I loved this book so much I don’t even know where to begin. Perfect People may just be my perfect book!
It’s going to be quite a difficult one to review without giving anything important away, but here goes.
John and Naomi find an advert for a doctor, Dr. Dettore who is making “designer babies” possible. After loosing their son to a rare genetic condition, they want to have a daughter, so they go to visit Dr Dettore. Along with gender, they are presented with a huge list of capabilities the doctor claims he can make their child have. They literally have a chance to make “perfect people”.
After a bit of soul searching, they make their choices and the embryo is planted in Naomi’s womb. From there, pretty much everything that can go wrong does. I realise this is a bit vague, but anything I can say about this part will spoil some of the surprises along the way.
There are so many twists and turns that you don’t see coming.
John and Naomi are both very relatable. They are just normal people trying to come to terms with the death of a child and trying desperately to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to their next baby.
I like the format of the book – it switches between 3rd person so we get a full overview of everything that is going on and extracts from Naomi’s diary, so we really get to know her as a character.
Perfect People touches on the morality of designer babies, and it is truly horrifying that this is probably going to be a possibility in the not too distant future.
Conclusion and rating If you only read one book this year, make it this one. 5/5