singh_reads_kanwar2's review against another edition
4.0
A beautiful story of 16 year old guy Simon who is enjoying his life and deep down hiding the secret as he knows he is gay but don't want to express himself and want to give time to himself before he came out in the open. Until one day he met someone online under a pen name and true to his feelings he started opening up to him and the pen name guy was also not able to communicate his feelings to his family until one day when house clown of the class came to know the secret about Simon and his chat with the pen name guy. He want to impress his friend and want to take advantage of it , he did but girl refused when he proposed to girl in front of whole school and that made him a laughing stock in revenge he post but all fell in place and he found his love.
This book is about Abby cousin Olivia and friends, Molly and Cassie and there love and there parent love story. As Molly in the club meet someone who is a fan of the band her sister prefer and they had a talk and in between them Molly fall for Will Molly's friends and another guy she fond of Reid her coworker the story revolves around Cassie and patty and Nadine a lesbian couple and marriage and teenagers On top of the amazing cake The Upside of Unrequited is made of is a big cherry of inclusivity. There are many different sexualities, ethnicities, religions, and body types discussed.
Few comments i find derogatory thought but author handled it carefully. And the author left with cliffhanger whom with molly go. Did Olivia and Reid are actually a couple to last for lifetime or its gonna end soon. Although Olivia had her break up but she showed the brave side of herself.
Leah is the narrator of this book and her shy, timid character broken by author in her story. She is a bit straight up and brash but I totally loved it, and it’s nice to see girls in YA getting more diverse, complex personalities that transcend archetypes. She, and this book in general, was also hilarious which is of course a massive plus. I seriously don't get why everyone's hating her as a character, although the group had gay and author bring an angle of bisexual. Her love or confusion for Garrett is different thing and she doesn't want her mother to be in a relationship with wells and run her life on his financial status. Her lowkey bi relationship with Abby and friends going to roadtrip for some fun and before prom and school got over and they leave for college without proper ending and she came to know about her sexual orientation and all girls band will it survive or not and Morgan racist remaining remarks bit made the environment gloomy but simon relationship is going good and other friends too but Leah decisions launch Some peace to life of people but mostly it cause trouble.
This book is about Abby cousin Olivia and friends, Molly and Cassie and there love and there parent love story. As Molly in the club meet someone who is a fan of the band her sister prefer and they had a talk and in between them Molly fall for Will Molly's friends and another guy she fond of Reid her coworker the story revolves around Cassie and patty and Nadine a lesbian couple and marriage and teenagers On top of the amazing cake The Upside of Unrequited is made of is a big cherry of inclusivity. There are many different sexualities, ethnicities, religions, and body types discussed.
Few comments i find derogatory thought but author handled it carefully. And the author left with cliffhanger whom with molly go. Did Olivia and Reid are actually a couple to last for lifetime or its gonna end soon. Although Olivia had her break up but she showed the brave side of herself.
Leah is the narrator of this book and her shy, timid character broken by author in her story. She is a bit straight up and brash but I totally loved it, and it’s nice to see girls in YA getting more diverse, complex personalities that transcend archetypes. She, and this book in general, was also hilarious which is of course a massive plus. I seriously don't get why everyone's hating her as a character, although the group had gay and author bring an angle of bisexual. Her love or confusion for Garrett is different thing and she doesn't want her mother to be in a relationship with wells and run her life on his financial status. Her lowkey bi relationship with Abby and friends going to roadtrip for some fun and before prom and school got over and they leave for college without proper ending and she came to know about her sexual orientation and all girls band will it survive or not and Morgan racist remaining remarks bit made the environment gloomy but simon relationship is going good and other friends too but Leah decisions launch Some peace to life of people but mostly it cause trouble.
amazingluna's review against another edition
4.0
4/5 stars
My rating of each novel:
Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda (5/5 stars)
The Upside of Unrequited (4/5 stars)
Leah on the Offbeat (3/5 stars).
I adore the "Simonverse". It is a wholesome slife-of-life journey and I strongly recommend it despite the steady decline in rating from novel to novel. It is worth reading all 3 novels if you enjoy Albertalli's writing. If you're only in it for the Simon-gang, you can skip The Upside of Unrequited as there are not that many appearances from people in the Simon-gang. It is also fine to read only the first (and best) novel, Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda, as it works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel.
My rating of each novel:
Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda (5/5 stars)
The Upside of Unrequited (4/5 stars)
Leah on the Offbeat (3/5 stars).
I adore the "Simonverse". It is a wholesome slife-of-life journey and I strongly recommend it despite the steady decline in rating from novel to novel. It is worth reading all 3 novels if you enjoy Albertalli's writing. If you're only in it for the Simon-gang, you can skip The Upside of Unrequited as there are not that many appearances from people in the Simon-gang. It is also fine to read only the first (and best) novel, Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda, as it works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel.
lindaunconventionalbookworms's review
5.0
This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is one of the best YA books ever! I loved all the characters, they were so realistic. And I loved the dilemmas Simon and Blue faced with realizing they were gay.
This is a book I'm getting for the library at the school where I teach, I think every teenager should read it.
I don't think there's much I can say about Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda that hasn't been said before. Simon is just the perfect character in a young adult story. He's a little awkward. A little obsessed with himself and his own problems - even if he loves his friends and his family. And he's more than a little hooked on Blue, a guy from his school. Whom he doesn't really know, but then again, maybe he does. And he falls in love with Blue through a whole lot of e-mails.
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda tackles a lot of topics teens deal with in our day and age. There is bullying. Homophobia. Just the growing up and feeling awkward about it. Having strong friendships that suddenly appear a more fragile. Underage drinking. Social media that isn't always used for good. And I think the way these themes are dealt with are astonishing! Of course, I fell in love with the theatre teacher. Because she shut down bullies from the get-go. Plus Simon's parents were delightful in their awkwardness to see their children growing up.
I won't say more, apart from if you haven't read this yet, you really, really should! Even if you think YA isn't for you. One thing that really stood out is how authentic all the characters were, which just made the whole story seem real.
Simon is the best male protagonist ever. He's funny - even when he doesn't mean to. And he asks himself a lot of questions about life, himself, being gay, and other things.
Nick is one of Simon's best friends, and I really enjoyed him, even if I didn't get to know him as well as I got to know other characters.
Abby is new to Simon's group of friends. And she's kind of amazing. She listens carefully, and she's loyal and supportive.
Leah is the friend who's a bit on the outskirts. She's in love with Nick. But Nick has a thing for Abby... However, there is none of the awful drama that could have come from this.
Blue. He was also an amazing character. Even if for most of the story, I only got to know him through his e-mail interactions with Simon.
First person point of view, from Simon's perspective. However, there are a lot of dialogues included, and the e-mails between Blue and Simon. The present tense makes everything that happens immediate, as if the readers are right there with Simon and his friends.
*sighs* I can't even. All the feels, for sure!
And I'm seriously not in the mood to deal with my family. I probably ha e about an hour until dinner, which means an hour of trying to spin my school day into a string of hilarious anecdotes. My parents are like that. It's like you can't just tell them about your French teacher's obvious wedgie. You have to perform it.
That was the summer I taught myself how to do laundry. There are some socks that shouldn't be washed by your mom.
Honestly, the weirdest part is how they made it feel like this big coming out moment. Which can't be normal. As far as I know, coming out isn't something that straight kids generally worry about.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is one of the best YA books ever! I loved all the characters, they were so realistic. And I loved the dilemmas Simon and Blue faced with realizing they were gay.
This is a book I'm getting for the library at the school where I teach, I think every teenager should read it.
Story:
I don't think there's much I can say about Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda that hasn't been said before. Simon is just the perfect character in a young adult story. He's a little awkward. A little obsessed with himself and his own problems - even if he loves his friends and his family. And he's more than a little hooked on Blue, a guy from his school. Whom he doesn't really know, but then again, maybe he does. And he falls in love with Blue through a whole lot of e-mails.
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda tackles a lot of topics teens deal with in our day and age. There is bullying. Homophobia. Just the growing up and feeling awkward about it. Having strong friendships that suddenly appear a more fragile. Underage drinking. Social media that isn't always used for good. And I think the way these themes are dealt with are astonishing! Of course, I fell in love with the theatre teacher. Because she shut down bullies from the get-go. Plus Simon's parents were delightful in their awkwardness to see their children growing up.
I won't say more, apart from if you haven't read this yet, you really, really should! Even if you think YA isn't for you. One thing that really stood out is how authentic all the characters were, which just made the whole story seem real.
Characters:
Simon is the best male protagonist ever. He's funny - even when he doesn't mean to. And he asks himself a lot of questions about life, himself, being gay, and other things.
Nick is one of Simon's best friends, and I really enjoyed him, even if I didn't get to know him as well as I got to know other characters.
Abby is new to Simon's group of friends. And she's kind of amazing. She listens carefully, and she's loyal and supportive.
Leah is the friend who's a bit on the outskirts. She's in love with Nick. But Nick has a thing for Abby... However, there is none of the awful drama that could have come from this.
Blue. He was also an amazing character. Even if for most of the story, I only got to know him through his e-mail interactions with Simon.
Writing style :
First person point of view, from Simon's perspective. However, there are a lot of dialogues included, and the e-mails between Blue and Simon. The present tense makes everything that happens immediate, as if the readers are right there with Simon and his friends.
Feels :
*sighs* I can't even. All the feels, for sure!
And I'm seriously not in the mood to deal with my family. I probably ha e about an hour until dinner, which means an hour of trying to spin my school day into a string of hilarious anecdotes. My parents are like that. It's like you can't just tell them about your French teacher's obvious wedgie. You have to perform it.
That was the summer I taught myself how to do laundry. There are some socks that shouldn't be washed by your mom.
Honestly, the weirdest part is how they made it feel like this big coming out moment. Which can't be normal. As far as I know, coming out isn't something that straight kids generally worry about.
thefox22's review
4.0
This book was ADORBS. It was funny and cute and the male POV was so realistic of a teenage boy. I loved Simon; his quirkiness, humor, and kindness toward others even if they didn't deserve it. And I loved that his coming out wasn't the only part of him. It was a Big Deal, because he was scared how people (especially his family) would respond, but it wasn't the whole book. And I adored the interactions between him and Blue, especially that they talked about a lot of real shit like sex. I did figure out who Blue was, kind of early on, though I did flip flop between different guys. But it didn't take away anything from the story. I also loved how friendship and familial relations were explored, and how they played a big role in Simon's life. This book was fun, relatable, and had so much depth to it.
aurasn's review
4.0
Borrowed my daughter’s copy to read this much beloved YA novel. It was a sweet and quick peek into the life of a high schooler trying to figure out when to come out to his family and friends.
poultrymunitions's review
4.0
i am deceased; cause of death: l'adorbz.
so, this was terrific. really diverting, occasionally wise as hell, and natural in the way that stories about people who are relatably imperfect can be.
it's wily, and polished, and i appreciated the gently hurly-burly flow of it, which so vividly put me in mind of my own high school melodramas.
so good, you guys. it's really just so good. so much fun to read.
and seriously? after the happy resolution? those ten pages of insanely adorable puppy-kisses and romantic gestures and et cetera?
just ovary-annihilating cuteness.
wholeheartedly recommended!
also, a completely unplanned rant about young adult fiction.
so that was nice.
i'm just.
some things upset me.
more because of my own experiences than because the book failed me.
there's this amazing scene where our hero admits he was drinking, and his parents go into gorilla-mode and wild-out punishing him, and the injustice of this is so great he asks his dad, "you're saying you'd rather i had lied about it, and kept it from you?"
which.
like.
boom.
i've so been there.
it's a truth i realized early: i had to lie about all this stuff, and suffer through all of it alone, because my parents preferred to think of me as some fuzzy teddy bear with no appetite, curiosity, or identity.
or genitals.
as in, this one time when i was sixteen, i was home alone and i jerked off in my room but fell asleep after i came, right there, with the door open, jeans and underwear around my ankles and my dick in my hand and all this come everywhere.
so when my dad came home first and discovered me there, he naturally tried to make me feel disgusting about it. when i got hurt about that i grew angry, and challenged him by asking if he was legit trying to tell me he never jerked off, and he told me he'd never masturbated in his entire life because he had his wife, and before that the lord jesus.
seriously!
that's what he said.
to me.
like i was six years old, or something.
in this way, YA fiction as a genre is often profoundly alienating for me, and it hurts that it's the closest thing i have to any sort of positive representation during those escandalo teenaged years so vitally important to the development of my personality.
i mean...
fuck.
i should probably stop talking about this.
nobody ever gets me when i try to talk about this stuff.
usually they just end up being suuuper mad at me.
[really hesitates]
...but i won't stop talking about it, i guess.
fuck everything.
basically:
this book is legitimately awesome, but for all its clever subversions (it upends and challenges all the annoying stupidity adults insist on packing into YA fiction) it still stays on the safe side of the rules for every YA book ever:
no teen sex.
all the fumbling, the misunderstandings and the embarrassment and the intense obsession and the terrible double standards and the painfully slow education in the Way This Whole Being Alive Thing Works.
but no sex.
bcuz youths!
or something.
which isn't to say every book ever needs to have sex in it for me to enjoy it.
and absolutely, yes, teens need positive representations of aspects of queer life beyond sex.
but pretending like none of them ever have any is just...
the logic is...
...i mean.
i don't really follow.
some adults are so discomfited by the idea that teenagers have sex they insist that all fiction about teenagers must erase even the possibility that fictional teenagers might have sex, ostensibly in case actual teenagers read it, and become poisoned by evil sexuality demons, or whatever.
because these books are for the teens?
but they're not, really.
they're for you.
they're for adults.
adults who write these books. adults who read these books. adults who do the buying and the stocking of these books in libraries, which don't like to shelve books labeled YA if there are YAs in them who act like actual YAs.
i mean, this type of person eventually got over catcher in the rye and the outsiders and a separate peace, but it took like fifty years and don't expect them to be happy about it either, is what i'm saying.
so right off the bat their authority on this complex topic is hella suspect?
it just makes no sense to me.
like, these are the people who think you shouldn't teach teenagers about condoms or birth control because it'll just give them ideas.
meanwhile, we know, historically and empirically, that most teenagers are gonna be fuckin around whether you sit them in front of a you-gon-git-pregnant-and-die video or a pulpit, and abstinence-only education only leads to more nasty sexually transmitted diseases (like the one that puts a baby in you), not fewer.
seems pretty silly, right?
well, it's more than that.
it's alienating as hell. especially for queer people like me.
because a lot of how you are made to define yourself as a queer in this world is by the kind and number of people you have/want to have/do not want to have sex with.
it's part of your identity.
what's the primary difference between a gay boy and a straight boy?
most people would say the difference is the gay boy wants to kiss boys, instead of girls.
girls, who are the default.
queer boys of all kinds (trans, bisexual, asexual, gay, polygamous... etc) have to come out.
they have to assert their inclinations, and defend them, where straight people never have to do a fucking thing.
if you're a boy, it's just assumed you like girls. until you announce you aren't.
what does that mean?
it means that, if you're a queer, everyone around you is visibly and constantly not like you.
that you're not normal. that you're a deviation.
and you feel that. in your belly. all the time. everywhere you go.
sometimes that means being afraid. sometimes that means being angry. sometimes that means being an asshole.
but however it is you cope with it, whatever symptoms you display—the disease is the same:
you are othered. all the time. everywhere. every day.
you're made to feel like your queerness is the disease, not our society's crushingly inevitable othering of it.
and that doesn't change until you meet other people like yourself.
...or read about them.
so you can understand now, i guess?
why it is so particularly upsetting to be told a bunch of adults think they should deny queer teens true representation of people like themselves until it doesn't matter anymore and they're learning how to love from xtube videos, craigslist, tv shows that always kill off the lesbians, the kind of teen wolf fanfic even i can't read without keeping antacids to hand, and deranged romances written by bigoted heterosexuals?
for their own good?
othering. and heartbreaking.
and that's what i think about when i read even awesomesauce YA books with wise things to say.
so long as they follow the rules and pretend like most teenagers are these baffled, innocent little wood-nymphs with ironic hair and absolutely zero awareness of or ambition towards whatever it is happening down the pants of the one who gives them palpitations in calculus II...
so long as these books erase that side of queer life and make teens feel like they're not normal if they have a sex drive, and for god's sake never tell anyone who could conceivably help guide you through this horrendous time of your life because you think they'll castigate you for perfectly ordinary changes in your body and your desires...
so long as queer kids have yet one more reason to hide a part of themselves from this shitty world...
i'm gonna have a beef with YA.
...but not this one. this one was awesome.
so, this was terrific. really diverting, occasionally wise as hell, and natural in the way that stories about people who are relatably imperfect can be.
it's wily, and polished, and i appreciated the gently hurly-burly flow of it, which so vividly put me in mind of my own high school melodramas.
so good, you guys. it's really just so good. so much fun to read.
and seriously? after the happy resolution? those ten pages of insanely adorable puppy-kisses and romantic gestures and et cetera?
just ovary-annihilating cuteness.
wholeheartedly recommended!
also, a completely unplanned rant about young adult fiction.
so that was nice.
i'm just.
some things upset me.
more because of my own experiences than because the book failed me.
there's this amazing scene where our hero admits he was drinking, and his parents go into gorilla-mode and wild-out punishing him, and the injustice of this is so great he asks his dad, "you're saying you'd rather i had lied about it, and kept it from you?"
which.
like.
boom.
i've so been there.
it's a truth i realized early: i had to lie about all this stuff, and suffer through all of it alone, because my parents preferred to think of me as some fuzzy teddy bear with no appetite, curiosity, or identity.
or genitals.
as in, this one time when i was sixteen, i was home alone and i jerked off in my room but fell asleep after i came, right there, with the door open, jeans and underwear around my ankles and my dick in my hand and all this come everywhere.
so when my dad came home first and discovered me there, he naturally tried to make me feel disgusting about it. when i got hurt about that i grew angry, and challenged him by asking if he was legit trying to tell me he never jerked off, and he told me he'd never masturbated in his entire life because he had his wife, and before that the lord jesus.
seriously!
that's what he said.
to me.
like i was six years old, or something.
in this way, YA fiction as a genre is often profoundly alienating for me, and it hurts that it's the closest thing i have to any sort of positive representation during those escandalo teenaged years so vitally important to the development of my personality.
i mean...
fuck.
i should probably stop talking about this.
nobody ever gets me when i try to talk about this stuff.
usually they just end up being suuuper mad at me.
[really hesitates]
...but i won't stop talking about it, i guess.
fuck everything.
basically:
this book is legitimately awesome, but for all its clever subversions (it upends and challenges all the annoying stupidity adults insist on packing into YA fiction) it still stays on the safe side of the rules for every YA book ever:
no teen sex.
all the fumbling, the misunderstandings and the embarrassment and the intense obsession and the terrible double standards and the painfully slow education in the Way This Whole Being Alive Thing Works.
but no sex.
bcuz youths!
or something.
which isn't to say every book ever needs to have sex in it for me to enjoy it.
and absolutely, yes, teens need positive representations of aspects of queer life beyond sex.
but pretending like none of them ever have any is just...
the logic is...
...i mean.
i don't really follow.
some adults are so discomfited by the idea that teenagers have sex they insist that all fiction about teenagers must erase even the possibility that fictional teenagers might have sex, ostensibly in case actual teenagers read it, and become poisoned by evil sexuality demons, or whatever.
because these books are for the teens?
but they're not, really.
they're for you.
they're for adults.
adults who write these books. adults who read these books. adults who do the buying and the stocking of these books in libraries, which don't like to shelve books labeled YA if there are YAs in them who act like actual YAs.
i mean, this type of person eventually got over catcher in the rye and the outsiders and a separate peace, but it took like fifty years and don't expect them to be happy about it either, is what i'm saying.
so right off the bat their authority on this complex topic is hella suspect?
it just makes no sense to me.
like, these are the people who think you shouldn't teach teenagers about condoms or birth control because it'll just give them ideas.
meanwhile, we know, historically and empirically, that most teenagers are gonna be fuckin around whether you sit them in front of a you-gon-git-pregnant-and-die video or a pulpit, and abstinence-only education only leads to more nasty sexually transmitted diseases (like the one that puts a baby in you), not fewer.
seems pretty silly, right?
well, it's more than that.
it's alienating as hell. especially for queer people like me.
because a lot of how you are made to define yourself as a queer in this world is by the kind and number of people you have/want to have/do not want to have sex with.
it's part of your identity.
what's the primary difference between a gay boy and a straight boy?
most people would say the difference is the gay boy wants to kiss boys, instead of girls.
girls, who are the default.
queer boys of all kinds (trans, bisexual, asexual, gay, polygamous... etc) have to come out.
they have to assert their inclinations, and defend them, where straight people never have to do a fucking thing.
if you're a boy, it's just assumed you like girls. until you announce you aren't.
what does that mean?
it means that, if you're a queer, everyone around you is visibly and constantly not like you.
that you're not normal. that you're a deviation.
and you feel that. in your belly. all the time. everywhere you go.
sometimes that means being afraid. sometimes that means being angry. sometimes that means being an asshole.
but however it is you cope with it, whatever symptoms you display—the disease is the same:
you are othered. all the time. everywhere. every day.
you're made to feel like your queerness is the disease, not our society's crushingly inevitable othering of it.
and that doesn't change until you meet other people like yourself.
...or read about them.
so you can understand now, i guess?
why it is so particularly upsetting to be told a bunch of adults think they should deny queer teens true representation of people like themselves until it doesn't matter anymore and they're learning how to love from xtube videos, craigslist, tv shows that always kill off the lesbians, the kind of teen wolf fanfic even i can't read without keeping antacids to hand, and deranged romances written by bigoted heterosexuals?
for their own good?
othering. and heartbreaking.
and that's what i think about when i read even awesomesauce YA books with wise things to say.
so long as they follow the rules and pretend like most teenagers are these baffled, innocent little wood-nymphs with ironic hair and absolutely zero awareness of or ambition towards whatever it is happening down the pants of the one who gives them palpitations in calculus II...
so long as these books erase that side of queer life and make teens feel like they're not normal if they have a sex drive, and for god's sake never tell anyone who could conceivably help guide you through this horrendous time of your life because you think they'll castigate you for perfectly ordinary changes in your body and your desires...
so long as queer kids have yet one more reason to hide a part of themselves from this shitty world...
i'm gonna have a beef with YA.
...but not this one. this one was awesome.