Past Perfect

"This is not a gosh romance, it's a family based book book all about the most important things in like."

"Danielle Steel opens this book by saying she’s not a big fan of ghosts and time travel, and I think that influenced it. She tried to write this in a way that worked for her by focusing on the family relationships, but since the supernatural elements aren’t her focus, the rules of this world are a little confused. It’s hard to explain how it’s set up since I’m not sure if it’s time travel, ghosts, or a combination of the two in a weird purgatory-type dimension, but I’ll try. <br/><br/>The ghost Butterfield family is from 1917, and they show up after an earthquake in 2017 to meet the living Gregory family. From this point on, they act as if they’re experiencing their lives for the first time, and they don’t seem to remember dying, but they’re not surprised when their dead relatives come back to haunt the house with them. Some of them don’t age because they died before 1917, they can appear out of nowhere and phase through walls, I think they can choose who sees them, and they know the Gregorys live in their house in the “future.” <br/><br/>I don’t know if the Gregorys actually influenced the Butterfields when they were alive or if they can only connect with their lifelike spirits in the present. There’s a part near the end that focuses on one of the ghosts traveling and getting married which makes it feel different from the rest of the book. Before this, the ghosts just disappeared when they were done hanging out with the Gregorys, but now it feels like there’s a ghost world copy of the 20th century that they’re living in. Or it could be that the spirits came back to the house while most Butterfields were still alive and that’s why only the dead ones can’t be photographed in that chapter. But in these scenes, they know the Gregorys which implies they’re all dead or the house time travels. They never really figure out how it works or explain it. The two families get linked because they experienced a similar earthquake, and that’s it. The Gregorys choose not to warn them of the future in case it scares them, and they don’t think they could change history like that anyway, so they don’t try. Instead, the book is about recounting this family’s history and their friendship with the Gregorys who fell in love with their house. <br/><br/>There are many things you might have to suspend your disbelief for while reading this, and it’s not just the confusing time warp/haunting stuff. The decisions Blake makes in the beginning have to happen to start the story, so I’m not gonna complain about them too much even if I’d be really mad if I were Sybil. Buying a house without telling your wife seems like a pretty dumb thing to do, but at least it wasn’t brushed off like it was nothing. The Gregorys buy a giant house with a lot of land (and no issues despite being old) in San Francisco for cheap, and somehow no one else wanted it for years. Even if the house is haunted and the Gregorys have money, i don’t buy it. That’s too good to be true.<br/><br/>Speaking of which, all the characters are very well off and successful, so they can manage to get along with the rich, old fashioned Butterfields even if they don’t agree on everything. Nobody really stuck out to me and became my favorite character. It didn’t help that I just can’t relate to the Gregorys. I didn’t share the love for the Butterfields that the Gregorys have either since they’re mostly stuck up. There’s very little conflict considering everything that’s happening to the Butterfields has already happened, and the Gregorys are just there to watch it be repeated. There are a couple times that they learn from each other, but nothing impressive really happens. I thought maybe this would be about the ghosts finding closure and moving on to the afterlife or learning why they stayed in the house so long, but that’s never presented like it’s a problem that needs to be solved. This might be a result of DS not using ghosts like other authors would. They’re never portrayed as spirits with unfinished business so the storyline can try to be more grounded.<br/><br/>It doesn’t feel like there was a lot of character growth to make this book interesting. We went from woman who doesn’t wanna live in the mansion in SF to woman who loves living in the mansion in SF and has dead friends. It also doesn’t feel like there’s a consistent main character. It starts out with Blake as the focus when he gets the job, then Sybil when she learns about the house, then the ghost daughter who wrote the family history book, then Sybil again but also the ghost mom when the book is ending. There were a lot of names to get use to about a third of the way into the book, and I don’t think everyone got an equal amount of focus, but I had a general sense of most of their personalities (except the kids).<br/><br/>The ending was nice but nothing surprising. I thought it was kinda funny how it ends around New Year’s, so it’s 1920 and 2020. The Gregorys know what will happen to the Butterfields soon, so they’re sad they can’t help them prepare for it, but everyone is just living happily right now. Little do they know, it’s the calm before the storm for them too. The Butterfields won’t see The Great Depression coming, and the Gregorys won’t see the pandemic coming. <br/><br/>It’s too bad that nothing very deep was explored or challenged in this book. This family loves each other so much, their souls refuse to leave this house, and they’re capable of making connections with people in an entirely different time period, and that’s a very beautiful sentiment. But not much else is presented by Past Perfect. It’s almost like the book is making a statement about fate, but it says that by making the Butterfields relive their lives with no apparent resolution in sight. It would’ve been a good opportunity to dissect the harmful societal norms of the time more directly or criticize the privilege all of these characters have, but this book doesn’t wanna be that. It doesn’t wanna take casual sexism seriously, and it doesn’t wanna confront the Butterfields for hating Italians and poor people or basically anyone who isn’t Scottish or American. It’s a shame the living family conforms to make the ghosts comfortable but not the other way around. Also, the servants who can’t see the ghosts aren’t utilized in any way, unfortunately. They’re just there to think the Gregorys talk to themselves, and they don’t add anything to the story. <br/><br/>The book wants to be historical fiction, but tries to maintain a slight paranormal family drama and literary fiction vibe with little plot, so if it sounds interesting, you can try it. It didn’t fully land for me."

"“Past Perfect” from Danielle Steel is a great book about a family finding another family from 100 years ago from their time. There is the slightest touch of romance and war. I don’t know whether to call this book historical fiction or modern day fiction, but overall this book is an amazing book with thoughtful characters and the perfect friendship between two families."