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A review by willowward
Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
3.0
Okay i’m not even totally sure how I feel about this book, but i’m going to take a shot at expressing my thoughts.
It was definitely no where near as charming as Simon Vs. I think the relationship development was just so absolutely random for the characters involved. It seemed like Becky just threw this wlw relationship into the mix for the heck of it, and that it wasn’t thought out very well for it to be an epic love story. And yes although i’m aware you can enjoy a book without comparing it to its predecessor, I think it was hard to ignore. Honestly, reading Leah on the Offbeat felt eerily similar to reading a fan fiction about the respective couple in this book (no spoilies), where the names and descriptions of the characters are the same, but everything else seems a little off tempo. Like it was an out of character attempt to recreate another authors work, but it came from Becky.
Having said that, this would be a fan fiction i’d whole heartedly enjoy, which is what confuses me on my feelings about the book. It was endearing. It was. And I think the couple is super cute. But I guess I wasn’t expecting this weird fanfiction-esque experience when I started reading this book. Especially when I adored Simon Vs so much.
3 stars because it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t anything special either. Probably not something I would read again, but not something I wished I hadn’t read.
It was definitely no where near as charming as Simon Vs. I think the relationship development was just so absolutely random for the characters involved. It seemed like Becky just threw this wlw relationship into the mix for the heck of it, and that it wasn’t thought out very well for it to be an epic love story. And yes although i’m aware you can enjoy a book without comparing it to its predecessor, I think it was hard to ignore. Honestly, reading Leah on the Offbeat felt eerily similar to reading a fan fiction about the respective couple in this book (no spoilies), where the names and descriptions of the characters are the same, but everything else seems a little off tempo. Like it was an out of character attempt to recreate another authors work, but it came from Becky.
Having said that, this would be a fan fiction i’d whole heartedly enjoy, which is what confuses me on my feelings about the book. It was endearing. It was. And I think the couple is super cute. But I guess I wasn’t expecting this weird fanfiction-esque experience when I started reading this book. Especially when I adored Simon Vs so much.
3 stars because it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t anything special either. Probably not something I would read again, but not something I wished I hadn’t read.