by Kaylee (link)
Genre het, drama/angst, romance
Pairings Taylor/Natalie, Zac/OFC
Length 32 chapters
Status Completed
For a time, I was pretty good friends with Kaylee, but somehow I managed not to read much of her fic. After having it recommended to me by several other friends, I decided to go back and read Perfect Girl, and I wasn’t disappointed.
This story is a–dare I say it–perfect embodiment of not just many hanfic tropes, but YA romance tropes in general. The main character, Keavy, is unpopular, distrustful (for decent, angsty reasons) and jealous of her popular older sister. Of course, it’s Keavy who gets the Hanson, because no one would enjoy a story where the dream boy ends up with someone other than the character we’re all supposed to identify with. The fact that Keavy is often unpleasant and indie-er than thou makes her a little difficult to identify with now, but teenage me would have eaten it up.
To counter Keavy’s oh-so-awesome personality, we have the dream boy–Zac. Okay, so he isn’t perfect–he actually does get involved with Keavy’s sister briefly (though Keavy’s poor treatment of him makes that somewhat understandable) and inexplicably doesn’t know any of the emo and punk bands Keavy likes, even though he’s his real, famous self in this story. Why that little details bother me so much, I really can’t explain. He is, at least, given a backstory that isn’t quite as dramatic as Keavy’s and makes him a little more likable.
What I like so much about Perfect Girl, in spite of its imperfections, is that it perfectly captures the zeitgeist of the early 2000s. Emo music and clothing, just a little angst, unpopular, semi-nerdy characters… it’s everything a teenage Hanson fan would have identified with at that age, and so its pretty easy to lose yourself in the story and ignore any of its minor problems. With just a little editing to get rid of her overwriting and less proselytizing about the cool kids and taste in music, Kaylee would have been onto something really great here, but with long, meaty chapters and plenty of teen drama, Perfect Girl is still pretty damn good.
Review by Bethany (website)