Seeking perfection is a coping mechanism that Deborah and Macy both use to handle the death of Macy’s father. Both Deborah and Macy believe that they must move on with their grief as quickly as possible—that if they pretend that they’re fine long enough, eventually it will become true, and the grief will fade away. On a surface level, Macy believes perfection is a way of avoiding “The Face”—the expression others give her when they recognize her as the daughter who watched her father die—and appearing calm and collected in front of others. For Deborah, perfection is more about pretending she’s fine and covering up the ugliness of her life. She’s not interested in renovating her late husband’s beach house because of the way it forces her to confront devastating memories. Instead, she’d much rather tear it all down and build something new and perfect. Deborah may smile and put on a show for her clients and even refuse to acknowledge the depths of her suffering, but Macy becomes increasingly worried when realizing how tired and solemn her mother has become.

Deep down, however, for both, perfection is the illusion of control; as Macy says in Chapter 10, “It’s not about being perfect, really.