The Fill-in Boyfriend Review

This week's book is The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West.  This was one of Goodreads' best young adult books of 2015.

Gia's friends didn't believe she had a boyfriend, so when he dumped her in the parking lot on the way into prom right before meeting her friends, she grabs a random guy to pretend to be him to prove said boyfriend exists. 

Fake dating trope!  You already know how you feel about the fake dating trope, so you already know if you'll like this or not.  Personally, I like it best when the couple fight crime.

The main theme of The Fill-in Boyfriend is living for appearances vs living for yourself.  West gets at this in a couple of different ways.  First there's the main plot of Gia insisting her boyfriend exists to the point of lying when she could have just walked into prom with no date and let her friends think whatever they wanted.  She would know she was telling the truth. But then she's in these toxic friendships that make her feel like she has to be perfect all the time, where she has to lie or lose her friends.

 

There's then a subplot about social media and living for validation that falls a bit flat.  Gia did not seem to overuse social media, and even though she was overly concerned with what people thought of her, this didn't feel like a strong example of that.  

But the theme hit its emotional stride when it turned to Gia's home life.  Her parents repeatedly say, "I don't want to fight about this," and so the family never fights about anything.  They bury their anger and disappointment, and the way this has emotionally stunted Gia feels realistic and intrinsic.  It was conveyed without being too on the nose, with Gia slowly realizing that this lifestyle isn't good for her.   It also felt real in that this is a problem that real people face.  Seeing it portrayed accurately was refreshing.

This book also did a good job of conveying the teenage frustration when all your friends are taking everything way too seriously and perpetuating their own drama and there's no way to get out of it.  Why did her friends think she was lying about her boyfriend when she wasn't?  Shrug.  Because.  Why were they so offended when they find out she was lying about the fill-in boyfriend, to the point of ending their friendship with Gia?  Shrug.  Because high schoolers do things like that.  The reason doesn't need any more flushing out.  Gia couldn't have won and I could feel her frustration.

***

Next week: we finish off the Silo books with Dust by Hugh Howey