Scan barcode
A review by readershark
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
5.0
Review originally written on my blog.
Obviously, this book is making its rounds. From the hype of the movie, Simon, has been flying off the shelves, and with good reason. It's amazing.
This book was originally published in 2015. I'd heard the buzz here and there, but it came back around in late 2017, because of the movie deal. At the same time, many books with LGBT leads (mainly gay men), were getting published. Honestly, I loved it! Unfortunately, we got a lot of books about gay men published by straight women who wanted to write their favorite ship. See: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (a very obvious Drarry retelling). I'm not saying these were bad novels, but I was so incredibly tired of seeing straight women tell a story that belongs to me and my fellow gay peers.
So, needless to say, I was reluctant of reading Simon because if its author. An utter mistake, because if I had read it in 2015, I would have read it in one of the worst stages of my life, and I would have loved to have it then. Either way, I didn't. So, last night, I picked it up, and I read it all in one sitting.
Simon's story is one of coming out. While I'm touchy with that subject being handled by straight/cisgender people who have never had to deal with closets and how their handles can be hard to open, Becky handled it with ease and grace. Simon was a teenager. He happened to be gay. The focus was, of course, on him being gay, but it was not a crisis. He was not insecure or scared or figuring himself out. He is undeniably gay and unashamed, which we don't see a lot. He also lives in Georgia, which plays into his coming out.
Before I sing praises about the rest of the book, I do have to point out the flaws. As much as I loved it, everything I read is looked at critically. The premise of this story, is that Simon is blackmailed. He has one of the calmest reactions to being blackmailed I have ever seen, and even starts to like his blackmailer. Um...no. If someone were blackmailing me, I would not even come close to remotely liking them. Ever. Though this is dealt with later in the book, I felt as if the whole aspect was taken too lightly.
There was also the case of Simon's best friend, Leah, who's into the manga artist yaoi scene. I don't know one single gay man who enjoys people looking at gay people through yaoi lenses. Yaoi is a complete fetishism of gay culture and gay people, with yuri being the lesbian counterpart. Both are over sexualized and dripping with stereotypes, used to fill a fetish-shaped whole in straight peoples' hearts. Leah, I felt like, was also not that well fleshed out. We get that she's chubby, she's sassy, she's into yaoi, and she's insecure, but we don't know much beyond that.
Lastly, there's the note about lesbians. Simon makes a crack that it's easier for lesbians or bisexual women to come out, because most men will cheer them on and think its hot. Once again, this is not a positive thing. This is fetishism of lesbians, a constant problem in our culture. In 2017, the top porn category sought in the United States was in fact, lesbian porn. Lesbians are not sexual objects for men's disgusting lustful eyes, and even shining the smallest spotlight on it is part of the problem.
However, let's get back to the shining praise.
Reading Simon was the gift I didn't know I wanted. Even though this a book about coming out, this is not the typical questioning book that we see in so much YA. Instead, Simon is trying to navigate his way through this blackmail situation while trying to find out who Blue, his mysterious penpal, is. It is so fluffy and good and happy that I never wanted the conflict to come into play.
There's this air around Simon that I really loved. He's sarcastic, funny, and unafraid to use fucking and freaking in the same sentence. He has all the confusing feelings a teenager would usually have, and his emails with Blue made my heart soar.
What made it so believable, was that Becky Albertalli has spent a lot of her adulthood working with and for gender nonconforming kids and LGBT+ adults, and her time around them shows in this novel. I never found myself rolling my eyes internally muttering god, this was written by a straight person. She is also very clear that the defaults we have in today's media (white, straight, cisgender, etc) are wrong and there should be no default at all.
This book was written with today's teenager in mind. I didn't get an adult vibe from this book, and that's part of what I loved about it. Simon is such a seventeen-year-old boy, that I kind of fell in love with him. He's angsty, funny, he loves hugs, and he loves Oreos. Basically me in high school, if we're being honest.
This book also talks about real things in real people's lives. There's no dancing around sex. No bumping uglies or other weird synonyms. We are aware of sex. It's a thing that most people in high school want to have, and most definitely know about. And drinking. Drinking is a thing a lot of people in high school do for the first time, and find out what their limits are/what they like. There was no acting like it's bad or wanting sex makes you impure or some other bullshit. It's what actual teens think about when thinking about their first time, and it was very refreshing. That, and the fact that parents, family, and school were all themes in this novel, things that are usually pushed aside in YA.
I could go on about Simon for centuries, but the main point is, it made me happy. This book made me smile and cry and do everything in between. I felt for Simon, and a big part of me wished that I could have been him in high school. I wish I had him to carry with me in my bag while I was there, but I'm happy I have him now. It felt so refreshing to have a story about being gay that's a one up from oh no! I'm gay!
I was also very pleased to find this story had a beautiful, happy ending, which is also something we don't get to see in a lot of LGBT fiction. This novel had me feeling like I was five again, trying to pick out what's under the Christmas tree, but instead of presents, it's non-fetishized LGBT representation that rings accurate to my own experiences.
I very thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend you give it a try, too!
Obviously, this book is making its rounds. From the hype of the movie, Simon, has been flying off the shelves, and with good reason. It's amazing.
This book was originally published in 2015. I'd heard the buzz here and there, but it came back around in late 2017, because of the movie deal. At the same time, many books with LGBT leads (mainly gay men), were getting published. Honestly, I loved it! Unfortunately, we got a lot of books about gay men published by straight women who wanted to write their favorite ship. See: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (a very obvious Drarry retelling). I'm not saying these were bad novels, but I was so incredibly tired of seeing straight women tell a story that belongs to me and my fellow gay peers.
So, needless to say, I was reluctant of reading Simon because if its author. An utter mistake, because if I had read it in 2015, I would have read it in one of the worst stages of my life, and I would have loved to have it then. Either way, I didn't. So, last night, I picked it up, and I read it all in one sitting.
Simon's story is one of coming out. While I'm touchy with that subject being handled by straight/cisgender people who have never had to deal with closets and how their handles can be hard to open, Becky handled it with ease and grace. Simon was a teenager. He happened to be gay. The focus was, of course, on him being gay, but it was not a crisis. He was not insecure or scared or figuring himself out. He is undeniably gay and unashamed, which we don't see a lot. He also lives in Georgia, which plays into his coming out.
Before I sing praises about the rest of the book, I do have to point out the flaws. As much as I loved it, everything I read is looked at critically. The premise of this story, is that Simon is blackmailed. He has one of the calmest reactions to being blackmailed I have ever seen, and even starts to like his blackmailer. Um...no. If someone were blackmailing me, I would not even come close to remotely liking them. Ever. Though this is dealt with later in the book, I felt as if the whole aspect was taken too lightly.
There was also the case of Simon's best friend, Leah, who's into the manga artist yaoi scene. I don't know one single gay man who enjoys people looking at gay people through yaoi lenses. Yaoi is a complete fetishism of gay culture and gay people, with yuri being the lesbian counterpart. Both are over sexualized and dripping with stereotypes, used to fill a fetish-shaped whole in straight peoples' hearts. Leah, I felt like, was also not that well fleshed out. We get that she's chubby, she's sassy, she's into yaoi, and she's insecure, but we don't know much beyond that.
Lastly, there's the note about lesbians. Simon makes a crack that it's easier for lesbians or bisexual women to come out, because most men will cheer them on and think its hot. Once again, this is not a positive thing. This is fetishism of lesbians, a constant problem in our culture. In 2017, the top porn category sought in the United States was in fact, lesbian porn. Lesbians are not sexual objects for men's disgusting lustful eyes, and even shining the smallest spotlight on it is part of the problem.
However, let's get back to the shining praise.
Reading Simon was the gift I didn't know I wanted. Even though this a book about coming out, this is not the typical questioning book that we see in so much YA. Instead, Simon is trying to navigate his way through this blackmail situation while trying to find out who Blue, his mysterious penpal, is. It is so fluffy and good and happy that I never wanted the conflict to come into play.
There's this air around Simon that I really loved. He's sarcastic, funny, and unafraid to use fucking and freaking in the same sentence. He has all the confusing feelings a teenager would usually have, and his emails with Blue made my heart soar.
What made it so believable, was that Becky Albertalli has spent a lot of her adulthood working with and for gender nonconforming kids and LGBT+ adults, and her time around them shows in this novel. I never found myself rolling my eyes internally muttering god, this was written by a straight person. She is also very clear that the defaults we have in today's media (white, straight, cisgender, etc) are wrong and there should be no default at all.
This book was written with today's teenager in mind. I didn't get an adult vibe from this book, and that's part of what I loved about it. Simon is such a seventeen-year-old boy, that I kind of fell in love with him. He's angsty, funny, he loves hugs, and he loves Oreos. Basically me in high school, if we're being honest.
This book also talks about real things in real people's lives. There's no dancing around sex. No bumping uglies or other weird synonyms. We are aware of sex. It's a thing that most people in high school want to have, and most definitely know about. And drinking. Drinking is a thing a lot of people in high school do for the first time, and find out what their limits are/what they like. There was no acting like it's bad or wanting sex makes you impure or some other bullshit. It's what actual teens think about when thinking about their first time, and it was very refreshing. That, and the fact that parents, family, and school were all themes in this novel, things that are usually pushed aside in YA.
I could go on about Simon for centuries, but the main point is, it made me happy. This book made me smile and cry and do everything in between. I felt for Simon, and a big part of me wished that I could have been him in high school. I wish I had him to carry with me in my bag while I was there, but I'm happy I have him now. It felt so refreshing to have a story about being gay that's a one up from oh no! I'm gay!
I was also very pleased to find this story had a beautiful, happy ending, which is also something we don't get to see in a lot of LGBT fiction. This novel had me feeling like I was five again, trying to pick out what's under the Christmas tree, but instead of presents, it's non-fetishized LGBT representation that rings accurate to my own experiences.
I very thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend you give it a try, too!