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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
i won't let the fluff distract me from the actual problematic content of this book
challenging
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
canonical fat lesbian oh hell yes
The beginning was kinda slow and boring but once it gets going it gets better. Abby and Leah were really cute, although I kinda wish their relationship was developed more, it sometimes felt rushed and didn’t really have proper build up. I know it says that Leah’s liked Abby for a long time now, but I wished it was shown more.
I love Leah. Although I can't entirely agree with her deadpan attitude, I get it enough.
Okay, now that it's been a few days, I am now ready to write a comprehensive review; Simon VS The Homo Sapiens Agenda was good, this book is... fine. Leah is moody, pessimistic, and sarcastic, which for some characters is fun but for her was just annoying. However, I'll give her a pass because she felt like a pretty realistic teenager. I had six major problems with this book in no particular order:
1. Nick's characterization. Felt out of left field and nothing like his characterizations in Simon VS The Homo Sapiens. Honestly, it might just be the fault of Leah's perspective.
2. The main relationship. I know this book came from the popular reader headcanon that Abby and Leah were into each other. However, I didn't see the potential in that book and this book didn't convince me at all. They were cute at times, but they felt mismatched and lowkey unhealthy. Abby tried to be understanding and kind towards Leah while Leah consistently refused to see past her preconceptions and didn't treat Abby very well because of them. Honestly, Nick and Taylor were more intriguing than Abby and Leah, and they were mentioned like five times. This sequel would be more interesting if it were from Simon's perspective with updates about his relationship with Bram, or maybe even if it were the same love story from Abby's perspective.
3. The Morgan thing. What she said was awful and insensitive, and I'm very proud of Leah for standing up against it and making her apologize. But at some point, it began to feel like... not performative activism, but whatever it's called when white people think they know more about what black people need/want then they do. Abby and Bram (who are both actually black, and Abby was the one who the racist comment was made about) forgave her, so Leah's continued dismissal and sometimes antagonizing of Morgan felt performative. I understand if she wanted to stay distanced from her, but being kind of mean to her and driving her out of the band was dramatic and rude. If it weren't for Bram and Abby forgiving her, I might've felt differently, but they did and Morgan clearly felt bad about it and as far as we can tell, she actually cared about being better and making up for it. If we refuse to help and let people learn and grow, nothing can ever change.
4. Leah's reaction to Abby's original coming out to her. Abby says "I'm a little bit bi" and Leah basically freaks out, saying you're either bi or not. First of all, sexuality is a spectrum and people should identify however they feel most comfortable with, and Leah has no right to demand Abby identifies a certain way. Secondly, Leah spends the whole book worried about how people will react to her coming out only to react the way she dreads most to Abby. It's basically like telling a bi person to choose a side. Unlike Morgan (not that the situations are totally equal), she doesn't apologize or try to learn from her insensitive comments.
5. The way she treated Garrett. He's seems like a nice enough guy and he seems funny, smart, and talented. He seemed like a great guy, This doesn't mean Leah has to like him back, you can't force feelings, but it does mean she needs to treat him with kindness and respect. Instead, she lead him on and occasionally thought quite lowly of him for literally no reason.
6. This one actually encompasses all three of my previous problems: Leah takes no responsibility for any of her actions, never apologizes for the many things she does wrong or hurts others, and experiences absolutely zero character growth. She owes apologies to pretty much every other person in the story, and these apologies alone would've given her enough character growth to satisfy because she'd have to acknowledge what she did wrong to know what to apologize for.
What I did like: Simon and Bram, Taylor, kind of Taylor and Nick, Nora, Nora and Cal, and the representation.
1. Nick's characterization. Felt out of left field and nothing like his characterizations in Simon VS The Homo Sapiens. Honestly, it might just be the fault of Leah's perspective.
2. The main relationship. I know this book came from the popular reader headcanon that Abby and Leah were into each other. However, I didn't see the potential in that book and this book didn't convince me at all. They were cute at times, but they felt mismatched and lowkey unhealthy. Abby tried to be understanding and kind towards Leah while Leah consistently refused to see past her preconceptions and didn't treat Abby very well because of them. Honestly, Nick and Taylor were more intriguing than Abby and Leah, and they were mentioned like five times. This sequel would be more interesting if it were from Simon's perspective with updates about his relationship with Bram, or maybe even if it were the same love story from Abby's perspective.
3. The Morgan thing. What she said was awful and insensitive, and I'm very proud of Leah for standing up against it and making her apologize. But at some point, it began to feel like... not performative activism, but whatever it's called when white people think they know more about what black people need/want then they do. Abby and Bram (who are both actually black, and Abby was the one who the racist comment was made about) forgave her, so Leah's continued dismissal and sometimes antagonizing of Morgan felt performative. I understand if she wanted to stay distanced from her, but being kind of mean to her and driving her out of the band was dramatic and rude. If it weren't for Bram and Abby forgiving her, I might've felt differently, but they did and Morgan clearly felt bad about it and as far as we can tell, she actually cared about being better and making up for it. If we refuse to help and let people learn and grow, nothing can ever change.
4. Leah's reaction to Abby's original coming out to her. Abby says "I'm a little bit bi" and Leah basically freaks out, saying you're either bi or not. First of all, sexuality is a spectrum and people should identify however they feel most comfortable with, and Leah has no right to demand Abby identifies a certain way. Secondly, Leah spends the whole book worried about how people will react to her coming out only to react the way she dreads most to Abby. It's basically like telling a bi person to choose a side. Unlike Morgan (not that the situations are totally equal), she doesn't apologize or try to learn from her insensitive comments.
5. The way she treated Garrett. He's seems like a nice enough guy and he seems funny, smart, and talented. He seemed like a great guy, This doesn't mean Leah has to like him back, you can't force feelings, but it does mean she needs to treat him with kindness and respect. Instead, she lead him on and occasionally thought quite lowly of him for literally no reason.
6. This one actually encompasses all three of my previous problems: Leah takes no responsibility for any of her actions, never apologizes for the many things she does wrong or hurts others, and experiences absolutely zero character growth. She owes apologies to pretty much every other person in the story, and these apologies alone would've given her enough character growth to satisfy because she'd have to acknowledge what she did wrong to know what to apologize for.
What I did like: Simon and Bram, Taylor, kind of Taylor and Nick, Nora, Nora and Cal, and the representation.
I loved this book. I didn't like Leah that much on Simon vs. homosapiens agenda, but i loved her in this book. I loved the story, but i was sad that story is ending here. I loved Abby and Leah, but i expected them to end up together from the start and that love story was amazing. Simon was cute in this book and i really liked him in this book too. Becky is amazing author and she wrote a great book. I didn't expect that i would love this book so much, but it was truly amazing.
I loved this story! I thought the character development was wonderful, and the story just grabbed me and was enjoyable!
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really hope Becky's newer books are better, because I've just been really bored! 🫢 With Simon vs.- it helped that there was a plot (the mystery of Blue), and What if it's Us had very entertaining narrators, but if those factors aren't there it's just not really working for me unfortunately. Which sucks because I love her writing style, she's relatable, funny, representative and creates great characters. 💛 There just isn't happening enough. 🙈
"My side eye is so intense that I should probably be walking sideways to compensate."
This book (and the others in this series) could be called "first world problems." It's basically Leah's hot take on a bunch of things.
Leah on drunk people: drunk people are basically zombies. One sip and all they want to do is infect you.
Leah on Love: "That has to be the best part of being in love. Having a home in someone else's brain."
Leah on Coming to Terms with Her Mom's Boyfriend: ". . . Maybe Mom could use a bootleg Prince William to distract her."
Leah on Prom: "Prom . . . It's like a looming apocalypse, but with formalware."
Leah on Music: "The DJ's playing some wordless techno song that sounds exactly like robots having sex."
Leah on sex: "My whole body feels electric--chest and stomach and everywhere below. It feels like having to pee, but not actually pee--it's lightning."
I definitely, like, get Leah more than Mollie or Simon or anyone else: a tsundere Slytherin who wants to seem too cool for school even though she has Cinnabun filling and is super super sensitive. When you're sort of quiet and cynical like that people assume there's a lot going on in the inside so they're surprised by literally anything they find. It's disorienting.
Update, though: now that I know what yaoi is, I have mixed feelings about a really tiny part of Leah's character. I feel like Leah has a creepy hobby because she's created original yaoi characters who are Japanese. Does that only feel weird to me? Idk.
This book (and the others in this series) could be called "first world problems." It's basically Leah's hot take on a bunch of things.
Leah on drunk people: drunk people are basically zombies. One sip and all they want to do is infect you.
Leah on Love: "That has to be the best part of being in love. Having a home in someone else's brain."
Leah on Coming to Terms with Her Mom's Boyfriend: ". . . Maybe Mom could use a bootleg Prince William to distract her."
Leah on Prom: "Prom . . . It's like a looming apocalypse, but with formalware."
Leah on Music: "The DJ's playing some wordless techno song that sounds exactly like robots having sex."
Leah on sex: "My whole body feels electric--chest and stomach and everywhere below. It feels like having to pee, but not actually pee--it's lightning."
I definitely, like, get Leah more than Mollie or Simon or anyone else: a tsundere Slytherin who wants to seem too cool for school even though she has Cinnabun filling and is super super sensitive. When you're sort of quiet and cynical like that people assume there's a lot going on in the inside so they're surprised by literally anything they find. It's disorienting.
Update, though: now that I know what yaoi is, I have mixed feelings about a really tiny part of Leah's character. I feel like Leah has a creepy hobby because she's created original yaoi characters who are Japanese. Does that only feel weird to me? Idk.
Dropped at page 78. One of my MOST anticipated reads this year. Check my review on my blog for all the Aggretsuko Gifs I used which just too well fitted. Sorry, Goodreads + Gifs are just not working for me.
Becky Albertalli quickly became my favourite writer after Simon Vs, I then had the chance to meet her and I became an even bigger fan of her. So imagine my delight when I heard about this book, that this one would be a sequel to Simon Vs. Not with Simon (sadly), but with Leah. I was very eager to get to read this book, but it took me a bit longer to start it, I was just too worried I would hate it. Now I guess I could just have read it whenever I wanted.
From the start though I noticed that Leah was just a bitch. The first sentence along made me go like: Whut girl? "I don't mean to be dramatic, but God save me from Morgan picking our set list. That girl is a suburban dad's midlife crisis in a high school senior body." Who the actual hell says that about their friends? Or later on. "Translation of the translation: Leah Catherine Burke is an actual genius, and we should never ever doubt her music taste." Or this classic line: "Welp. I guess I should have shut up about Journey. Like, I get it. I am white. I'm supposed to love shitty classic rock." And then there is this sentence just a page later: "I'm basically your resident fat Slytherin Rory Gilmore." Um, whut?
But that is not the first we see of Leah and making weird remarks. She is an utter bitch towards anyone and everyone. Well, OK, maybe not towards Simon or his boyfriend Bram. Leah LURRRVVESSS Simon and would marry him if he wasn't gay (and taken). She calls him sweet baby gay (whut?), and she is constantly gushing about the guy. I get that she has/had a crush, but really, um, this just felt so awkward.
But Leah went from terrible to worse when she kept acting like a total 5-year old towards her mom. Your mom finally found a good dude after 7 FUCKING years, and all you do, as an 18-year old (as I am guessing she must be around that age) is whine, complain, be a fucking bitch towards him, not giving him one chance. I get that it is probably hard for you to understand, but your mom is allowed to date, your mom is allowed to find a new hubby, your mom is allowed to do that as she has her life, and you have yours. Just talk to her honestly and tell her how you feel instead of constantly bitching and whining.
Garrett, poor poor Garrett. I just wanted to hug him, tell him he should stop going after Leah as she has NO interest in him, she is just being an absolute bitch. Yep, I felt so sorry for Garrett. Leah clearly knows he has an interest in her, even to the point of that he likes her a lot, and instead of just clearing up the air and telling him that no, she doesn't want to date him. She leads him on, acts totally weird around him, and then to make matters worse, when asked on a date to a game (I would call it a date), she just doesn't go because she doesn't feel like it. Because she had a shitty day. Because whatever Leah-ness came between. And yes, she just doesn't go. She doesn't cancel, she doesn't answer anything, and then later she even LIES ABOUT IT towards the dude. Girllll, shitty ass attitude? And funny enough, she blames him for stuff. Like this classic sentence: "I can't go to the game. Not feeling the way I feel right now. I can't deal with Garrett and his try-hard, dudebro act. Like, we all know you're secretly a dreamy-eyed piano kid, so stop pretending to be a douchebag. And stop messing with my head. Either flirt with me or don't. Either be cute or not." Which is a funny one, as throughout the book I haven't seen Garrett act one time like a douchebag or a hard dude-bro (whatever that may be, but it sounds terrible). And yes, he is flirting with you, all the time, but he is probably also unsure about things, as boys are. Girls aren't the only ones who feel unsure about starting something, boys also have feelings. :|
Then there was the whole Morgan didn't get accepted to x college that Leah will go to, so please Leah, don't talk to Morgan. What? Why? What kind of friendship do these girls have? It sounds quite unhealthy to me. I get that Morgan is probably hurt, but still to just act like this towards Leah? No thank you. For this one rare time, I was in team Leah.
And then there was that awkward racist conversation that really came out of nowhere and quite destroyed the character of Morgan.
Also Nick and Abby? Suddenly their perfect relationship is starting to grow cracks and even on the verge of breaking up. What the hell?
Oh and since we are on the topic of Retsuko, Leah did remind me of Tsunoda.
So, I am terribly sorry, but I hated this. This was terrible. Leah was horrendous, she keeps complaining, judging, making mean comments, and she is just urggghhhhhhhh. This book made me rage (just like Retsuko), but also very sad. This is my first BA book that I didn't like, correction, that I hated. :( I do hope her next book will be better again, can we just have another book about Simon?
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
Becky Albertalli quickly became my favourite writer after Simon Vs, I then had the chance to meet her and I became an even bigger fan of her. So imagine my delight when I heard about this book, that this one would be a sequel to Simon Vs. Not with Simon (sadly), but with Leah. I was very eager to get to read this book, but it took me a bit longer to start it, I was just too worried I would hate it. Now I guess I could just have read it whenever I wanted.
From the start though I noticed that Leah was just a bitch. The first sentence along made me go like: Whut girl? "I don't mean to be dramatic, but God save me from Morgan picking our set list. That girl is a suburban dad's midlife crisis in a high school senior body." Who the actual hell says that about their friends? Or later on. "Translation of the translation: Leah Catherine Burke is an actual genius, and we should never ever doubt her music taste." Or this classic line: "Welp. I guess I should have shut up about Journey. Like, I get it. I am white. I'm supposed to love shitty classic rock." And then there is this sentence just a page later: "I'm basically your resident fat Slytherin Rory Gilmore." Um, whut?
But that is not the first we see of Leah and making weird remarks. She is an utter bitch towards anyone and everyone. Well, OK, maybe not towards Simon or his boyfriend Bram. Leah LURRRVVESSS Simon and would marry him if he wasn't gay (and taken). She calls him sweet baby gay (whut?), and she is constantly gushing about the guy. I get that she has/had a crush, but really, um, this just felt so awkward.
But Leah went from terrible to worse when she kept acting like a total 5-year old towards her mom. Your mom finally found a good dude after 7 FUCKING years, and all you do, as an 18-year old (as I am guessing she must be around that age) is whine, complain, be a fucking bitch towards him, not giving him one chance. I get that it is probably hard for you to understand, but your mom is allowed to date, your mom is allowed to find a new hubby, your mom is allowed to do that as she has her life, and you have yours. Just talk to her honestly and tell her how you feel instead of constantly bitching and whining.
Garrett, poor poor Garrett. I just wanted to hug him, tell him he should stop going after Leah as she has NO interest in him, she is just being an absolute bitch. Yep, I felt so sorry for Garrett. Leah clearly knows he has an interest in her, even to the point of that he likes her a lot, and instead of just clearing up the air and telling him that no, she doesn't want to date him. She leads him on, acts totally weird around him, and then to make matters worse, when asked on a date to a game (I would call it a date), she just doesn't go because she doesn't feel like it. Because she had a shitty day. Because whatever Leah-ness came between. And yes, she just doesn't go. She doesn't cancel, she doesn't answer anything, and then later she even LIES ABOUT IT towards the dude. Girllll, shitty ass attitude? And funny enough, she blames him for stuff. Like this classic sentence: "I can't go to the game. Not feeling the way I feel right now. I can't deal with Garrett and his try-hard, dudebro act. Like, we all know you're secretly a dreamy-eyed piano kid, so stop pretending to be a douchebag. And stop messing with my head. Either flirt with me or don't. Either be cute or not." Which is a funny one, as throughout the book I haven't seen Garrett act one time like a douchebag or a hard dude-bro (whatever that may be, but it sounds terrible). And yes, he is flirting with you, all the time, but he is probably also unsure about things, as boys are. Girls aren't the only ones who feel unsure about starting something, boys also have feelings. :|
Then there was the whole Morgan didn't get accepted to x college that Leah will go to, so please Leah, don't talk to Morgan. What? Why? What kind of friendship do these girls have? It sounds quite unhealthy to me. I get that Morgan is probably hurt, but still to just act like this towards Leah? No thank you. For this one rare time, I was in team Leah.
And then there was that awkward racist conversation that really came out of nowhere and quite destroyed the character of Morgan.
Also Nick and Abby? Suddenly their perfect relationship is starting to grow cracks and even on the verge of breaking up. What the hell?
Oh and since we are on the topic of Retsuko, Leah did remind me of Tsunoda.
So, I am terribly sorry, but I hated this. This was terrible. Leah was horrendous, she keeps complaining, judging, making mean comments, and she is just urggghhhhhhhh. This book made me rage (just like Retsuko), but also very sad. This is my first BA book that I didn't like, correction, that I hated. :( I do hope her next book will be better again, can we just have another book about Simon?
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/