Book Review: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Book: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Author: Becky Albertlli
Published: April 7, 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Number of Pages: 325
Format: ebook
Source: Library
Rating: 3 Stars
Tags: 2017, LGBTQ+, YA, Library Book, Contemporary, 3 Stars

Goodreads/Amazon/Barnes & Noble

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

-MY REVIEW-

I wasn't feeling good today, so I decided to finally take the time to read. This book sounded perfect. It's been out for a while now, and I have never seen anybody write a negative review for this book. So, I decided to try it. And while I did like it, it defiantly didn't live up to the hype that was built up around this book.

In this book we follow Simon, as he gets blackmailed because he has been anonymously emailing a guy that he likes. This book is filled with cute moments, awkward moments, and some really fucking relatable moments.

One thing that I will say, this book is sooooooo cute. Cuteness overload over here. But cuteness will only get you so far. My main problem with this book is that I couldn't relate to any of the characters. I felt like an outsider looking into Simon's personal thoughts and actions. So basically I felt like a giant creep. For me, I need to be able to connect with the characters, especially in contemporaries. And that just didn't happen for me.

This book made me crave oreos. Like, I found some in my kitchen and was eating them while I read. Simon my man, you made me eat oreos, and they were really good. So, make sure that you have oreos nearby if you read this book.

I did love that this book wasn't a sad coming out story. Because I feel like a lot of stories about someone who is LGBTQ+ coming out are anything but happy. It was nice to see a story where the parents supported Simon, and his family accepted him. Oh, and it was really nice to have Cal be bisexual. I feel like there aren't a lot of bisexual characters in YA, and there need to be more!

So overall I liked this book. This was a quick, fun, and sweet romance story. While I couldn't connect with the characters, and it was missing that spark to make me love it, I enjoyed reading about Simon, and how he got his very first boyfriend.