DNF. It wasn't that I couldn't have finished reading this tale about an experiment in child-rearing, largely seen through the lens of teenage-mum Izzy. But I was neither invested in the experiment, nor in what happened to the not-entirely realised main characters, and the perfunctorily described lesser characters. I'd continue if it were the only book available to me. But with a tottering pile of must-reads demanding my attention, this just doesn't make the grade. ( )

I really like Kevin Wilson. His books have not disappointed me yet. This book is about family, not your normal nuclear family. What does family mean? How is it defined? Dr. Preston Grind grew up in a household where there was no affection, no coddling, and a place where Preston was left to live using his own strengths and survival skills. As an adult, he tries to forget the past, but he can't. He decides he would like to be in a family that was opposite of his upbringing. As a psychologist, he does a study on families. He brings in several parents who have babies born around the same time to start a family where all parents will participate in upbringing all the children for 10 years. At first, things are wonderful and happy. Eventually, happiness wanes giving way to chaos and divisiveness. Will the infinite family survive? ( )

(audio fiction - 12.5 hrs) 18y.o. single mom moves to an experimental, family-centered commune to raise her baby away from his bipolar/unstable father as well as her own alcoholic father, meets the eccentric widower who built the commune (and who himself has also grown up without any love/support from his parents) and joins a complex family with 9 other babies/18 parents + research staff.

CW self cutting, alcoholism, questionably cruel parenting memories

Great narration with effective differentiation of voices, a very easy listen. ( )

https://www.instagram.com/p/CmKm6nsvkBO/

Kevin Wilson - Perfect Little World: What concerns me is that the author thinks this methodology would work IRL. #cursorybookreviews #cursoryreviews ( )

I recently took a trip to NYC and brought Perfect Little World on the train with me, after hearing about it on Book Riot and then seeing it as a choice for Book of the Month. I figured fate was telling me it was time to pull this one out of the To Be Read pile and into the Currently Reading pile. Yes, I have a pile of books that I am currently reading. This was a great little book to take on a trip and was just a fun read.

The book centers on Izzy who is sleeping with her art teacher in HS in Part 1 of the book. She is the top of her class, but wants to fail, so she doesn't have to give the valedictorian speech. She has a disconnected father and works in a BBQ shop where her manager is her father figure. As one can guess, Izzy becomes pregnant with her teacher's baby and he takes off on her. Lost and really alone, she runs into Dr. Grind.

Grind is a psychologist who is about to start a study on communal living. Parents will care for each other's children and the children will not know who their biological parents are until later on in the experiment. The cost for Izzy is 10 years of her and her child's life, but all expenses are paid and she will get a free college education.

Part 2 is each year of the experiment. I won't spoil it, but one can guess things will not run smoothly. There will be difficulty with some parents letting others raise their child, family issues, sexual tension, and a whole slew of other issues that happen when people are thrown together for long periods of time. The interesting thing is this is normal for their children since this is their lives, so they do not know there are problems. Can the program survive all of this with individual personalities running amok?

This was both a funny and insightful book at the same time. While the focus should be on the children and what will become of the them, the real experiment happens with the adults. Izzy is a single parent too in the midst of families who signed up for this, so she is always the outsider in terms of being the youngest and single, so her perspective will always be different. So, it is nice to travel with Izzy as our narrator.

The fun is seeing how bad this experiment gets. It doesn't get outrageous in the sense of diverging from reality, but it is very real as in what happens when one couple wants to divorce one another mid experiment? Or what about living in community where your wife isn't your own wife or husband isn't your only husband? While couples are expected to stay with one another, what happens when alcohol is introduced?

I found the book a fun read that got a bit laggy at times, but it could have been my situation of being stuck on a train rather than the book itself. It was a simple read too that drew me into the situation. While the couples got jumbled a bit, part of that was the point as Izzy acknowledges that she can't remember everyone's name all the time. The children are the background of the book and aren't really developed except for Cap, Izzy's child. They are just there to keep the experiment going.

I gave this one 4 stars.
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