Sad Perfect - Stephanie Elliot

Sad Perfect by Stephanie Elliot
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Blurb (on back of book): Sixteen-year-old Pea looks normal, but she has a secret: she has Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). It is like having a monster inside of her, one that not only dictates what she can eat, but also causes anxiety, depression, and thoughts that she doesn’t want to have. When she falls crazy-mad in love with Ben, she hides her disorder from him, pretending that she’s fine. 
At first, everything really does feel like it’s getting better with him around, so she stops taking her anxiety and depression medication. And that's when the monster really takes over her life. Just as everything seems lost and hopeless, Pea finds in her family, and in Ben, the support and strength she needs to learn that her eating disorder doesn’t have to control her.

MY OPINION: *****

***I was out with a cold/flu or something or other and I was unable to write a review that I should have written four days ago... :\***

I just have to say, I didn't exactly enjoy this book.

I did love the idea and the romance and the characters but I don't think this book is really meant to be enjoyed. It was sad. It was kind of depressing and gloomy and it gave an outlook on how hard it is for people to live with eating disorders.

I did love the romance between Pea and Ben (that was adorable!)

Pea. I wanted to know her real name the whole time and it kept nagging me in the back of my head... Pea suffers from an eating disorder called ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) where she has a sparse amount of "safe foods", or foods she can eat without problems, and foods that she can't eat at all. There's a "monster" inside of her that dictates her life--they cause her ARFID, her depression, her anxiety, everything. She can't eat in front of people and going out to food socials is horrible. She basically just hates food.

I'm not going to elaborate on ARFID because honestly, before this book, I never knew it existed and I'm pretty sure any explanation I do will be totally wrong.

Ben was sweet and I really loved Ben. He was so kind and understanding and I feel like those kinds of guys only exist in books *tear*. The way that they met and their instant connection was beautiful and so achingly unreal that I cry to think that it'll never happen in real life. GUYS LIKE THAT CANNOT EXIST.

The one thing I did not like about this book was that it was written in the second person. I honestly didn't know that second person was a thing (I don't know, I've always just thought 'the first person' and 'the third person' I don't know) and I was kind of... I don't know, disappointed? I think I would have liked this book even more if it hadn't been written in the second person.

I honestly read this book in two hours and I kind of want to reread it again but I don't really want to go through all of that all over again. It was a LOT.

Here are some quotes that I really liked:

"You think about this. Being mindful. The stuff they're shoving down your throat at therapy sessions. Being in the moment, not judging. Have you been judgmental? Of course. You immediately judge the girls on Instagram and Twitter, by what they say, how they pose, by how they appear in their photos. You come to an instant conclusion about people by what they wear or how they look, and by what they say or how they act, and who they hang out with. You're trying to be mindful now but you're not too sure about this stuff." -Page 245 

"You unconsciously created the monster, someone else to blame, because you didn't want to take on the responsibilities of fixing what was broken. The monster was never real." -Page 299

I would recommend this book to readers who are looking for a serious read about real-life problems that people deal with.

Main Character: Pea
Sidekick(s): Ben, parents, Shayna, Todd, Jae, etc
Villain(s): ARFID, depression, the "monster", the "crazy house", etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This could all happen in real life.