Reviews with content warning for Addiction - Perfect on Paper

Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales

10 reviews

jpxsoleil's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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tinysierra's review

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The premise was fun! It was a cute queer (bisexual centered) story. I love the discussions about attachment styles, setting boundaries and communicating needs.

I loved that there was brief but casual asexual rep in the side characters. Darcy gets a letter from an asexual student asking for advice about their relationship. Darcy’s response is spot on. It was really nice to see. There were other queer characters as well.

Along the way we get to see problems/tensions with the main character’s parents relationships and how it affects the children/main characters as well.

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teaskate's review

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Interesting concept and important representation. Alexander Brougham has my heart<3

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threadsof_kate's review against another edition

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5.0

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theslowreadernumber5's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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my_weird_bookish_heart's review

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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lukawarm's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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joy_on_the_coin's review

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emotional funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

The Plot of the book itself is three stars.
But because of the dating advice sprinkled in, I gave it 4 stars. The characters were not always relatable but never unrealistic and not portrayed or written as something other than teenagers and thus in the case of Darcy pretty flawed. The main protagonists were both white, but the rest of the characters were pretty diverse. In the last third some plot lines were not adequately explained or even finished and the plot hat some pacing issues as well.
It’s a cheesy and sometimes cringy romance with overused tropes executed well (being queer myself ) i enjoyed it.

Spoiler

the Q and Q Qlub was really nice and I kinda wish I had one at my school. Although everyone being teenagers more mature themes like parental abandonment, abuse and alcoholism were handled really well.

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margaux4's review

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lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was fun. It wasn't anything special, but it was fun. The main character, Darcy, was seriously flawed and I would call her an antagonist. She learned from her actions (kind of) but some of her decision in the book were pretty terrible. I was rarely on her side, which made the book less enjoyable. As for the romance, it was a SERIOUS slow burn. Like, down to the last pages slow. And I wouldn't say I was that enthralled with the pairing either. As the book progressed, I got less and less invested in the relationship. It should be the other way around, right? I still liked the two These are my two major complaints, but overall this book was a fun read. It dealt with bi relationships really well, which I really appreciated. I read it in two days, which is fast for me. If you are looking for a light and quick read, this would be a good option.

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spearly's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

So, maybe I didn’t always get things right, about myself, or about others. And maybe a part of learning my place in the world was about accepting that I wouldn’t always have the answers, and I wouldn’t always be the hero in every scenario, and maybe I wouldn’t win everything I attempted.

But I was pretty sure about a couple of things.

Perfect on Paper follows Darcy Phillips, a bisexual high school student who runs an anonymous relationship advice business out of a vacant locker. When classmate Alexander Brougham catches her collecting letters from the locker, he enlists her to be his personal dating coach and help him get his ex-girlfriend back.

This was a refreshing YA story that artfully wove in themes of sexuality that a lot of young adult novels don't explore outside of some minor side-character. Darcy is bi, and totally in love with her best friend Brooke. And she's used her

Spoiler

anonymity to meddle into Brooke's love life not once, but twice.

On top of dealing with her feelings toward her best friend, she spends much of the novel as Brougham's personal dating coach. And, in true YA fashion, she starts to realizes he maybe isn't as awful as she thought he was.

I loved that Gonzales including a high school group called Queer & Questioning (or Q&Q for short) to help our characters work through their distinct experiences as queer teenagers. It also allowed the audience a little insight without coming off as preachy or expositional. We saw Darcy dealing with internalized biphobia after

Spoiler

she begins to have feelings for Brougham, a guy

. We see another character join the Q&Q meetings after seeking advice from locker 89 about not wanting to have sex with her boyfriend. After it's revealed

Spoiler

to the school that Darcy is behind the lockers, we have a gay Korean character explain that he never wrote in to Locker 89 because he figured it was some white, straight girl behind the locker (and, as he says, he was "half right"), and

he doesn't need advice from someone who doesn't know the first thing about his life.

Darcy has a great arc in this novel. Like Gonzales intended, I'm sure, Darcy is very naive in the beginning. She thinks her advice is near full-proof, she thinks it's alright to betray her best friend's trust to "protect her" (when really, she was just jealous), and she doesn't think through the consequences of her actions. It's only when Brougham starts to push back on things that she's able to look at her advice more objectively.

For all that I enjoyed about this novel, however, it's still middle of the road plot-wise and pacing-wise for me. Specifically, I think the big bad thing that Darcy is trying to keep Brooke from finding out could have been revealed later. I will try to be more lenient with the melodrama since, even though I thought the misunderstandings between all the characters were a bit flimsy, I have to remember these characters are 16. I was a drama queen, too. I misunderstood things, too. I thought I knew everything, too.

So, a solid read, and a happy addition to my bookshelf!

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