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jfemke's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
emmalemonnz's review against another edition
4.0
Great to have a girl character who is fat and not trying to lose weight!
Kind of predictable, but I enjoyed this book.
Kind of predictable, but I enjoyed this book.
nikrodee's review against another edition
3.0
I picked up this book for some light reading in between all of my post apocalyptic plague books I've been into recently, and it did not disappoint.
The Upside of Unrequited was a super sweet, real life book. When you're young, you want to be in love. Molly is no different than any other seventeen year old. She has a twin sister she tells everything to and a great network of friends and family standing behind her, but she wants the one thing she's missing; a boyfriend. I connected with Molly a lot more than I thought I would have. She's a big girl with some confidence issues. I cheered at the end of the book when she finally said she "felt beautiful" because she was a beautiful character throughout the entire story to me.
And come on, I mean who doesn't love a guy like Reid?! He's a super nerd who is completely comfortable with that and I am absolutely behind being yourself.
This book is a heartbreaking truth; girls struggling with boys, with not being an ideal body image, and growing up. If you're looking for something that isn't too heavy and want to feel the love I totally suggest picking up The Upside of Unrequited and falling into love with people who don't necessarily fit the social norm.
The Upside of Unrequited was a super sweet, real life book. When you're young, you want to be in love. Molly is no different than any other seventeen year old. She has a twin sister she tells everything to and a great network of friends and family standing behind her, but she wants the one thing she's missing; a boyfriend. I connected with Molly a lot more than I thought I would have. She's a big girl with some confidence issues. I cheered at the end of the book when she finally said she "felt beautiful" because she was a beautiful character throughout the entire story to me.
And come on, I mean who doesn't love a guy like Reid?! He's a super nerd who is completely comfortable with that and I am absolutely behind being yourself.
This book is a heartbreaking truth; girls struggling with boys, with not being an ideal body image, and growing up. If you're looking for something that isn't too heavy and want to feel the love I totally suggest picking up The Upside of Unrequited and falling into love with people who don't necessarily fit the social norm.
leafblade's review against another edition
5.0
Lo releí en un día te amo Becky no te calmes nunca
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I'm pan. I've never dated or kissed anyone. By that, I guess you can tell why I loved this book so much.
Honestly, this hasn't been a good year for me at all in the love-and-relationships department. A lot of things went terribly wrong. But I felt like this book got me, like it knew what I went through this year and it had the exact words to make me feel understood. It didn't make me feel better, it didn't say "okay to feel like you're worthy of love you have to do THIS". I felt like it was telling me "okay, I get you, life sucks, not dating sucks, not kissing people sucks, here, take a whole bucket of ice cream and a warm blanket". It was just what I needed.
In terms of the story, it was okay, I guess. I've always hated the fact that I'm not a twin, so it's always nice to read about them. A f/f couple had more on page time than the straight main couple. One of the girls was a pan girl that had never kissed someone before until she meets Molly's sister. I just. I can't get over the fact that there's a pan character. Wow. What. That could be me.
What I didn't like was that it was all resolved by making Molly "normal"??? Like, she got a boyfriend and got a little drunk and hung out with people and suddenly she was okay. Dude, give me a solution to this that isn't "if you want to do things, do them". That sounded so wrong I'm sorry english is my second language. I'll overthink this and eventually edit this review with better phrasing for that.
Anyway yes I loved it can becky adopt me already???
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I'm pan. I've never dated or kissed anyone. By that, I guess you can tell why I loved this book so much.
Honestly, this hasn't been a good year for me at all in the love-and-relationships department. A lot of things went terribly wrong. But I felt like this book got me, like it knew what I went through this year and it had the exact words to make me feel understood. It didn't make me feel better, it didn't say "okay to feel like you're worthy of love you have to do THIS". I felt like it was telling me "okay, I get you, life sucks, not dating sucks, not kissing people sucks, here, take a whole bucket of ice cream and a warm blanket". It was just what I needed.
In terms of the story, it was okay, I guess. I've always hated the fact that I'm not a twin, so it's always nice to read about them. A f/f couple had more on page time than the straight main couple. One of the girls was a pan girl that had never kissed someone before until she meets Molly's sister. I just. I can't get over the fact that there's a pan character. Wow. What. That could be me.
What I didn't like was that it was all resolved by making Molly "normal"??? Like, she got a boyfriend and got a little drunk and hung out with people and suddenly she was okay. Dude, give me a solution to this that isn't "if you want to do things, do them". That sounded so wrong I'm sorry english is my second language. I'll overthink this and eventually edit this review with better phrasing for that.
Anyway yes I loved it can becky adopt me already???
tishywishy's review against another edition
3.0
Cute but the story was slow to get off the ground + it took some patience to listen to Molly talk about crushes for what seemed like half the story.
nilla_beanie19's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 ⭐️ I liked it. It was super cute and I felt very relatable. There were some things that I felt dragged just a bit but overall I enjoyed. I definitely got emotional at some points.
joanna1905's review against another edition
4.0
Edit: 4/01/19 - 3rd Reread
So I pretty much stand by everything I said in my second review, I still struggle to like Cassie’s character but when I try really hard to put myself in her shoes I definitely like her more.
While this isn’t my favourite of Becky’s works it’s still a fantastic read! She really does nail relatability in a super authentic not at all forced kind of way.
I absolutely love Reid as a love Interest and every time I read this I can’t help but desperately ship him and Molly!
A fantastic read.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Edit: 6/07/18 - So I read this for a second time and I have some new thoughts. When I read this book the first time I really enjoyed it (I mean I gave it 4 stars), but it just didn't quite live up to SimonVs (nor did it live up to Leah). However, this is NO fault of the book but simply due to the fact that I related more to Simon and Leah than I did to Molly - particularly because we follow their journey accepting their sexualities.
Having said Molly is still totally relatable (this is a real strong point of Becky's, while all her characters are totally unique there is something in all of them that everyone can relate to). I particularly relate to Molly's inexperience with relationships and her (sometimes) self-consciousness about her size compared to her friends.
To be completely honest the main thing I didn't like about this book the first time was Cassie, I really didn't like the way she treated her sister and it constantly rubbed me the wrong way. But I'd die for Becky Albertalli, so going into this reread I put aside my feelings from the first read and tried to be more open-minded; and I definitely enjoyed it more. I tried to be more understanding of Cassie's pov (which can be difficult since the story is only told from Molly's pov) and in doing so I definitely liked her more. I still didn't LOVE her, but I liked her allot more and I did make me enjoy the book more!
Another one of Becky's talents is having a ridiculously (good ridiculously) diverse cast of characters. This book features a Jewish biracial lesbian couple who have three kids, two white girls (one of which is a lesbian), and a baby boy who takes after his black mother. One of the love interests is a pansexual Korean girl while the other is a straight Jewish boy who also has two mums. Never once does this representation feel forced or like Becky's trying to capitalize on the demand for more diverse literature. You can tell she really cares about having a diverse cast of characters that are just normal everyday people - there's no token gays bffs or token black sidekicks in her books.
To summerise, Becky Albertalli and her writing is the best thing to ever happen to this world.
The End.
____________________________________________________________
Another awesome book by Becky Albertalli! Honesty the way she gets into the minds of teenagers and represents them so accurately continually blows my mind; she's one of the few authors who writes authentic and realistic teens! While I can't say I loved this one as much as Simon Vs The Homo sapiens agenda, I think that's primarily because I related more to Simon than Molly; saying that Molly is still realistically relatable.
Another thing Albertalli does fantastically is integrating diverse characters in a super realistic way, I think often authors include diverse characters just for the sake of being diverse but never fully how to write them as real people not just as stereotypes.
Definitely worth the read and I look forward to her next work, 'Leah on the offbeat' which I think will prove to be even more relatable!
So I pretty much stand by everything I said in my second review, I still struggle to like Cassie’s character but when I try really hard to put myself in her shoes I definitely like her more.
While this isn’t my favourite of Becky’s works it’s still a fantastic read! She really does nail relatability in a super authentic not at all forced kind of way.
I absolutely love Reid as a love Interest and every time I read this I can’t help but desperately ship him and Molly!
A fantastic read.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Edit: 6/07/18 - So I read this for a second time and I have some new thoughts. When I read this book the first time I really enjoyed it (I mean I gave it 4 stars), but it just didn't quite live up to SimonVs (nor did it live up to Leah). However, this is NO fault of the book but simply due to the fact that I related more to Simon and Leah than I did to Molly - particularly because we follow their journey accepting their sexualities.
Having said Molly is still totally relatable (this is a real strong point of Becky's, while all her characters are totally unique there is something in all of them that everyone can relate to). I particularly relate to Molly's inexperience with relationships and her (sometimes) self-consciousness about her size compared to her friends.
To be completely honest the main thing I didn't like about this book the first time was Cassie, I really didn't like the way she treated her sister and it constantly rubbed me the wrong way. But I'd die for Becky Albertalli, so going into this reread I put aside my feelings from the first read and tried to be more open-minded; and I definitely enjoyed it more. I tried to be more understanding of Cassie's pov (which can be difficult since the story is only told from Molly's pov) and in doing so I definitely liked her more. I still didn't LOVE her, but I liked her allot more and I did make me enjoy the book more!
Another one of Becky's talents is having a ridiculously (good ridiculously) diverse cast of characters. This book features a Jewish biracial lesbian couple who have three kids, two white girls (one of which is a lesbian), and a baby boy who takes after his black mother. One of the love interests is a pansexual Korean girl while the other is a straight Jewish boy who also has two mums. Never once does this representation feel forced or like Becky's trying to capitalize on the demand for more diverse literature. You can tell she really cares about having a diverse cast of characters that are just normal everyday people - there's no token gays bffs or token black sidekicks in her books.
To summerise, Becky Albertalli and her writing is the best thing to ever happen to this world.
The End.
____________________________________________________________
Another awesome book by Becky Albertalli! Honesty the way she gets into the minds of teenagers and represents them so accurately continually blows my mind; she's one of the few authors who writes authentic and realistic teens! While I can't say I loved this one as much as Simon Vs The Homo sapiens agenda, I think that's primarily because I related more to Simon than Molly; saying that Molly is still realistically relatable.
Another thing Albertalli does fantastically is integrating diverse characters in a super realistic way, I think often authors include diverse characters just for the sake of being diverse but never fully how to write them as real people not just as stereotypes.
Definitely worth the read and I look forward to her next work, 'Leah on the offbeat' which I think will prove to be even more relatable!
nasher67671's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
rainbowrachel's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia and Panic attacks/disorders