The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton

 

So I didn't have "deranged female sociopath stalks ex-boyfriend and roofies him into a Vegas wedding" on my 2023 reading bingo sheet, but that's probably a me problem.

***MILD SPOILERS TO FOLLOW***

ANYWAY, in case you needed to know more about THE PERFECT GIRLFRIEND, step #1 is that the title is a lie. Juliette is not the perfect girlfriend. She is, in fact, the opposite. I know, you're so surprised.

Nate broke up with Juliette because he needs "space" and Juliette takes that to mean (1) get hired at the same airline company Nate works at, (2) buy a house next door to him, and (3) stalk his little sister while conspiring to break up her wedding to her fiance. 

Oh, and the Vegas wedding thing.

The build-up is actually incredibly boring because Juliette is so narcissistic that she's just like, me, me, me, me, me. The derangement was impressive enough that I wanted to see where this went, but the ending felt like a bit of a fizzle. Also, I didn't appreciate the implication that Juliette was doing all of this because of ~trauma~. Plenty of people have trauma that don't go on to be rapists and kidnappers. I would have liked it better if she was just, you know, psycho.

2.5 out of 5 stars