“Perfectly wonderful.” –Becky Albertalli, New York Times-bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda “An electrifying love story.” –Booklist In Sophie Gonzales’ Perfect on Paper, Leah on the Offbeat meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before: a bisexual girl who gives anonymous love advice to her classmates is hired by the hot guy to help him get his ex back Her advice, spot on. Her … the hot guy to help him get his ex back
Her advice, spot on. Her love life, way off.
Darcy Phillips:
* Can give you the solution to any of your relationship woes–for a fee.
* Uses her power for good. Most of the time.
* Really cannot stand Alexander Brougham.
* Has maybe not the best judgement when it comes to her best friend, Brooke…who is in love with someone else.
* Does not appreciate being blackmailed.
However, when Brougham catches her in the act of collecting letters from locker 89–out of which she’s been running her questionably legal, anonymous relationship advice service–that’s exactly what happens. In exchange for keeping her secret, Darcy begrudgingly agrees to become his personal dating coach–at a generous hourly rate, at least. The goal? To help him win his ex-girlfriend back.
Darcy has a good reason to keep her identity secret. If word gets out that she’s behind the locker, some things she’s not proud of will come to light, and there’s a good chance Brooke will never speak to her again.
Okay, so all she has to do is help an entitled, bratty, (annoyingly hot) guy win over a girl who’s already fallen for him once? What could go wrong?
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“WHY IS LOVE DEAD?”
A bit dramatic, but that’s Darcy
Can I just start by saying that I appreciated the bi rep in this book so hard. I know not everyone is going to feel that way, but I am excited for it and I’m glad that someone will read this book and feel validated and seen by it.
ANYWAY, Darcy is our main character, and I honestly enjoyed her so much. She’s relatable for me in so many ways and the fact that she screws up and makes some selfish decisions, but then learns from them… yes, we love a personal growth plot.
Darcy secretly runs a sort of “Dear Abby” style love advice system through locker 89 of her high school. She’s not a professional by any means, but she has a 95% success rate. That being said, her own love life is pretty much nonexistent. She’s in love with her best friend, Brooke, but can’t pull the trigger on telling her. It doesn’t help that her friend starts dating someone else. Someone Darcy doesn’t like.
When she’s caught by Alexander Brougham pulling love advice requests out of locker 89, he essentially blackmails her into helping him win back his ex-girlfriend. Yes, he’s paying her for her help, but she’s still annoyed he caught her and even more so that he’s forcing her to help him. She thinks Brougham is an aloof jerk, a spoiled rich boy who feels entitled to her help, but spending more time with him she realizes he’s more than what she assumed and what he presents to everyone in the halls of their high school. They form an unlikely friendship that started with blackmail, but ends with feelings Darcy is confused about. She’s been in love with Brooke for so long, and hasn’t had feelings for a guy since she joined her schools Queer and Questioning club. All worries about being judged by her friends for falling for a guy aside, things with the locker go left, like way left and she’s in big trouble.
I don’t want to spoil too much, but yeah I just loved this read. I think that it represents a side of being bisexual that is often considered a co-opt when it comes to writing a queer story about a bisexual character, but I think it’s important that someone who falls in love with a person not a sex is represented fully. I do wish some of the relationships were fleshed out a little more, but I realize this story was more about Darcy figuring things out. I love that there is a variety of LGBTQ+ representation, and that it was easy to fall in love with even the side characters.
All in all this was a great read. At first you’re going to want to shake Darcy a little bit, but she’s a good character that you will fall for. At least I did.
4.5 stars.
Perfect on Paper had so much LGBTQ+ representation but it didn’t feel gratuitous. I love how normalized it was. This didn’t feel like an exposé about LGBTQ+, it was just a story about teens.
Darcy is a bisexual teenager who has been running an anonymous relationship advice service from locker 89 for the past two years. Which is pretty ironic, if you think about it, since Darcy hasn’t ever been in a real relationship. She gets caught by a popular jock and gets “blackmailed” into helping him win back his ex-girlfriend. A relationship tutor, if you will.
Darcy’s advice is well researched; I recognized topics that I’ve only recently learned about myself. But she doesn’t come off as some love guru. She’s a teen and makes some major mistakes, but that made her so much more relatable. Often I’ve read YA and the characters read and sound like adults, so it was wonderful to read a story that legitimately shows mistakes I would have made back then. Darcy recognizes her mistakes as she’s making them but is unable to stop herself, just like I’ve done too.
Perfect on Paper really gives a voice and mimics the thoughts of anyone who has struggled with their sexuality, relationship, identity, consent, etc. The topic of biphobia is brought up and I thought it was handled very well. It’s not something that I think of often (as a heterosexual woman) but I can recognize the problems bisexual people face.
Perfect on Paper was such a great book. It handles delicate topics well and doesn’t shy away from any difficult issues. Darcy and Brougham’s relationship slowly morphs from annoyed acquaintances to friends and then to more. It felt realistic and was filled with the impulses and issues teenagers face.
The full range of emotions hit me with this one and I can’t wait to read more from Sophie Gonzales.
I loved this book so much–I binged it in one sitting.
Darcy has secretly been offering relationship advice to her high school peers via email after they drop anonymous letters into unassigned Locker 89. But when Alexander Broughman catches her emptying the locker and blackmails her into helping him win back his ex-girlfriend, things start to go awry. Meanwhile, Darcy can’t stand to see her long-time crush and best friend, Brooke, develop feelings for another girl, yet she’s incapable of expressing her own feelings to Brooke.
This book was so original and creative–I absolutely loved the premise. I loved all the characters, too. They, of course, had their flaws and secrets, but the author did such a great job of showing you their motivations and reasons, you still loved them. It would be remiss to not point out the great bisexual representation we get in Darcy, as well, who has some very real conversations surrounding sexuality that are perfect for YA audiences.
I’m an adult reading this, but I’ll note for parents that the f word is said A TON in this book. Didn’t bother me, and seemed realistic, and I’m sure the youths have heard it before, but I just wanted to note it.
I can’t figure out why this book wasn’t called “Dear Locker 89”??????? That would have been a fantastic title. When this is undoubtedly a Netflix movie, I hope that’s the title. PLEASE LET THIS BE A NETFLIX MOVIE. I can see this being even bigger than “To All the Boys I Loved Before.”
Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review!
5 stars – 10/10
There’s a locker in school that you can deposit your love advice questions into. You will then receive an e-mail response from an anonymous source. That source not only has a 95% success rate but is none other than Darcy Phillips. When she gets busted emptying the locker by Brougham, she doesn’t want her identity revealed. Especially because she’s done something less than ethical. To keep her secret, she needs to help Brougham win back his ex. Simple, right?
Perfect on Paper has excellent representation, and I feel there is a character for anyone to relate to. Gonzales writes about biphobia, which is so very ingrained in people, and it’s something we all need to hear. This is a funny, sometimes emotional read that gives you *all the feels*. I loved the characters, flaws and all. I hadn’t read Sophie before this book, but it’s something I am going to remedy. Super fun read. Thank you, St. Martin’s-Wednesday Books for sending this along!