Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales [book review]

Perfect on Paper book summary:

Perfect on paper follows a bisexual girl, Darcy, who gives anonymous love advice. For the longest time, no one knows it’s her and she prefers to keep it that way. That is until Alexander Brougham discovers her secret and hires her to give him advice. Almost immediately she takes it because she has done some not-so-good things under the alias and doesn’t want anyone to find out. But helping Alexander puts her in a predicament that makes her friends start to question things. Will her friends discover her secret? And will she be able to keep her perfect record and get Alexander back with his ex?

What I thought about Perfect on Paper

Perfect on Paper follows Darcy who just so happens to be bisexual. Bringing up her sexuality is actually pretty important because Perfect on Paper brings up some important things through the story that bisexuals have to deal with. 

The Characters

Perfect on Paper follows Darcy and how she handles giving her classmates advice. She’s really good at it and rarely messes up on the relationship advice. When she does mess up it’s usually because the one she’s helping ended up leaving out some pretty important information. But she can give the best advice to everyone but herself. I can’t even begin to tell you how relatable that is! Sometimes I can give some of the best advice but when I’m going through a problem there are times when I can’t even figure out what to do. So, I love how relatable she is.

My only issue with Darcy is that she clings to the idea of having a relationship with her best friend. It gets to the point where she starts “imagining” that her friend is giving her signals when she’s just being friendly. The fact that her friend wants to date someone that isn’t her should really have given her the idea that she should probably give up on the idea. But I do get that at this age that’s a really hard thing to do and your emotions tend to take over.

Wanting to date someone that isn’t attainable is a character trait that a lot of people need to work on. I know that was something I needed to work on when I was in high school. How Darcy handles things in the story really makes me love her!

The Plot

I have to say that I’m a sucker for contemporary young adult novels. I think they’re the type of YA novel that I love the most because I tend to be too critical of thrillers/horror. Contemporary I end up not being so harsh on and I don’t know why. 

The story actually has a good message behind it and deals with a girl that really cares and wants to give relationship advice. She wasn’t doing it just for the cash but that was a perk! The storyline really kept you interested and wondering if Darcy was going to be able to help Alexander get back with his girlfriend. The fact that Darcy already knows what she’s wants to do with her life is awesome. I wish more young adult books had both messages of it’s okay to know what you want out of life and it’s okay to not know. At her age, I didn’t know what I wanted out of life. Actually, even at thirty I still don’t know what I want out of life. There just ends up being a ton of things I want to try and see if it’s something I would truly enjoy for the rest of my life.

The plot of the book really does talk about an important topic and that’s how bi’s don’t really feel a part of the LGBTQ community if they end up dating a person of the opposite sex. This is something that I actually never really thought about considering I’m not a part of the community, but I hate that they feel like they don’t belong. This is something that the community should probably talk about more and make sure that everyone in their community feels included no matter who they date.

How do you feel about someone in high school giving out relationship advice?

If you liked this review then make sure to check my review for Amelia Unabridged.