The Worst Perfect Moment grapples with life, love, death, acceptance and the afterlife.
Sixteen-year-old Tegan Masters is dead, and now she’s been catapulted into her place in heaven – a place created by an angel called Zelda. Zelda has done the research and knows that the Marybelle Motor Lodge is Tegan’s happy place.
But, for Tegan, this is as far from her happiest memory or place that she can think of.
When Tegan complains, the counsellor, Ms Chiu, and Management start an investigation into what happened. Has Zelda messed up? Tegan is pulled through her memories as Zelda tries to show her that she actually got it right. This is her happy place. And in doing so, may just force Tegan to reconcile with a painful past to ensure she has a happily ever after.
Shivaun Plozza’s packages up ghost stories, queerness, love stories and journeys in this book.
Tegan and Zelda’s story is one of hate, friendship and love, and acceptance. Accepting that life isn’t perfect. Accepting that we can’t change things, and accepting ourselves. These important messages shine through, and highlight that life is full of challenges and moments where we all question who we are, whether we are liked or love, and where we think or feel we stand with family and friends. For teens, this can be amplified, and Shivaun captures this through Tegan.
This is an inventive queer romance which plays with the tropes of romance and putting a twist on them.
Reviewed by Ashleigh Meikle
Age Guide 13+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHORShivaun Plozza’s critically acclaimed debut novel, Frankie, was nominated to ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults List, highly commended at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards, and won the Davitt Award for best YA crime novel.
Her second novel, Tin Heart, was nominated to ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults List and received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. Shivaun’s middle grade debut, The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars, was a JLG selection. She has written three other middle grade novels: A Reluctant Witch’s Guide to Magic, Meet Me at the Moon Tree and Summer of Shipwrecks.
Shivaun lives in Australia with her cat, Fenchurch.
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