t read it like that. That’s the joy of books - we can all experience them through our own lens!

I will be purchasing a copy of this book for my high school library and another to check out to our high school art classroom. Cagan’s bio on her website states that she will be releasing another novel with Chronicle in 2018 - I can’t wait!

Thank you; although, I did not finish reading this book due to characters and lack of interesting plot.

A soulful, dynamic, utterly authentic work of ART. A must read for any creative soul with a dream

A debut novel by an author always gives me chills because you have no existing knowledge of their writing style and it's a clean slate to build an opinion on. Piper Perish is the story of Piper (obviously) as she navigates the complicated channels of high school. Not just your regular teenager, Piper is an artist with immense talent and individual style and friends. A plan has come into play for her and her two best friends to go off happily to New York to art school. Unfortunately life doesn't always work that way and many obstacles jump into Piper's path.

Piper started out to annoy me. She was a bit needy and honestly let some people around her walk all over her. However, as life goes in the real world, Piper grew up. She started to gain confidence and stood up for herself. She still made some horrible decisions, but she works it out. The truthfulness that Cagan writes about teenage emotions and how senior year really does change a lot in the many lives is so real. While the beginning was a slow pick up, all the drama and suspense this book kept me turning page after page. Aside from the Piper, the supporting characters including her best friends, parents, and random boys all bring the story together and added a little flair. Anyone who loves lots of twists, family drama, tests of friendship, and more then Kayla Cagan's debut novel Piper Perish is absolutely for you. It can be enjoyed by anyone teenage age and up for a bit of light reading.

Aside from the slow start this book was a great read and I recommend it to anyone.

Pick it up! Highly recommended. Four out of five stars.

Amazing five-star novel! I thoroughly loved this book. Reviewing soon on my blog!

I enjoy the quickens of epistolary novels. I can usually finish a epistolary novel within in 2 to 3 days. Piper Perish took me nearly a week. I found it slow moving and the characters unlikable.

It's a good read for young adults, I think they will easily recognize themselves in Piper.

I tried to read this book but found it to be way too young for me. As a 36 year old, the content and writing style of this book were not for me.

DNF at 27%
Requesting Piper Perish was purely an impulse decision. I LOVED LOVED The way the cover looked and I decided I needed to have the book.

Unfortunately, after weeks of trying, I simply wasn't able to connect with anything in the book.

I apologize sincerely, but this book just wasn't for me.

Piper Perish is an artist. Piper Perish is a teenager. Piper Perish is a younger sibling. Piper Perish is boring.

For all the effort thrown in to make Piper an exciting artist-type, she only succeeded in being a flat stereotype. Maybe if there was any sort of description of her art or the way she saw the world through an artist's lens, she would be more. But aside from caring way too much about her appearance and how others perceived her, she didn't read as an artist to me. She cared so much that people knew she was creative and that she fit the image, but she hardly spoke about what she was creating. Piper doesn't grow as a person, yet somehow is supposed to be a hero to root for. Any time she expressed sympathy or hinted at caring about another person, it was only with the end goal of how it would affect herself.

This book also perpetuates the concepts that Millennials are entitled, anxiety equals "crazy," and your bisexual boyfriend will act like a stereotyped gay bff. Of less importance: that you're an artist if you dress the part, and NYC curators pay attention to TX high school art shows.

As a young artist who's been through the expensive school search, got out of her home town, and has stressed out over countless art shows, this book was at best dull, at worst insulting. I really wanted to read about a like-minded character. Maybe if I was younger I wouldn't be so annoyed.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4-4.5 stars

The moment I laid eyes on the cover of Piper Perish I was in love with its simplistic beauty. The bright, bold colors screamed for my attention and I couldn't ignore them. Now, having since read it, I have to say this book has a lot more going for it than just the stunning cover. Written entirely in the form of Piper's journal entries, this is a story that utterly and completely sucked me in. When I'd come up for air I had to consciously remind myself who and where I was. That I was me, and not Piper fighting her way to the top. The angst, drama, desire, love- it was all so fluid but present. By this I mean that the situations were constantly changing for these characters just like in real life. It wasn't in an "I Dream of Genie" blink of an eye that all the problems these characters were dealing with where suddenly solved. But there was an undercurrent that guided them like a driving force.

Piper has a plan. Finish her senior year of high school and fly the Texas coop- all the way to New York City with her best friend and boyfriend in tow. They will all get in to the best college, make the best art, and live the dream. Sadly, as Piper quickly discovers, life doesn't always go according to plan. Sometimes dreams turn into nightmares. You can wake up from a nightmare, but it always takes more effort to reconstruct the good dream after that.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with this review copy and opportunity. I look forward to reading any future works by Cagan.