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A review by cemeterygay
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
This book is a saltine in book form.
It's mostly inoffensive but it is nothing special. It's the whitest most cis queer book I've read in a bit. It's meant to just be a queer romance palatable to a cishet audience and it succeeds. I'm not saying this book cannot be relatable to queer people, but it certainly does play into the idea of acceptance over queer liberation.
It creates the idea of a palatable white cis middle classed queer person as the image of one of the "good and normal" queer folk. If you're not all of these categories, it will probably not be a particularly interesting read. Despite what a lot of people say this book is nothing revolutionary.
The romance is pretty cute. Simon is your typical white man protagonist that is almost indistinguishable from most of his cishet counterparts and is not particularly interesting.
I liked Abby as a side character and I liked who Blue was revealed to be. I think the outing storyline was handled pretty okay except for Leah's reaction. Every other queer issue in this book is not handled well. Between blatant lesbophobia and the downplaying of homophobic jokes and microagressions, the book plays into the idea that the biggest issue queer people face is cishet people being mean and that there are no ramifications to these microaggressions.
This book might be your thing but is not the pinnacle of queer rep. Please diversify the queer rep you read, better and more diverse queer books exist than this.
It's a perfectly mediocre book.
It's mostly inoffensive but it is nothing special. It's the whitest most cis queer book I've read in a bit. It's meant to just be a queer romance palatable to a cishet audience and it succeeds. I'm not saying this book cannot be relatable to queer people, but it certainly does play into the idea of acceptance over queer liberation.
It creates the idea of a palatable white cis middle classed queer person as the image of one of the "good and normal" queer folk. If you're not all of these categories, it will probably not be a particularly interesting read. Despite what a lot of people say this book is nothing revolutionary.
The romance is pretty cute. Simon is your typical white man protagonist that is almost indistinguishable from most of his cishet counterparts and is not particularly interesting.
I liked Abby as a side character and I liked who Blue was revealed to be. I think the outing storyline was handled pretty okay except for Leah's reaction. Every other queer issue in this book is not handled well. Between blatant lesbophobia and the downplaying of homophobic jokes and microagressions, the book plays into the idea that the biggest issue queer people face is cishet people being mean and that there are no ramifications to these microaggressions.
This book might be your thing but is not the pinnacle of queer rep. Please diversify the queer rep you read, better and more diverse queer books exist than this.
It's a perfectly mediocre book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, and Outing
Moderate: Misogyny
CW: Blackmail, Lesbophobia