Perfect Fifths Review

In the final book, McCafferty answers the ultimate question. Can Jessica and Marcus’ unpredictable, predictable mind game of a relationship work in the longterm for them in a close proximity enviroment.

Set two years after the events of Fourth Comings, the two have had absolutely no contact allowing both to flourish in their own fields and get their heads straight in what they want out of themselves especially for Marcus whose performative rebellion characterized his actions and personality rather than any true inward self-reflection.

Marcus is no longer a student of Vissipana meditation, seeking to shroud himself in mystery and scandalize adults with his nonconformity. He has actually taken the more mainstream, practical path of a Princeton political science and politics major, seeking to make real sustantive change through action with such groups like Habitats for Humanity. Making real, visible changes instead of just philosphizing like the nuevo-rich he despises as a teen.

Jessica has been elevated as co-founder, director and task master of Cinthia’s new Do Better group, working with the Girls Storytelling branch, using psuedo-academic powerpoints to puff up the mission statements where they go all over the country and teach about the use psychological narrative therapy to encourage girls to find their voice and explore themselves, and their hang-ups. Yes, she feels a little bad about getting a leg up from her friend, but the work has been really inspiring and she enjoys what she does so much that she’s actually considering teaching as a career since the connection of motivating students was more fufilling than this pessimistic cynic ever expected.

Individually, they’re fufilled but the emotional romantic aspect is less so as they each made their own romantic foibles the past two years that has only made them think of the other more. Not that they’d seek each other out.

Until Jessica runs over Marcus at the Newark airport so she can catch the plane to Bridget and Percy’s wedding.

Over the single day at the airport, the two tests their belief in fate and unbelievable coincidence in a perfect rom-com set up that fans will swoon.

I, on the other hand, have conflicting thoughts.

McCafferty definately experiments more in showcasing the mature and improved Marcus and Jessica in their mid 20s. Not only do we get to see Marcus’ POV for the first time, but readers can see the change in Jessica as her overthinking is focused to the important events around her rather overanalyzing every action, reaction and thought of herself. She is just much more calm but her life is still hectic with the whole oversleeping and running to catch the plane.

Marcus’ POV is not as full of philosphical ramblings as one would have pictured, based on the image Marcus projected in his younger years. This Marcus acknowledges that he had been playing a part the whole time, embracing the label of bad kid and believing he couldn’t be better. Now, he’s kind of a nerd and he’s okay with that. He’s also such a romantic and when he hears Jessica Darling’s name from the airport loudspeaker, he can’t help but wonder if this is his chance and then gets run over.

This the first novel that isn’t a journal, but pure prose novel split into four parts over the day with part two and three being the most unique. Part 2 is primarily made up of dialogue with little prose to break it up. Not even “Marcus/Jessica said” after each spoken sentence. It’s almost stream of consciousness with the quick banter bouncing between them just like the olden days. But also leaves suspense with the words unsaid and the secrets not yet told between them. It felt a bit like a Woody Allen movie hightened by how Jessica and Marcus’ relationship is defined by hidden meanings that readers can parse from the background information that the other doesn’t know.

Part 3 is short, taking up only 3 pages made up entirely of haikus shared between Jessica and Marcus on the bus ride to the motel, debating in verse whether or not they’ll go beyond the vows of platonic-ness.

The book also switches between third person omiscent and plain third person, creating a jarring see-saw of feeling like you’re part of Marcus/Jessica’s mindset and feeling like an objective observer with a movie narrator dramatizes everything. The latter one I didn’t like as much as it felt like it took me out of the story in a series usually grounded with realism. Though I can understand why McCafferty did it in a meta narrative way as Jessica explains she has students write in prosopopoeia or third person about their experiences in order to be more objective and be able to learn a little from the stories they tell.

But it made me feel disconnected from the two as it lost a lot of the internal snark that the series is defined.

In fact, the whole set-up felt a bit too rom-com for me, at odds with the rest of the series. One very drawn-out day filled fantastic coincedences that call back to the entirety of their relationship including characters Jessica meets at the airport being the same ones Marcus meets at the motel in a separate occasion, and the invasion of the NJ Chapter of the Barry Manilow Fan Club. Although the latter made for a really funny karaoke scene (see what I mean by rom-com?).

Yet that is the point as Jessica and Marcus debate whether these improbable coincidences actually mean something or just an ingrained habit that humans like to create patterns to mae sense out of unpredictability, a reoccurring theme throughout the quintet. It all seems too good to be true, but what if the same problems plague their relationship if they try again, have they’ve really changed?

I say they have as they both maturely albeit rushedly try to assess their feelings and what they’re willing to do to show that this isn’t another mind game, challenging and outdoing each other. Jessica isn’t going to fall into codependency and rearrange her life for Marcus although it gets to the point in all her trying to avoid making this day about Marcus, it is certainly about Marcus as her subconscious screams at her. While Marcus isn’t doing this as another phase in his nonconformist attitude or for sex. They want this for real.

It’s cool to see Jessica and Marcus finally get together, devoting a whole book to them felt like it was missing the rest of Jessica and Marcus’ rich cast of side characters. Of course, they appear through the phone and through explanations of where are they now updates, but it’s not the same. In insulating the focus and length of time in the book, McCafferty loses the sparkle of how her books are balanced by the exploits, reactions, interactions and ramblings of everyone around Marcus and Jessica.

Marcus and Jessica’s relationship is arguably the backbone of the series, a whole book of just them didn’t feel satisfying. It felt like McCafferty was trying to check off the boxes in deconstructing the rom-com and making as many references to their relationship as possible. It even felt repetitive at parts as they reaccount major moments and personal revalations like how Marcus tells Jessica that he realizes he played the bad kid but he was labelled a bad kid, embracing the mythos so much he lost himself. Jessica realized this by herself in Second Helpings I believe. Although I read this whole series in five days so maybe it just feels repetitive to me as it’s fresh in my mind.

There’s also a subplot of Jessica mourning the potential loss of her mentee who is the Korean-American reincarnation of herself, who is currently in a coma. While I get the narrative importance of this girl being the one who inspired Jessica to teaching, and of course, they made new friends and connections in the two years since Fourth Comings, I just didn’t feel invested. It felt more like a plot device so Jessica will be more unsteady and emotionally vulnerable.

So yeah, while there are some fun parts and admire how McCafferty tried to experiment with her writing, she overestimated how fufilling a pure Marcus-Jessica story would be with just the two of them and none of the biting commentary about the emerging technology obsession the 2010s would bring, trustfund kids etc. It was an unnecessary, contrived, out of character book that was too narow yet drawn-out. Basically she should have left it at book 4 and give them their happy ending then instead of trying to fix it (badly) here for the disappointed fans. They’ll only be more disappointed.

3 stars.