Fiction Review: Perfect Little World

Last month, I enjoyed listening to the audio of Perfect Little World, a novel by Kevin Wilson about an odd little Utopian experiment. I was mildly intrigued by the description of the novel but found myself pulled into the compelling, warm, and emotionally complex story more than I expected.

Izzy has just graduated from high school in a small town in Tennessee and has just found out she is pregnant. She's been secretly seeing her art teacher, but he is soon out of the picture entirely. Izzy is left wondering how she will ever manage as a single parent. She currently lives in her father's small, rundown house, but he can't even support himself emotionally or financially, let alone Izzy and a new baby. Her only friend is her boss at the local BBQ place where she butchers hogs (and is quite good at it, too). So, when she hears about a program that is looking for parents who are having babies soon and learns that the project will provide full support, including education and job training for her, she signs up, with her friend's encouragement. Dr. Preston Grind is the head of the Infinite Family Project, which is based on his research and seeks to create a small community of ten families, all with babies born within months of each other. The babies will be brought up collectively for the first five years, with all the best support and love but without knowing who their biological parents are.

As you might expect, things go well with the Infinite Family Project at first, but then in-fighting, resentments, and potential funding problems invade their "perfect little world." The story is told from Izzy's perspective, and she is a likable character whom I was rooting for, with plenty of inner strength and love for her son (and the other babies, too). The pace of the story moved along quickly, and I was swept up in the daily ups and downs of life in the project, hoping that things would somehow turn out well for Izzy. This engrossing, heartwarming novel includes plenty of twists and turns to keep things interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it on audio.

352 pages, Ecco

HarperAudio

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

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Click "Listen" at this link to hear a sample of the Perfect Little World audiobook.

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