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Ava Jalali is one of the main characters in The Perfectionists book series written by Sara Shepard.
Blessed with beauty, Ava strives to prove she's not just a personification of vanity but a Perfectionist with brains like her late mother believed she was.
Appearance[]
Ava is an alarmingly pretty, half-Iranian and half-Irish girl. She has smooth and straight dark hair and also been noted to have soft caramel skin and alluring almond eyes.
Personality[]
Smart, driven, and incredibly outgoing, Ava is one of the more popular girls in school. She is fashionably late to everything, and used to not care much about school until her mother died. She is also intelligent and witty.
Biography[]
Ava was born in Beacon Heights to an interracial couple. Ava never really cared about school and getting good grades, as she was beautiful and knew it, often getting modeling gigs. She often got mediocre grades on tests, but her mother assured her father that Ava was smarter than what her grades said. At some point in high school, her mother died as the result of a drunk driver, which sparked Ava to prove to herself that her mother was right and she was smart. Her father later remarried to Leslie a woman who often abuses Ava, especially when she doesn't do what she wants.
Ava dated and broke-up with Nolan Hotchkiss a year prior to the events of The Perfectionists. After it, Ava’s reputation was ruined long ago by Nolan claiming she’d slept with her teachers. Ava also gained unwanted attention from Mr. Granger because of this, as he has a reputation for being in inappropriate relationships with his students.
In "The Perfectionists", she meets Mackenzie, Julie, Parker, and Caitlin after they are assigned to work together on a group project in film class. They have to do a project based on Agatha Christie's, And Then There Were None. While Ava originally doesn't like the other girls much and believes that they have nothing in common, she discovers that the girls hate Nolan Hotchkiss just as much as she does. They start talking about Nolan and agree that they wouldn't mind if he died. They start planning out his murder, how they would do it, cover it up, and get away with it. That night at Nolan's party, they all seem to be having fun, and Ava is with her boyfriend, Alex Cohen.
They came up with something they would do: prank Nolan. The could use oxy, his drug of choice, and then when he was passed out, they would write embarrassing messages on his face in Sharpie and post the pictures online. A week later, Nolan was dead of cyanide poisoning. Exactly the way the girls had planned.
One day during film class, Ava receives a C on one of her assignments. Ava never gets C's, so she talks to Mr. Granger after class. He says to meet her at his house for extra credit as a way to raise her grade. Innocently, Ava agrees to do as he asks, not thinking that he meant anything sexual or inappropriate. After she arrives, he attempts to seduce her, but Ava grows increasingly comfortable. He refuses to change her grade unless she provides sexual favors for him, which scares her and causes her to run out of his house.
However, the girls later believe that he is Nolan's murderer. Ava must go back with the girls and pretends to seduce him, which is really a distraction while the girls look through his things. After Ava leaves Mr. Granger house, Alex sees her leave his house and he is angry with her because he thinks there was something between them. They later find out that Mr. Granger isn't the one who killed Nolan and, at the end of the book, that Lucas was attacked and murdered.
Quickly, the girls become the main suspects in the murder investigation. Ava was the last of the girls to be seen with Lucas while he was alive, and it seems as if things are caving in on all of them. When Lucas Granger, their inappropriate teacher who sexually harassed Ava ends up dead, the girls look guilter then ever.
In "The Good Girls" its revealed that Ava fantasized about killing Leslie, her stepmother, by pushing her off her balcony after she finishes her nightly bottle of Chardonnay.
Ava and the girls are waiting in the police station after Granger is found dead. The police are interviewing them as just moments after they fled the scene, Ava’s boyfriend had seen them leaving Granger’s house and called the cops
After the incident, Ava sits at the kitchen table, agonizing over her physics homework and visualizing what would happen to their group and they’re killing plans later. Leslie is watching her particularly closely. Her father is reading some work documents on the island while sipping tea. Mr. Jalali says that "Leslie mother is visiting us from New York. She’ll be staying with us for a few days and she has decided to throw a party at the house." Then Ava tries to help her stepmom decorate but Leslie gets angry and says hurtful words and calls her a whore, and that no wonder no one respects her. Leslie includes in the conversations she had with her father about why she was under suspicion for killing Granger. Ava begins to miss her mother and she can't stand living under the same roof as this woman.
She starts the engine of her car and goes to Alex’s house which is only a few neighborhoods away. Strangely, it was surrounded by cops just like her house. Two police cars with doors flung open blocked the driveway. Alex was grabbed by the two policemen, much to the surprise of Ava, as she has no idea why he is being arrested. She then overhears the officer saying that Alex Cohen is under arrest for the murder of Lucas Granger.
Alex surrenders himself to the policemen and gets put in prison. The girls feel a sense of relief now that Alex is behind bars and the pressure is off of them, but Ava still feels uneasy about Alex's admission. Ava believes that Alex wouldn't commit like murder and that he is a good man.
Ava decides to visit Alex in prison. They talk about Nolan and Granger, and Alex says that he did text Granger because Ava had told him that he'd hit on her. Shockingly, Alex says the night after Granger died, he saw a girl had a hood and go back into the house. There were so many things Ava wishes she could undo, but for right now, she is just happy to have Alex back.
Later, Ava and the other girls were called out to see Detective Peters. He explains that Alex Cohen has been released from custody and Ava felt happy about the good news, but Detective Peter said your prints are over at the house and if they killed Hotchkiss then maybe Granger was onto them. The girls feel nervous and detective broke the silence. He introduced Dr. Rose a psychological profiler was she’s going to speak each one of them.
After her conversation with Parker at the bar, Ava is driving she tries to dial Alex trying to tell him everything that happened with Leslie. Alex was comforting Ava and reveals that he got a job at an ice cream shop. Ava arrives home and her father asks her about helping with setting up for the party. He also asks her about mouthing off to Leslie, and he asks about the marks on her skin from where Leslie's nails had dug into her.
Ava denies everything happened with Leslie, as the woman made up so many stories to cover her mistakes. Suddenly, Ava and her father hear a scream and when they go to look, Leslie had fallen from the backyard after she finishes her nightly bottle of chardonnay. Mr. Jalali called 911 to help them but Ava knows deep down that this wasn’t an accident.
Mac and Ava met on hospital talking about how Leslie fell from the balcony, and the fact that Leslie is now in a coma. Ava admits that she thinks someone pushed Leslie off her balcony. It is clear now that this isn't a coincidence considering what happened with Granger and Nolan prior to this. The killer is going down their hit-list. Ava begins to cry as she knows it's a horrible thought and admits that Alex said he saw a girl going into Granger's that night.
Later, Ava’s father finds an earring in the bedroom of the balcony Leslie was pushed off of. Ava recognizes it as Julie's, and Ava and the girls decide to go looking for Julie at Nyssa’s party. Julie arrives at the party because she has a horrible feeling that Parker had seen the post written to Mac. Ava, Caitlin, and Mac swarm Julie and they question her about her earring being in Leslie bedroom balcony after she fell off, and a potassium cyanide pill - the same thing that killed Nolan was doing her house when Caitlin visited her and lastly, Mac says that she saw Julie driving around Claire's house.
Julie denies all the signs are pointing to her and explains that she didn’t hurt anyone, that she was with Parker at the time of Leslie's accident. The girls are confused by this, Ava says that "Parker Duvall has been dead for over a year.” Ava explains everything about Parker's death to Julie, and that they had all kinds of assemblies at school, way more than they had for Nolan. Julie was the one who stepped forward about her dad and went to her funeral, and that she even spoke at the funeral. Julie doesn't believe them and their conversation is interrupted when everyone screams that there are cops at the party. Everyone begins running in different directions, and the girls are quickly separated. Ava struggles to move against the tide, trying as hard as she could to find where Julie had gone, knowing that she has to find her before she kills again.
Ava is among the girls when they turn Julie into the police for the murders of Nolan Hotchkiss, Lucas Granger, Ashley Ferguson, as well as the attempted murder of Leslie Jalali. After Julie's arrest, Ava watches as Julie is featured on the news along with all the people she killed. The girls attempt to make things normal again. Ava and her father tried to catch up and fix their failing relationship, with her father now aware that Leslie was making up stories about Ava to cover her own lies. He becomes aware that Leslie was insulting and hurting Ava both in or out of their house.
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Mr. Jalali: Ava and her father get along very well, and he even has a nickname for her. Ava only dealt with Leslie because she wanted her dad to be happy. Her father is very supportive of Ava and even her relationship with Alex. Leslie had lied to him about Ava and Ava never stood up for herself, and Leslie would tell lies to Ava about what her father thinks of her. After Mr. Jalali found out about how Leslie was treating Ava, he talks to Ava and tells her that Leslie won't be a part of their life anymore and they hug.
- Leslie Jalali: Leslie was Ava's wicked stepmother. She had lied to both Ava and her father to ruin their relationship and to gain superiority over the family. She hated Ava, and Ava had somewhat returned the feeling. Ava had said in film class that she would want Leslie to die by falling off the balcony after drinking. When this happened, Ava was worried for Leslie, as she didn't actually want her dead.
Romances[]
- Alex Cohen: Alex and Ava are one of the main couples in The Perfectionists series. Alex doesn't care about the rumors that Nolan had spread about Ava, and loves her not just for her looks, but also her personality. Alex was a little wary of Ava going to talk to Mr. Granger and go to his house, and he got super upset when she told him that Mr. Granger was trying to hit on her. After Ava and her friends leave Mr. Granger's house before he died, Alex sees them and calls the cops because he thought he saw Ava run back to Granger's house (it was actually Julie). Alex had broken up with Ava thinking that she was into Mr. Granger or killed him. Ava goes to his house to try and explain what happened, when she sees Alex getting arrested. She watches a video of kids from Alex's old school saying that he beat up his ex's boyfriend since he was jealous. Ava doesn't believe this, and goes to see him. Alex explains that the only reason he beat up his ex's new boyfriend was because he raped her. Alex also says that he should have trusted Ava, and the two makeup. Ava and Alex talk about Leslie, and Alex comforts her. Ava doesn't want Alex to leave work early to pick her up, but he promises that as soon as his shift is done, he will go straight to her house.
- Nolan Hotchkiss: Nolan and Ava had dated before the events of the first book. Ava had thought that they had a pretty good relationship until she found out that Nolan was cheating on her. After Ava broke up with him, Nolan spreads rumors that Ava is intimate with her teachers. At the party the night of Nolan's death, Ava gives Nolan the drink that has the Oxy in it. She tricks him into thinking that she's still in love with him and brings him upstairs so that the girls can prank him.
Friendships[]
- Caitlin Martell-Lewis: Ava and Caitlin have a very good friendship throughout the books. They often call each other and comfort each other. Even though they haven't always trusted each other, by the end of The Good Girls, they have a good relationship and hung out at Ava's house. Caitlin was thankful that Ava covered for the girls at Mr. Granger's house, even though she didn't want Ava to go through that. They usually drive each other everywhere, and usually chat each other quite often. Caitlin had said that she was worried about Ava, "I just feel so bad for Ava", and Caitlin was one of the first to know what happened.
- Mackenzie Wright: Mackenzie and Ava are quite close like the other girls. Mackenzie often backs Ava up (like when Ava was trying to stop Julie from leaving) and said that what she did to cover for the girls was amazing. Ava called Mackenzie almost straight away to tell her that Leslie had fallen off the balcony and was in a coma. They even were suspicious of each other for a moment, but then they realized that they have to trust each other and work together. Both of the girls weren't as into the discussion of murder in film class, and both had said that if their said person were to die, it would be accidental.
- Julie Redding: Julie and Ava are good friends, even after the events of the series. After Ava realizes that Julie thought Parker was still alive, she became worried and wanted to help Julie, who didn't want help. Julie was grateful that Ava sacrificed her safety for the girls and how Ava supported her after Ashley told the whole school Julie's secret. Julie had cared about Ava so much, that she pushed Leslie off the balcony in revenge for Ava, though she claims that Parker was the one to push Leslie. While Ava was upset and confused that Julie could have hurt so many people, she knew that Julie was doing it out of friendship and revenge.
- Parker Duvall: Ava and Parker didn't really know each other that well, even though they would sometimes both hang out with Nolan (Ava being Nolan's girlfriend, and Parker being Nolan's best friend). After hearing that Nolan had spread rumors about Ava, Parker comforted her and asked if Ava wanted Parker to talk to Nolan about it. Ava was saddened by Parker's death, even though she didn't know her that well. After hearing that Julie was not only Julie, but Parker too, Ava realizes that she had spent a lot of time with Parker. Ava and Parker had been hanging out at a bar, until Leslie pulls Ava away. Parker tries to stand up for Ava, but she is too late, and promises Ava that she is on her side.
Memorable Quotes[]
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