I think The Build-a-Boyfriend Project is my book of the year

Hello. The Build-a-Boyfriend Project by Mason Deaver. Another book I bought from Gay’s the Word in London, I think. The third book from Mason Deaver that I’ve read now, and also the third book that I absolutely loved. I know I tend not to say things like this simply in my intros, but I can’t help it. This is book of the year material for me, I don’t care.

Miss blurb tells us that Eli Francis is stuck. Stuck in an assistant position at the online magazine Vent when he should be a writer. Stuck with a boss who dangles a promotion but would rather Eli just fetch coffee. Stuck working alongside an ex who has had no trouble moving up at work… or moving on. When Eli’s roommates push him to date so he can get over his ex once and for all, they set him up with Peter Park – tall, handsome, and unbelievably awkward. The date is a complete disaster, and further proof to Eli that love isn’t for him. But when his boss overhears Eli recounting the catastrophic night, he suggests Eli teach Peter to be a better boyfriend through a series of simulated dates that he can then use for an article. But Eli has other ideas. He plays along, pretending to write the article his boss wants, while secretly interviewing Peter about growing up queer in the South and coming of age dating-wise in adulthood. Eli hopes writing this sort of piece will finally get him the promotion he deserves. And in exchange, he will help Peter how to date. But the more time Eli spends with Peter, the closer they become, and the lines between what’s real and what’s fake begin to blur. Before long, Eli is forced to face his greatest fears so that he can become the writer he wants to be and secure the love he’s always needed.

I don’t know what it is, but something about a really long blurb will always take me out. I tend to make notes on the opening of a book and what happens, but damn, the blurb literally took all of my notes from me that I made when I was reading this book on the train. Vent, as a magazine, honestly feels just like Buzzfeed with the slop that it puts out. When it comes to Eli having the job dangled over him, it’s because his boss, Michael, tells him that his ideas are too highbrow for what Vent has become – see, the slop farm. Then cut to the blind date that Eli and Peter go on. Disaster is an apt descriptor. Peter is an hour late, barely speaks, spills soup on Eli, and poor Peter, he just sucks at it.

I’m always going to speak positive on fake dating. It was the subject of the first of my two Trope Talk posts. When it comes to romance, I think it may be one of, if not, my favourite tropes. I don’t care that romance is tropey, or predictable. That’s exactly what I like about it. It never has to try too hard to make you feel, especially if it’s done well. But then I come to find this book where Eli and Peter are simulating real dates, so that Peter can eventually leave Eli to date for real… Call that some delicious trope, because obviously it’s going to get too real for them. Obviously, Eli is going to realise he’s in love with Peter when he sends Peter off on a date with someone else. And you know what? I will eat it up. I don’t care that I know it’s coming because I love romance. This is also something I know I’ve said before, I love it when there’s something going on alongside my romance – a reason for my romance to form, other than them just liking each other. Even though it was obviously Eli and Peter were going to love each other, we need some reason for them to get there which, in this book’s case, was Eli writing his articles and being forced to get to know Peter.

So, Peter. I will say, it’s rare that I ever feel smart for clocking something when I read a book, but there’s one thing in this book that I just couldn’t let go of when I thought it. When the thought was thunk, you could say. But for how this pertains to Peter. Mr. Peter Park – and yes, the Spiderman joke was made. Peter is Korean, cool, a detail about him. Peter is also a big muscly teddy bear of a man, love that. Peter reveals he was born in Incheon, cool, he was born in Korea. Peter tells Eli that he has a Korean name, and that his Korean name is Ho-seok. Peter is a big Korean muscly teddy bear of a man called Ho-seok. Now, I’m going to talk about me for a second. I’m a K-pop fan, and I have been since the end of 2021. There is one idol, solely, who got me into K-pop for the first time, and this came when I saw gifs of said idol on Tumblr, where I just thought he was a model because he was hot – he’s a big muscly teddy bear of man. Then this idol comes up on my Tumblr dashboard again, and I see that he’s not a model, and is in fact a K-pop named WONHO, and these gifs are actually from his music video for Lose, which I then proceed to watch and be gagged by, so I go listen to his most recent release, Blue Letter. So, WONHO is the idol that made me a K-pop fan and is still one of my ults. Now, who’s legal name is also Ho-Seok? WONHO. WONHO, who is a big muscly teddy bear of a man named Ho-seok, just like Peter. When I spotted this on the page, I thought it was too good to be true, so I posted this on my Instagram story, thinking that Peter had to have been based on WONHO.

Now I’m sitting, hoping that I get a reply from Deaver, considering I tagged them. I also figure that they might just reply to the story with the answer, not wanting to make it public, or that they might just not respond either – both totally valid. But no, that’s not what happened. No, what happened was so much better.

(ignore the fact I screenshotted this at 7:33am lol)

The scream I scrumpt. It’s an emoji as a response. But mama, gag. The gaggery. The gag of the season. The Gagtina Aguilera. The Jaida Essence Hall, “Look over there”, but look at what? The gag! I thought Peter’s resemblance to WONHO was too good for him not to have been based off of WONHO, or at the very least inspired by him. The vindication I felt was too good. And you might think, “Matthew, this isn’t important.” And you’d be right, but I don’t care.

Anyway, I really liked Peter as a character, now that I’ve followed that whole tangent (that you’re welcome for). To describe how I feel about Peter in short would be: Don’t piss me off (positive). The immediate first thing, and something I made special note to write down was that on his Hinge profile, his favourite dish is mugs… And, yes, Mason Deaver, I get the Demi Lovato reference as well. But, I don’t know, I just loved Peter. I guess it was something to do with being so wildly inexperienced when it came to life and living – you even see it in his apartment that’s so sparsely decorated – that he hasn’t lived much outside of working, and he just came off as so sweet. Even though he was, I believe, thirty, or almost thirty, he was just such a little sweetie. He’s also a secret romance writer, and I love seeing myself in characters, because same, minus the secret. And one of the things he confides in Eli with is that he’s scared to even edit the manuscript he’s written and then to send it to agents – because what if no one likes it. Never mind the pain in my neck I’m currently experiencing of trying to get agents to like what I’ve written. I understand Peter’s pain on this, I’ve had a few full requests, but never an offer of representation. One day!

I liked Eli, he owned his shit. I appreciated him being real. He was twenty-eight or twenty-nine, had a full-time job, and still lived with two roommates. I do sometimes find it funny when it’s someone who clearly doesn’t earn enough money to live the lifestyle they do in their book. But for me, it was nice seeing someone working a job that they don’t love, just so they can get by, and basically just trying to live. Weirdly, he just seemed like a normal person in the world who just happened to keep going through things. He wanted, and that wanting led him to making the bad decisions that he did.

The best thing I can say is, “Condragulations, The Build-a-Boyfriend Project, you are the winner of this week’s maxi challenge”, because my god, I loved this book, and when I finished reading it, I slapped it right onto my favourites shelf on goodreads. Honestly, you know what? This book might not only be the winner of this week’s maxi challenge, it might have won the entire Serviana Dupree 3000 pageant. I love me some good, delicious book.

Okay, bye.