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A review by bellefarren
Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
5.0
5/5 stars
Be still, my beating heart. Simon vs. simultaneously grew me a heart and also overloaded it with too many feels. I honestly had to pry my kindle out of my hand because I didn’t want to do anything but read this book.
For some reason I have a hard time gelling with main characters—especially in YA books—but Simon was such a beautiful character I honestly think he won my heart within the first couple of sentences. Everything about this book was relatable; the characters, the friendships and the very many relatable quotes.
Simon is a sixteen-year-old boy who is not openly gay and is being blackmailed by a fellow student with his private emails with Blue, an anonymous and also closeted boy from the same high school. Simon is left to attempt to manoeuvre the difficulty that is high school while trying to protect himself and Blue.
This was the perfect mixture of light (and absolutely hilarious) and heartbreaking. Because at every turn, when you thought everything might end with a perfectly ever after, a few words were thrown in to remind you that the world is still far from perfect, and many people are far from being progressive or wholly accepting.
This book is filled to the brim with the most relatable characters, Becky Albertalli has the beautiful gift of making even the most seemingly inconsequential character relatable—I saw a little bit of myself in every character. Even characters I didn’t particularly like. I would be reading about a character and thinking, I have one of them in my life.I definitely have a few Taylors, anybody with me? We all have those know-it-alls in our lives . I think that’s the sign that this book was filled with well fleshed out and realistic characters.
This was mash up of beautifully painful feels (I cringed with second hand embarrassment, I almost smashed my kindle in frustration that the characters couldn’t see the blaringly obvious and swooned along with them) and important subject matter.
The emailing that became such an important format throughout this book, sold the romance story for me. This wasn’t just two teenagers meeting and instantly falling in “teenage love”. This wasn’t that fake, forced romance that always seems to have a ticking time bomb attached to it, this was real and pure. The fact that the characters began to get to know each other through their honest thoughts and feelings, without any bias influence of the real world or appearances, made everything the more sweet.
OMGOMGOMG the second Bram was introduced as a character I literally prayed that he was Blue and I started screaming when I was right. They were so cute omg my heart still hurts I can’t. Sorry for the weird fangirl moment I just can't contain my feelings right now.
I can’t wait to tackle more of Becky Albertalli’s books, this will definitely be a book I recommend to anybody and everybody. I honestly just want to pick this up ad star reading it all over again, I’ve just finished and I already miss the characters.
buddy read with the wonderful Lauren!
edit: find Lauren's review here.
“Sometimes it seems like everyone knows who I am except me.”
Be still, my beating heart. Simon vs. simultaneously grew me a heart and also overloaded it with too many feels. I honestly had to pry my kindle out of my hand because I didn’t want to do anything but read this book.
For some reason I have a hard time gelling with main characters—especially in YA books—but Simon was such a beautiful character I honestly think he won my heart within the first couple of sentences. Everything about this book was relatable; the characters, the friendships and the very many relatable quotes.
"Remember the way people would look at you blankly and say “um, okaaay,” after you finished talking? Everyone just had to make it so clear that, whatever you were thinking or feeling, you were totally alone.”
Simon is a sixteen-year-old boy who is not openly gay and is being blackmailed by a fellow student with his private emails with Blue, an anonymous and also closeted boy from the same high school. Simon is left to attempt to manoeuvre the difficulty that is high school while trying to protect himself and Blue.
This was the perfect mixture of light (and absolutely hilarious) and heartbreaking. Because at every turn, when you thought everything might end with a perfectly ever after, a few words were thrown in to remind you that the world is still far from perfect, and many people are far from being progressive or wholly accepting.
"It’s too public to hold hands. This being Georgia."
This book is filled to the brim with the most relatable characters, Becky Albertalli has the beautiful gift of making even the most seemingly inconsequential character relatable—I saw a little bit of myself in every character. Even characters I didn’t particularly like. I would be reading about a character and thinking, I have one of them in my life.
This was mash up of beautifully painful feels (I cringed with second hand embarrassment, I almost smashed my kindle in frustration that the characters couldn’t see the blaringly obvious and swooned along with them) and important subject matter.
The emailing that became such an important format throughout this book, sold the romance story for me. This wasn’t just two teenagers meeting and instantly falling in “teenage love”. This wasn’t that fake, forced romance that always seems to have a ticking time bomb attached to it, this was real and pure. The fact that the characters began to get to know each other through their honest thoughts and feelings, without any bias influence of the real world or appearances, made everything the more sweet.
I can’t wait to tackle more of Becky Albertalli’s books, this will definitely be a book I recommend to anybody and everybody. I honestly just want to pick this up ad star reading it all over again, I’ve just finished and I already miss the characters.
buddy read with the wonderful Lauren!
edit: find Lauren's review here.