Perfect Escape (review)

When Kendra and her brother, Grayson, were kids, Grayson's need to follow routines and count rocks and coins that he placed in perfect alignment seemed merely quirky; now, however, he clearly has a severe and sometimes unmanageable case of OCD, he's in and out of hospitals, and Kendra feels that his condition has taken over her life as well. The pressure to be the perfect sister is overwhelming, and it leads her to become involved in a cheating ring rather than admit that she isn't the straight-A, straight-edge person she thinks her parents need her to be. With her future about to unravel, and her brother clearly not getting any better, she decides to take Grayson and drive west from Missouri to California, hoping that seeing an old friend—and Grayson's ex—might restore some sort of sanity to their lives. The roadtrip brings revelations, but not necessarily the ones she hoped for. The stark honesty of Kendra's feelings about living with a brother with a mental illness will touch readers, but it is Grayson's responses that really set this apart as an unflinching and heartbreaking portrayal of the complexities of such a relationship. Their love for each other is as fierce as their jealousy, anger, guilt, and grief over having to live with circumstances they simply can't control or make better. Kendra's choices are unbelievably ill conceived, and yet they drive both her and Grayson to the necessary breaking point from which they can ultimately begin to heal.