The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding is a story about the Adler family: husband Thomas, wife Vivian, teenage son Eli and teenage daughter Tarryn. On the surface they appear to be the ideal family. Thomas is a successful relator, Viv is doing interior design, Eli is off to college as a sports star, and Tarryn is a smart student getting good grades. They their house is egged. Just a prank, right? But the pranks don’t stop, they escalate. As they do, the cracks in the façade begin to appear and we learn that each family member has a big secret that they others don’t know about. Why are the attacks happening? Could the attacks be in retaliation for something one of them has done?
The story is told by alternating points of view. I listened to the audio version and there was a different reader for each family member. Audio was definitely a great way to enjoy this story. The readers were good and gave voice to the different characters.
As the story progressed we learned more about the family members and their secrets. For me, it meant that I liked the characters less and less. It seemed like the lot of them were privileged and living in their own worlds. However, I was kept engaged because things kept escalating and at any minute it seemed they would come off the rails. It was not a particularly deep but fun.