A review by greenisthecolorofkale
Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales

funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted 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

5.0

to start off, there’s this weird stigma around dating men as a female bisexual. as if they have to date women to prove they’re a “real bisexual”, which is actually the stupidest thing i’ve heard. 
when darcy realizes she likes a guy, she has this overwhelming fear about telling her school’s version of a gsa about dating a guy, about sitting down at queer events and telling everyone that “hey, i’m bisexual and i date a guy”, because she was bisexual and for some reason had this obligation to only like girls. it’s basically biphobia in the queer community, which is ironically horrible. 

i’ve seen queer people get annoyed when relationships in media go from people of the same gender to people of different genders (ex: a girl and a girl to a girl and a boy), which is such bullshit. of course, it’s one thing if it’s a joke, and another if queer people legitimately get irritated at these kind of relationships. 

darcy has internalized biphobia, which a lot of bisexual people have because of this stupid stigma around being bisexual. bisexual women think they have to date women to prove they’re actually bisexual, and they legitimately get scared when they’re attracted to men. same goes for bisexual men. the queer community is toxic on so many levels, and these are one of them. 
perfect on paper perfectly (haha) captures this and what the mc feels about it. 

anyways! going back to the actual book, darcy’s inner voice is hilarious. so is her outer voice. she’s sarcastic, hilarious, and i really like the way this book is written. it’s really funny and it sounds exactly like the mind of an almost 17-year old. 

character development!!! in the beginning of the book, darcy had a kind of like a savior complex; she thought that her advice was spot on and always correct, and in most cases it actually was, but it’s mostly about how she never thought about the fact that her advice might not work, or that there were some things she couldn’t answer. she realizes that through out the book, with the help of finn park (ALSO I KIN FINN BY THE WAY😁👍🏻) and. yeah!!!! 

representation was excellent👍🏻 i was really worried there was going to be stereotypes in it but holy shit it breaks stereotypes😭😭 and darcy is the most educated mc i’ve ever read🙌🏾🙌🏾 go darcy🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 

the dialogue is excellent. i could eat it. 

i’m not going to lie brooke is the tiniest bit annoying. sorry scratch that she’s really fucking annoying. i feel like she was made to be the straight annoying boy crazy best friend except the author kind of just replaced boys with girls and made her a lesbian. 

anyways... great book!! i really liked it and i really really liked the mc. 
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