Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Perfect on Paper

I really enjoyed this teenage love and relationships story. I loved that it was quite educative with the relationship advices, and that it explored internalized biphobia. The characters are great, I enjoyed Darcy as a biased narrator, I really appreciated her relationship with her sister and big yes to this kind of casual unproblematic trans rep. The romance is super cute and it's a fast and very enjoyable read.

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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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a_ira's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective fast-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

5.0

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icarly's review

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.5

This book was fine. It read like drinking a glass of room temperature water. I didn’t absolutely hate it, but there were also parts that were not satisfying.

The story itself was super interesting, but I found that some of the parts fell flat.

For example, I didn’t like that Darcy took so long to tell Brooke about what she had done. From a character perspective, I understand why she took so long, but from a storytelling perspective, it felt like it was too late in the story and I felt as though the conflict was resolved too quickly.

The bi representation in this book was very good and I appreciated how Gonzales touched on biphobia in a way that happens a lot in the real world.

However, the one scene where they were all telling her that she was queer was a bit weird to me, and felt sort of like an “I’m Radio Rebel” moment. It could have been a really special moment, but personally fell kind of flat because it was cheesy. Also, at that point in the story, most people in the room hated Darcy.

I also don’t think she faced enough of a consequence for the locker. Only four people asked for a refund? That just seems unbelievable to me.

Also… Broughham. I didn’t like him until maybe the last four or five chapters. The miscommunication between him and Darcy was driving me crazy. I also, somehow, felt like I still didn’t know the real him at the end of the story.

I wish Brooke had a bit more to her character, but I enjoyed her for when she was.

Oh, and this is nitpicking, but I hated all of the Disney references. Chad and Ryan ARE gay, but we don’t need Finn to bring it up at a Q&Q meeting. And the chapters with Disneyland were far too specific to be written by someone who wasn’t a Disney adult.

Ainsley was the best character in this story, and there were so many times where I was happy she was there to make me still want to read it.

Overall, I didn’t love it but I also didn’t loathe it. There were times I wanted to stop reading, but I’m not mad that I finished it. It was Okay.

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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.

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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lyd41's review

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funny hopeful informative lighthearted fast-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

4.25

Hilarious!

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