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faithnomoar 's review for:
The Build-A-Boyfriend Project
by Mason Deaver
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
The Build-a-Boyfriend Project is my first book by Mason Deaver—but I know it won't be my last. Deaver turns "practice dating"—an oft-used trope that could in a less skilled writer's hands feel tired—into something that feels warm and charming, like coming home with two incredibly charming and real main characters who worm their way into your heart.
The book follows our protagonist, Eli—long-suffering assistant at a publication who's hoping to make a break into a staff writer position. He began working at the publication with a lofty idea of it—the old days, where articles that meant something were prioritized; unfortunately, since then, the site has gone the way of so many other modern news outlets, prioritizing clickbait headlines and ad revenue traffic. In the midst of all this, he's set up on a blind date with a man named Peter that goes horrendously wrong; Peter's late and constantly checks his phone, ducks out early to work and spills half the meal on Eli.
What begins as Eli's pitch to cover Peter's struggles with dating as a gay Korean-American from the South becomes shaped by his boss as the titular "Build-a-Boyfriend Project", where Eli and Peter will fake-date in an effort to teach the other man how to become boyfriend material. Eli just learns along the way that, while he might have been rough around the edges, Peter might have been made of the right stuff all along.
I ate this book up. There's no better way to put it. In one night, I'd read a good helping—then the next, a bit more. But once I was about 40% of the way through, I couldn't stop. Fake-dating for any reason is a trope straight out of fanfiction—for good reason! It's charming! You know that the couple is going to catch real feelings long before they do! But for the same reasons, it's often overdone and worn out. But Eli and Peter were written so deftly, with experiences and struggles of their own that made them stand out as characters that it hardly mattered that I knew where they were going; I was captivated by every word. They were both incredibly unique characters that broke out of typical archetypes, and when they came together, the dynamic between the two was so believable that it was easy to watch them inch their way into each others' lives.
Because they were so well fleshed out, it was also so easy to not feel so frustrated when the characters made mistakes. They made mistakes because they were humans with their own motivations and struggles and wants and flaws, not because the book required a little bit of conflict. It's something I struggle with a lot in books—bumps in the road feeling forced—but all of the ups and downs in Eli and Peter's relationship felt honest to who they were as characters and the way their relationship had been built.
Sure, there are things I wish we'd seen fleshed out a little more—Eli's boss at the publication he worked for felt a little one-note (it's traffic! we don't care about hard-hitting journalism anymore! clicks, clicks, clicks!), making Eli's clinging to the hopes of the future sometimes feel exasperating. Similarly, Peter had dreams aligned with writing that I wish we'd dug a little more into—the way that tied into where his character ended up felt a little too easy. But you know what? It hardly mattered to me, because I was so pleased for them as if they were my own friends instead of characters I was reading on a page. I yelled at Eli the way I'd yell at a friend to get out of a dead-end job, I cheered for Peter the way I would one of my dearest friends achieving their dreams.
BRB, making a Letterboxd list of all of the films featured in the chapter titles and doing a marathon just to chase these feelings all over again.
The book follows our protagonist, Eli—long-suffering assistant at a publication who's hoping to make a break into a staff writer position. He began working at the publication with a lofty idea of it—the old days, where articles that meant something were prioritized; unfortunately, since then, the site has gone the way of so many other modern news outlets, prioritizing clickbait headlines and ad revenue traffic. In the midst of all this, he's set up on a blind date with a man named Peter that goes horrendously wrong; Peter's late and constantly checks his phone, ducks out early to work and spills half the meal on Eli.
What begins as Eli's pitch to cover Peter's struggles with dating as a gay Korean-American from the South becomes shaped by his boss as the titular "Build-a-Boyfriend Project", where Eli and Peter will fake-date in an effort to teach the other man how to become boyfriend material. Eli just learns along the way that, while he might have been rough around the edges, Peter might have been made of the right stuff all along.
I ate this book up. There's no better way to put it. In one night, I'd read a good helping—then the next, a bit more. But once I was about 40% of the way through, I couldn't stop. Fake-dating for any reason is a trope straight out of fanfiction—for good reason! It's charming! You know that the couple is going to catch real feelings long before they do! But for the same reasons, it's often overdone and worn out. But Eli and Peter were written so deftly, with experiences and struggles of their own that made them stand out as characters that it hardly mattered that I knew where they were going; I was captivated by every word. They were both incredibly unique characters that broke out of typical archetypes, and when they came together, the dynamic between the two was so believable that it was easy to watch them inch their way into each others' lives.
Because they were so well fleshed out, it was also so easy to not feel so frustrated when the characters made mistakes. They made mistakes because they were humans with their own motivations and struggles and wants and flaws, not because the book required a little bit of conflict. It's something I struggle with a lot in books—bumps in the road feeling forced—but all of the ups and downs in Eli and Peter's relationship felt honest to who they were as characters and the way their relationship had been built.
Sure, there are things I wish we'd seen fleshed out a little more—Eli's boss at the publication he worked for felt a little one-note (it's traffic! we don't care about hard-hitting journalism anymore! clicks, clicks, clicks!), making Eli's clinging to the hopes of the future sometimes feel exasperating. Similarly, Peter had dreams aligned with writing that I wish we'd dug a little more into—the way that tied into where his character ended up felt a little too easy. But you know what? It hardly mattered to me, because I was so pleased for them as if they were my own friends instead of characters I was reading on a page. I yelled at Eli the way I'd yell at a friend to get out of a dead-end job, I cheered for Peter the way I would one of my dearest friends achieving their dreams.
BRB, making a Letterboxd list of all of the films featured in the chapter titles and doing a marathon just to chase these feelings all over again.