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oraclereadings 's review for:
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
by Becky Albertalli
“Why is straight the default? Everyone should have to declare one way or another, and it shouldn’t be this big awkward thing whether you’re straight, gay, bi, or whatever. I’m just saying.”
2.5 ⭐️
I put this book off for a while because there was so much hype surrounding it. I’m always hesitant reading books that with so much hype because they never live up to my expectations. And it is possible that I waited too long to read this because it just wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. This book isn’t a big book or long, but it still felt like it took me forever to get through it. It just honestly was not that great.
Simon is gay, closeted, and in high school. We all remember the troubles we struggled through as teenagers, or perhaps you can relate because you are a struggling teenager right now. Life can be hard when you don’t know anyone that you can identify with. For Simon, Blue is that person he can identify and get along with. They’ve been sending each other email’s back and forth to each other for a while now. They even go to the same high school! Unfortunately, he has no idea who Blue is. As they both use aliases while sending emails to each other.
It’s fine, though. They’re both planning on coming out to their parents this year anyway, so they’ll soon reveal their real identities to each other. Right?
But then a student by the name of Martin finds Simon’s secret emails on the school’s computer. Martin holds it against Simon, blackmailing him into putting in a good word for a girl that Simon’s friends with.
Martin isn’t only threatening Simon, he’s threatening Blue.
And this is where I started having problems with the book. I started hating Martin the very second that he walked up to Simon and was like, "Hey I read your emails and I have them printed off. I’m not gonna do anything with them, as long as you put in a good word for me for some girl that is in your friend group". Obviously those aren’t the exact words, but that is the gist of what happened.
Now, I probably would have done the same as Simon back in my teen years and tried to hype Martin up to my friend and completely rolled over. That is not where I have problems with this. Because Simon is young and he is literally being blackmailed. No one else knows that he’s gay and he’s not ready to out himself. So he can’t exactly go to his other friends and be like, "Hey, Martin’s being a dick and blah blah blah" or even tell a teacher or adult the problem without coming out. So, no, I do not fault Simon for that.
However, I do have problems with the way Martin is portrayed, often from Simon’s point of view. There are a lot of moments where Martin is seen as being either another member in their friend group or just an average student that everyone adores, instead of his actual role of being the antagonist. Martin is literally holding Simon’s emails over his head, threatening to out his sexuality, and Simon sees the positive side in Martin. Even if he was a very friendly guy, I would not feel any genuine feelings for someone that was blackmailing me. In one line, Simon even says something along the lines of "I think he’s starting to grow on me".
It’s just very confusing because Simon jumps back and forth a lot between "Oh, he’s awful, I hate him. He’s threatening to out me" and "What can I say? This guy is funny and we could be probably be friends".
Representation: Jewish characters, gay characters, bisexual character
There was just a lot that didn’t sit right with me as I was reading this. I’ll list some of them below. Beware of SPOILERS.
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Martin did not deserve any sort of redemption or even for Simon to be nice to him, even before he outed Simon. While Simon is struggling with being out, his friends are just— Not There. He was literally getting bullied half of the time and his friends just— Did. Not. Care. They just weren't there for him when he really needed them to be. Even Blue wasn’t there for Simon when he was getting bullied.
Leah was mad over nothing like 80% of the time. There was so many times I was like, "Giirrlll, just chill". How you gonna be mad at Simon when he's going through hell? And then get mad because he didn't come out to you first? Just shut up.
“I guess there are a few lesbian and bisexual girls, but I think it’s different for girls. Maybe it’s easier.”
It is definitely not easier. As a bi girl, I have gotten so much shit from both the straight and lgbt communities. Being a wlw is not easier than being a mlm. Identifying as a lesbian doesn’t make it easier than identifying as gay. Everyone struggles with coming out or figuring out their identity. WLW struggle the same with coming out and homophobia and slurs being thrown around just as much as a MLM might experience. Not to mention that bisexuals in general often get their sexuality dismissed just because they are in a relationship with someone of the opposite gender.
“White shouldn’t be the default any more than straight should be the default. There shouldn’t even be a default.”
Is there a term or word for pick me boys? Is it just pick me boys? Cause I strongly feel like Simon would be classified as one. He is just so self-centered. While I was mad at his friends for not giving enough of a shit about him while he was struggling with getting bullied and his forced coming out, he just also wasn’t there for his friends. It was stated in the book that these are his friends, he’s honestly just so distanced from them that it’s so unbelievable. He’s so entranced in his online relationship with Blue that he doesn’t have time for his friends in real life.
The fact that he didn’t think about the possibility of Blue being a different race other than white was just so off-putting. Blue gave him so many clues and hints but Simon is just so full of himself that he didn’t even realize.