Title: Not Quite the Perfect Boyfriend
Author: Lili Wilkinson
Release date: 1st September 2011 (UK)
Publisher: Allen and Unwin
Midge is sixteen and has never been kissed- so she invents a boyfriend. Then she is paired with George for a major school project. George is the New Guy who doodles dragons, tucks in his shirt, has an unseemly interest in secrets and a mysterious past. Not a good start to the school year.
Midge starts fabricating emails from her imaginary boyfriend, and even a MySpace page. Her secret is getting out of control. Then one day, he appears in the school corridor. Tall, brown wavy hair, English accent - Ben. Exactly as she’s described him.
Ben seems to be the answer to her prayer. A dream come true or is he? And what strange secret is George hiding? Before long Midge finds herself in all sorts of trouble.
Midge invents an English boyfriend, Ben. Ben likes photography, black-and-white movies, reading and lacrosse (or at least that’s what Midge writes on his MySpace page). All is going well for Midge and her imaginary boyfriend, her friend Tahni is convinced she isn’t a lesbian who will end up knitting hats for cats. The next step is for Midge to break up with Ben, something about the distance being too far, which would be fine… if Ben hadn’t just appeared at school.
In this hilarious novel set in Australia, school girl Midge has to deal with her imaginary boyfriend becoming an actual boyfriend, dealing with her family’s break up, the destruction of friendships and also working on a project with new boy, George, who she is pretty sure is a psycho killer- why else would he have been kicked out of his last school?
I found the plot of the novel to be really predictable but that is in no way a negative criticism. The novel is written from Midge’s point of view and so as a reader we are made aware of her feelings about secrets that are revealed and secrets she reveals herself. Although in a sense I feel the reader is probably aware of what is going on before Midge is, even though things are not explicitly told to us. It made me think of how sometimes the clues to things are there but we can end up walking around with our head in the clouds and miss out on important things, including important people, which is definitely what Midge does with the arrival of Ben.
Going out with Ben gives Midge a new sense of confidence. He’s hot, he’s popular and most of all he is her boyfriend! By association, Midge becomes popular overnight. But popularity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and neither is having a boyfriend, no matter how good looking he is. Midge is in for a bumpy ride!
Not Quite the Perfect Boyfriend was a nice, easy read with a happy ending and will definitely put a smile on your face. The characters are all brilliantly constructed and you will definitely meet some that will become some of your favourites, for me, George in particular was fantastic. The ending of the book reminded me of the end scene from the film ‘Role Models’ but maybe this was just the description of the costumes. Overall, a definite chick-lit but well worth the laughs for anyone not usually interested in this genre.
4/5 Really easy to get into and a relaxing read.
With special thanks to Frances Lincoln for sending me a copy of the book.
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