Book Review of Between Perfect and Real by Ray Stoeve

Cover of Between Perfect and Real, with an illustration of two boys' faces (in blue) staring at each other, one of them upside down from the other, against a pink background

About the Book

Title: Between Perfect and Real

Author:

Ray Stoeve

Published: 2021

Genre:

Contemporary

Swoonworthy Scale: 3

Voices:

Trans Boy
White (Non-Specified)

Cover Story: Two Halves Make a Whole
BFF Charm: Big Sister
Talky Talk: Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?
Bonus Factor: Supporting Characters
Anti-Bonus Factor: Transphobia
Relationship Status: Let’s Go Public

Cover Story: Two Halves Make a Whole

Two shadowed half-faces reflect back at each other on a pink background. Could this be about the face Dean has and the face he wishes he could have? The metaphor is not lost on this reader!

The Deal:

Dean has a worrisome problem: he’s pretty sure that he’s trans. See, he’s in a girl’s body, people call him a girl, he has a lesbian girlfriend who he is infatuated with. But he’s pretty sure all of that, minus the girlfriend, is wrong: he’s a guy in his heart. When he’s cast as a genderbent Romeo in the senior theater show Romeo and Juliet, he wonders if it’s time to make his real self known. But how can he, with an unaccepting mother, the whole student body to deal with, and—worst of all—his own questions about himself?

BFF Charm: Big Sister

Y’all. I just wanted to hug Dean tight and tell him everything was going to be okay. Except—would it? Life for trans people on this planet is really, really hard. Still, for a seventeen-year-old groping in the dark for answers about himself, things could be a lot easier. His mother doesn’t understand his being a “tomboy lesbian,” he’s being bullied at school, and college applications are taking up a huge part of his consciousness.

Swoonworthy Scale: 2

Dean and his girlfriend, Zoe, get hot and heavy a few times. They realize that they love each other and say their first “I love you”s. But the making-out also comes with its own measure of gender dysphoria, when Zoe touches Dean’s chest, or Dean’s curves, and Dean remembers how his body isn’t the right body for him. That’s a bucket of ice-cold water right there.

Talky Talk: Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?

Dean’s self-discovery takes place over the course of the entirety of putting on a school play, from casting to rehearsal to the final bow. There’s a healthy dose of Shakespeare woven in throughout the book, especially between sections of the story. Stoeve’s prose is simple and straightforward but also holds a lot of longing and pain between the words. You know that the author has lived this experience themself.

Bonus Factor: Supporting Characters

Group of characters from the Office cheering and laughing while gathered around a computer

I fell in love with Ronnie, Dean’s best friend and gay fashionista extraordinaire, who dreams of going to Parsons in NYC and does the costuming for the play. If ever there is a guy who needs a fierce friend like Ronnie, it’s Dean.

There’s also Allison, the Japanese-American comic artist hell-bent on making it big in graphic novels, Jared the skateboarder, and Zoe with the purple hair. Each with their own personalities and big wishes and dreams.

Anti-bonus Factors: Transphobia

When Dean comes out as a trans guy at his school, he is bullied, especially by one transphobe who is a fellow actor in the play, Blake. There’s even a fight. I hated Blake and his cruelty. My heart ached for Dean.

Relationship Status: Let’s Go Public

I don’t understand how you don’t have a bigger presence than what you’ve got now, Book! You came out in 2021 and have all the hallmarks of being a BookTok/Bookstagram favorite, from a striking cover to a heart-rendingly sensitive protagonist. To those communities, I implore: make this book happen!