TITLE: You Asked for Perfect
AUTHOR: Laura Silverman
RELEASE DATE: March 5th, 2019
READ DATE: February 17th, 2019
PUBLISHING HOUSE: Sourcebooks Fire
RATING: ★★★★☆
ARC provided from the publisher via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review (thank you Sourcebooks Fire!!)
we are stressed (ex) high school students first, and people second!!
not gonna lie, this is one of the most relatable books I’ve ever read and it’s kinda sad that it’s about this really overtaxed high school kid who just wants to get into college and keep his grades up? but this is genuinely what senior year in high school is like, as someone who also graduated top of my class I can 100% vouch for Ariel and validate his stress, which, again, is kinda sad!! academic pressure really be like that sometimes!!
aside from the fact that You Asked for Perfect FLAWLESSLY captures the true essence of how much high school takes out on your mental health—I also really like that this is isn’t necessarily a book about a Ariel’s coming out. he’s already out as bisexual, he just happens to have a crush on a boy and pursue a relationship with him. he’s bisexual—but he’s also Jewish and he’s also a first chair violin player and he’s also extremely intelligent and he’s also a volunteer at an animal shelter and he’s also an overachiever and he’s also particularly family oriented. being bisexual doesn’t define his story any more than the rest of his personality traits do, and I think normalizing sexuality like that really goes a long way in regards of character development. generally I think every single character in this book was so well fleshed out and that’s just such a special thing to find in YA these days, it turned this book from a great read into an absolute diamond in the rough for me.
I just really, really enjoyed this. many reviewers before me have said it already, but You Asked for Perfect feels so REAL on so many levels and Ariel spoke so deeply to me as a character. this is such a grounded story, and weirdly a very original concept, I feel like? we should really write more academically relatable books. thanks again to Edelweiss+ and Sourcebooks Fire for providing a free copy of You Asked for Perfect!!
