All your Perfects by Colleen Hoover
 |
| All Your Perfects Paperback version Quinn and Graham’s perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes, and secrets that they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair. All Your Perfects is a profound novel about a damaged couple whose potential future hinges on promises made in the past. This is a heartbreaking page-turner that asks: Can a resounding love with a perfect beginning survive a lifetime between two imperfect people? |
Just like It Ends With Us, I finished it in about three hours because, yes, it was a page-turner.
The book opens with the day Quinn and Graham meet under the most unconventional circumstances. Both of their partners are cheating on them inside Ethan's (Quinn's fiancé's) apartment. Devastated, they find comfort in each other while gathering the courage to confront their unfaithful partners.
The next chapter fast-forwards seven years. Quinn and Graham are now married. Once a passionate and deeply loving couple, they are now facing the painful reality of infertility. They have spent the last several years trying to conceive, going through three rounds of IVF and exploring adoption, but none of it has led to the outcome they desperately hoped for.
As the story alternates between the past and the present, we gradually learn how their love grew into marriage. We see Graham, hopelessly in love, promising to love Quinn more with each passing day, and Quinn, who sees nothing but perfection in Graham.
But can their love withstand a Category 5 hurricane when Quinn falls deeper into depression every time she sees blood marking the beginning of another menstrual cycle? When making love becomes an obligation during ovulation, only to end in heartbreak fourteen days later?
Graham is struggling too. He misses the old Quinn—the woman who looked into his eyes when they made love, not someone who feels emotionally absent.
For nearly three-fifths of the novel, readers experience Quinn's anger, depression, devastation, guilt, and the emotional burden of not being able to get pregnant. Her pain is both understandable and deeply relatable, especially the overwhelming guilt that slowly consumes her mental health.
Then there is Ava, Quinn's sister, who seems incredibly close to her but suddenly moves to Europe. The book mentions that they communicate even more after Ava moves abroad, yet Quinn never tells her about the problems in her marriage. So... what exactly do they talk about? Quinn's mother is also the typical emotionally immature parent who seems to care about nothing except money and prestige. In many ways, Quinn is completely alone.
Reading It Ends With Us and All Your Perfects gave me two very different experiences. Maybe it's because my taste has shifted toward quieter stories that rely more on show, don't tell.
In this book, Quinn's and Graham's thoughts and emotions are explained so explicitly that there's very little room for curiosity. Why Quinn behaves a certain way is immediately spelled out. Why Graham does something is eventually explained through his letter. I never really had the chance to wonder or interpret their actions on my own.
I also had a bit of an internal conflict with Graham's characterization. He is almost too perfect—selfless, handsome, sexy, emotionally intelligent, and somehow always knows exactly what his wife is going through. Maybe his only flaw is that he's not as wealthy as Ethan, at least from Quinn's mother's perspective. Even after he makes a mistake (one that I personally found unforgivable), he still feels more like a fantasy than a real person.
Meanwhile, Quinn is described as selfless (at least from Graham's point of view), witty, and humble despite coming from a wealthy family. Yet I never truly saw what made her such a lovable character and why Graham so hopelessly in love with Quinn though yes, it sure cannot be explained. But....I don't feel their spark?
I also struggled with the way Quinn and Graham first met. How can you find someone else attractive at the exact moment you discover your partner is cheating on you? I simply couldn't wrap my head around that idea, even though Graham tries to justify it later in his letter.
And then there's the ending. After all the emotional buildup and intense conflict, everything is resolved through a letter. It was a nice surprise, but... well, yes, I complained a lot.
Still, I genuinely enjoyed the middle portion of the novel. The way CoHo portrays Quinn's struggle and how her world grows darker each day because she cannot give her beloved husband the baby they both long for really hit close to home. It felt authentic, deeply relatable, and I believe it reflects the emotions of many women struggling with infertility.
To sum it up, this book feels both relatable and strangely unrealistic at the same time. But if you're looking for a page-turner filled with intense, crash-and-burn emotions, I'd definitely recommend giving it a try.
Comments
Post a Comment