Take a photo of a barcode or cover
iamhereforthebooks 's review for:
Leah on the Offbeat
by Becky Albertalli
ETA 23/05: Yesterday I had a very intense chat with the lovely ladies of A Book Nirvana that reminded me how pissed off I am with that half-assed ending, so I've decided to lower my rating from 3 to 2 stars because seriously...
I shamelessly confess that I started this book only because I wanted more Simon + Blue. In that sense I am happy, because the boys show up quite a lot and they even have a small interesting arc and all the time they are their usual super adorable selves :)
I didn't like Leah that much in the first book, but I liked her here. She's still a selfish brat most of the time, but at least now I understand why. Leah feels like a very real teenager with her insecurities, her ups and downs, her fierce love for her friends, her assholy attitude towards her mum and her massive crush on someone absolutely inconvenient. You cannot help but to like the girl in the end.
So I was enjoying the book a lot. AND THEN.
I didn't think it was possible, but there is such a thing as too much cuteness. As in, some bits were way, way too saccharine. And it fits that Leah has had a crush all this time, but seriously, where are the clues It feels too forced that now she's bi too only so Leah can have her happily-ever-after. I loved Leah's struggle with her feelings and they are super cute together but I think I would have liked the book a lot more if they were just friends and Leah would move on to college and meet someone awesome there. Also, Simon's reaction at finding them together was ridiculous. If I find out that my best friend has been lying to me for over a year after everything that happened to him in the previous book, at the very least I would be pissed off. And then that ending… When I reached the last scene at prom I still had about 10% of the book left according to my kindle so I thought, cool, , but turns out that 10% was for the first chapter of Albertalli's next book. So basically prom happens, they kiss, they make up, and then we get an email from Leah to Simon describing her perfect life at college, and everyone is friends again and hooking up with random characters so everyone can have a boyfriend/girlfriend at the end of the book :|
So the first half was 4 stars for me, but the very disappointing ending was barely 2 stars, so in the end I'm (generously) leaving it at 3.
I shamelessly confess that I started this book only because I wanted more Simon + Blue. In that sense I am happy, because the boys show up quite a lot and they even have a small interesting arc and all the time they are their usual super adorable selves :)
I didn't like Leah that much in the first book, but I liked her here. She's still a selfish brat most of the time, but at least now I understand why. Leah feels like a very real teenager with her insecurities, her ups and downs, her fierce love for her friends, her assholy attitude towards her mum and her massive crush on someone absolutely inconvenient. You cannot help but to like the girl in the end.
So I was enjoying the book a lot. AND THEN.
I didn't think it was possible, but there is such a thing as too much cuteness. As in, some bits were way, way too saccharine. And it fits that Leah has had a crush
Spoiler
on Abby and not NickSpoiler
as to Abby liking her back?Spoiler
now they're going to deal with Nick and Garrett and maybe see the families' reactionsSpoiler
with AbbySo the first half was 4 stars for me, but the very disappointing ending was barely 2 stars, so in the end I'm (generously) leaving it at 3.