This Perfect World

Heddy Partridge was never my friend. I have to start with that. Heddy Partridge was never my friend because I was pretty popular clever and blonde and my friends were pretty popular clever and generally blonde too. Heddy Partridge was none of these things. Laura Hamley is the woman who has everything: a loving and successful husband two beautiful children an expensive home and a set of equally fortunate friends. But Lauras perfect world is suddenly threatened when she receives an unwelcome phone call from Mrs Partridge mother of Heddy - the girl Laura and her friends bullied mercilessly at school. Heddy has been hospitalized following a mental breakdown and Mrs Partridge wants Lauras help to get her released. As Laura reluctantly gets drawn back into the past she is forced to face the
terrible consequences of her cruelty. But as her secrets are revealed so too is another even more devastating truth and the perfect world Laura has so carefully constructed for herself begins to fall apart. This Perfect World" is the debut novel from a brilliant dark new voice. See Judys Review See Richards Review See Suzanne Bugler talk about her book Reading Group Questions Read our exclusive Q&A with Suzanne Bugler Write a Review for This Perfect World Judys Review Suzanne Bugler writes about psychological and physical bullying - well lets call a spade a spade: its torture really - so forensically and so darkly one wonders if she was once a victim of it herself. Your heart bleeds for poor Heddy so efficiently belittled and tormented by the golden girls in her class. I went to
an all-girl High School and I thank God I didnt witness - or experience - anything like this. Even as Laura agrees to try and undo the damage shes wreaked shes hard as nails. Heddy Partridge was never my friend she tells us bluntly. Thats because I was pretty popular clever and blonde and my friends were pretty popular clever and generally blonde too. Nice. But there is a mystery at the heart of this arresting story a puzzle that slowly plays itself out as Laura tries to undo the terrible damage she has caused. She was the ringleader of the nasty little gang after all; it behoves her to make amends. But why did her parents - in particular her father - try so hard to force her to be friends with Heddy while the girls were growing up? What was the hidden connection between Lauras
middle-class parents and the working-class Partridges? Why did Lauras father become incandescent with rage when she refused point-blank to allow Heddy into her charmed schoolgirl circle? The answer comes in a shocking twist. And the way the chaos and poison in Heddys life begins to seep into Lauras perfect world is shocking too. There is little comfort for bullies to be found in these pages and even less for the bullied. Richards "