The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist

Title: The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist
Author: Sophie Gonzales
Source: Netgalley
Genre: Contemporary YA
Summary: Ivy Winslow has the house to herself for a week while her parents are away. She’s planning to use this newfound freedom to binge-watch her favorite fantasy TV show, H-MAD, and hang out with her best friend, Henry. She’ll also have to avoid her former best friend-turned enemy (and neighbor), Mack. But things quickly go awry when Ivy wakes up to find Weston, the gorgeous, very fictional main character of H-MAD in her bedroom, claiming to be her soul mate.

Ivy realizes that her fanfic writing has somehow brought Weston as she’s imagined him to life. But it turns out that the tropes she swoons over in her stories are slightly less romantic in reality, and her not-so-fictional crush is causing some real-world problems. To figure out why Weston is here and what to do with him, Ivy decides to team up with Henry and (against her better judgment) Mack. But with Mack back in her life, Ivy starts to wonder if Weston, her “perfect guy”, is the one who’s truly perfect for her . . . or if that was someone else all along.

I mean this with all the love I possess in my soul for Sophie Gonzales as a writer (and it’s a lot) but this was so fucking awkward. Not the writing, the writing was great, and so was the plot. But oh my god. This is the big flashing don’t meet your heroes (especially as you write them) warning sign because jeeeeeez did I really feel for Ivy in this. The embarrassment and loneliness, and everything was so felt, and it gives me shivers to just think about it.

I have lived a fandom life, longer than I would like to admit, and as much as all writers, fic, or otherwise would like to see their characters come to life this is like a cautionary tale.

Weston is not what Ivy thinks he is, and tbh he’s kind of annoying (don’t worry she thinks so too), but despite all of that this book is laugh out loud funny at times, as she navigates the world around her and the way in which she has created Weston and how little he fits into it.

This book was a fun romp with a bit of hope and heartbreak thrown in for good measure, it had me covering my face with both hands, hiding from the world, laughing the next and really routing for the kids to figure it all out in the end.

While not as good as If This Gets Out or Never Ever Getting Back Together, this book, about the awkwardness of the teenage years and being alone, and friendship is one I will treasure, and Sophie will always be on my list.