The brutal breakup, online dating in the early aughts, and a narrator’s nostalgic deep dive into T9 texting, low-rise jeans, and overly-sexualized pop culture.

“Are You the reason I’m stuck? Why did You call me? I’m kind of a little bit famous now, and if there was someone who could ruin this for me, it’s You.”

STUPID, PRETTY follows Alice, a best-selling debut romance author paralyzed by writer’s block as she struggles to rework her much-anticipated second novel after brutal feedback from her editor. What she doesn’t realize is that her creative paralysis stems from writing a book she no longer believes in—a story shaped by the same people-pleasing instincts that once defined her seven-year relationship with her toxic ex-boyfriend, the man who helped skew her views of romance, men, and self-worth.

When Alice receives a missed call from him out of the blue, her therapist encourages her to write him a letter to process the emotions it stirs up. But what begins as a therapeutic exercise soon spirals, as the calls continue and a mysterious package appears on her doorstep.

As Alice confronts how deeply his influence has shaped both her personal life and her career, she begins dismantling the glossy romantic lies that made her successful—realizing that to reclaim her voice, she must finally tell the story she’s been avoiding: the story of him.