Review: "Perfect Little World" by Kevin Wilson

Perfect Little World is a safe, enjoyable but ultimately milquetoast second novel from author Kevin Wilson, whose first book, The Family Fang (easily one of my least favorite titles to a really good book), which was made into a movie directed by and starring Jason Bateman. This novel manages to highlight both Wilson’s strengths and weaknesses on the page. On one hand, he is a great storyteller with a knack for offbeat situations that feel fresh but also contain within their perimeters truths about the modern world and our relationships with friends and families. But I also thinks he falls too much in love with his subjects, giving them a few too many positive attributes so it is hard for us see their failures and other flaws they have as anything but a mere stepping stone toward a happy ending or at least some sort of enlightenment by the end of the book. The focus of this novel is Izzy, a recent high school graduate who is pregnant by her trust, psychologically damaged art teacher. With no prospects besides her work at a local BBQ restaurant, a sudden tragedy forces her to become a part of a social experiment funded by an aging female billionaire and led by Dr. Grind, a socially awkward scientist, himself a former participant in a similar familial experiment and also no stranger to tragic circumstances. Izzy, along with handful of other desperate expectant parents, will live in a sort of commune where the newborns will spend eight years living without any of them knowing who their real parents are. It shares themes with Wilson’s first novel, where the idea of family is placed within a controlled setting with lasting ramifications. It creates drama, but none of it is really too dramatic or urgent besides one small scene involving a needy parent wanting more time with their child. While Wilson succeeds with Dr. Grind, whose upbringing and tragic past create a character high in intelligence but deeply troubled and volatile, he sort of fails with Izzy herself, whose character flaws (her taste in men, her lack of drive, her disconnect) are either inferred by Wilson or ignored by her. Either way, I didn’t like following her as much as Dr. Grind. Even with the sometimes slow pace and the schmaltzy ending, this is good second effort for Wilson, and I will pick up his next book in a heartbeat.  

Rating: 4/5