All Your Perfects

Quinn has a complex relationship with wealth, as she was raised in an affluent community but isn’t wealthy herself. She emphasizes her mother Avril’s obsession with money throughout the novel, explaining, “Money is her priority when it comes to seeking out a soulmate. My stepfather didn’t win her over with his personality. He won her over with his beach house in Cape Cod” (35). Quinn further describes her mother as mercenary in her first marriage, saying, “She married my father when he was moderately wealthy, and as soon as they had my sister and me, she demanded he buy her a home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut” (36). She connects her mother’s desire for wealth and a lavish lifestyle to her coldness, both in her marriage and parenting style.

Quinn is quick to distance herself from Avril’s wants. For example, when Graham reads Quinn and Ethan’s wedding invitations, he points out that they frame the wedding venue as prestigious. Quinn “can feel the embarrassment in [her] cheeks” and hurriedly explains, “My mother’s doing. Sometimes it’s easier to just let her get her way than put up a fight” (50). When Graham asks if she’s from Old Greenwich, she thinks she “can hear the judgment in his voice” and quickly tells him, “I try very hard to separate myself from the dredges of high society” (50).