Justine's Thoughts: Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

Almost Perfect
By Brian Katcher

Pages:

357

Book Description:

Logan Witherspoon recently discovered that his girlfriend of three years cheated on him. Since then -- much to his friends’ dismay -- he has been depressed, pessimistic, and obsessed with staring at his ex, Brenda.

But things start to look up for Logan when a new student breezes through the halls of is small-town high school. Tall, unconventionally pretty, and a bit awkward, Sage Hendricks somehow appeals to Logan even at a time when eh trusts no one. As Logan learns more about Sage, he realizes that she needs a friend as much as he does, if not more. She has been homeschooled for several years, and her parents have forbidden her to date, but she won’t tell Logan why. The mystery of Sage’s past and the oddities of her personality intrigue Logan, and one day, he acts on his growing attraction and kisses her. Moments later, however, he wishes he hadn’t. Sage finally discloses her big secret: she’s a boy.

Enrages, frightened, and feeling betrayed, Logan lashes out at Sage and then refuses to speak to her. For weeks, he berates himself for being so easily fooled and worries that their kiss means he’s no longer straight. Yet after some time passes, he reaches out to Sage in an attempt to understand her, as well as his own reaction to her revelation. But Logan has no idea how rocky the road back to friendship will be, or how many unexpected, exciting, and excruciatingly painful places he and Sage will visit along the way.

A quote:

But almost perfect isn’t the same as perfect, isn’t it?

Any thoughts:

Wow. That’s all I could say right after I finished it. A lot of thoughts circled my mind then, and here they are...

The whole gender topic must have been difficult to write about. In the end, Brian Katcher thanked all the “real-life Sages” who shared their own stories with him.

The beginning caught my attention almost instantly. It starts out with a message, saying “Everything has that one line they swear they’ll never cross, the one thing they say they’ll never do.......Sage Hendricks was my line.” See what I mean? My curiosity sparked at that moment. I wanted to know more about what happened, and the way Katcher told the story, it felt like you already know what was going to happen. Of course, it helps that the synopsis mentioned the fact that Sage is actually a boy. Still, it makes you feel included somehow.

I sort of adore Logan Witherspoon, our main character. The ‘sort of’ is included there on purpose. Now, I’m not very used to reading in a male’s POV, but I actually kind of like it a lot. It seems different, but it’s so interesting. Anyway, the thing about Logan is that he’s self-centered, but the way he realizes what he has done wrong and really attempts to make them right...it raises a whole new level of respect for him. But then it goes down again, then up, then down, and just like Logan said, he’s always going on an “emotional roller-coaster”.

There’s a deep message in this story, as well, and there’s possibly more. Transgender teens have come across many challenges along the way and it’s hard for them to be accepted by others. They are often alone and look for someone to confide in. Sometimes, they have that someone and sometimes, they don’t. The others follow the most difficult path. This is what inspired Brian Katcher to write this novel, as his message in the back said.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this, as it felt like going on a journey including its rough times and its best. With a laugh-out-loud humour that you won’t forget and experiences in heartbreaking relationships, you wouldn’t want to miss this novel by Brian Katcher.