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anyaemilie 's review for:
Perfect on Paper
by Sophie Gonzales
Thank you to Wednesday Books (via NetGalley) for the ARC!
Darcy Phillips: high school student, relationship advice-giver, bisexual disaster. And ohh my gosh I love her so much. She is one of my favorite contemporary YA protagonists I’ve read in a long time.
Darcy gives advice out of locker 89. People put letters in seeking relationship advice (along with payment, if they can) and Darcy answers via an anonymous email account. Her mom is a teacher at the same school, so Darcy managed to swipe the combination early in her high school career, and has made quite a lucrative business out of giving people advice for their relationship woes. No one knows Darcy’s secret, not even her best friend Brooke. The very same Brooke with whom Darcy has been in love forever. No one, that is, until one day Alexander Brougham, a guy Darcy kind of vaguely knows, catches her taking letters out of locker 89 one day. Brougham needs Darcy’s help to get his girlfriend back, so they make a deal: he’s going to hire Darcy for her services, and in turn, he’ll keep her secret from the rest of the school. However, things start to get really complicated when Darcy does something that Brooke may never forgive her for, and Darcy also starts to realize that maybe she doesn’t want to help Brougham get his girlfriend back. Yikes!
If you have read any of my reviews before, you probably know I am a sucker for contemporary romance (YA or adult. I do not care. Give it ALL to me!). This is my first Sophie Gonzales book, which is definitely my bad because I own her debut Only Mostly Devastated, and it is currently staring at me from my bookshelf. But after reading this delightful book, I am so much more excited to get to that one!
One of my favorite things is how unashamedly Gonzales writes her bisexual characters. She is vocal about how important that is to her on Twitter (I’ve followed her for quite a while, and she talks about it often), and I love how that comes across in this book. Darcy is proudly bisexual, but she is also uncertain sometimes. Which is so accurate! I feel that in my bones! And there is an extremely powerful scene during her school’s Queer & Questioning Club where Darcy, worried that crushing on or dating a straight guy would negate her sexuality, brings up these fears with her friends. She is honest and vulnerable but also unafraid to explain to her friends how biphobia and bi-erasure are hurtful. How she will be seen as straight if she dates a guy. How it’s hurtful that someone tells her, “Well at least you won’t have to deal with homophobia, then.” I have never seen that in a novel, and I am SO EXCITED that this is going to be in a YA book. I am thrilled that young people will get to read this identity-affirming scene because I can tell you, as a full-grown adult, I STILL have thoughts like this where I question if my bisexuality is a valid identity. Internalized biphobia is so insidious, and to have it addressed head-on like this in a contemporary YA romance novel is so amazing to me!
Anyway, the plot of this book is so much fun, and the side characters are well-developed. I absolutely LOVE Darcy’s sister Ainsley. She is cooler than I could ever hope to be and is the most supportive big sister. I wholeheartedly recommend this book! It releases March 9th, so go pre-order it, request it at your library or do both!
Darcy Phillips: high school student, relationship advice-giver, bisexual disaster. And ohh my gosh I love her so much. She is one of my favorite contemporary YA protagonists I’ve read in a long time.
Darcy gives advice out of locker 89. People put letters in seeking relationship advice (along with payment, if they can) and Darcy answers via an anonymous email account. Her mom is a teacher at the same school, so Darcy managed to swipe the combination early in her high school career, and has made quite a lucrative business out of giving people advice for their relationship woes. No one knows Darcy’s secret, not even her best friend Brooke. The very same Brooke with whom Darcy has been in love forever. No one, that is, until one day Alexander Brougham, a guy Darcy kind of vaguely knows, catches her taking letters out of locker 89 one day. Brougham needs Darcy’s help to get his girlfriend back, so they make a deal: he’s going to hire Darcy for her services, and in turn, he’ll keep her secret from the rest of the school. However, things start to get really complicated when Darcy does something that Brooke may never forgive her for, and Darcy also starts to realize that maybe she doesn’t want to help Brougham get his girlfriend back. Yikes!
If you have read any of my reviews before, you probably know I am a sucker for contemporary romance (YA or adult. I do not care. Give it ALL to me!). This is my first Sophie Gonzales book, which is definitely my bad because I own her debut Only Mostly Devastated, and it is currently staring at me from my bookshelf. But after reading this delightful book, I am so much more excited to get to that one!
One of my favorite things is how unashamedly Gonzales writes her bisexual characters. She is vocal about how important that is to her on Twitter (I’ve followed her for quite a while, and she talks about it often), and I love how that comes across in this book. Darcy is proudly bisexual, but she is also uncertain sometimes. Which is so accurate! I feel that in my bones! And there is an extremely powerful scene during her school’s Queer & Questioning Club where Darcy, worried that crushing on or dating a straight guy would negate her sexuality, brings up these fears with her friends. She is honest and vulnerable but also unafraid to explain to her friends how biphobia and bi-erasure are hurtful. How she will be seen as straight if she dates a guy. How it’s hurtful that someone tells her, “Well at least you won’t have to deal with homophobia, then.” I have never seen that in a novel, and I am SO EXCITED that this is going to be in a YA book. I am thrilled that young people will get to read this identity-affirming scene because I can tell you, as a full-grown adult, I STILL have thoughts like this where I question if my bisexuality is a valid identity. Internalized biphobia is so insidious, and to have it addressed head-on like this in a contemporary YA romance novel is so amazing to me!
Anyway, the plot of this book is so much fun, and the side characters are well-developed. I absolutely LOVE Darcy’s sister Ainsley. She is cooler than I could ever hope to be and is the most supportive big sister. I wholeheartedly recommend this book! It releases March 9th, so go pre-order it, request it at your library or do both!