Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Leah on the Offbeat

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Leah on the Offbeat, by Becky Albertalli

7 reviews

jaychayka7777's review against another edition

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funny inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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tsar's review

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

“Imagine going about your day knowing someone’s carrying you in their mind. That has to be the best part of being in love- the feeling of having a home in some else’s brain.”

First impressions might not tell you everything that you need to know about one person or place, and this is evident in how Leah Burke is viewed by the perspective of Simon and the way she condones her own narrative in the second Creekwood novel.

Jumping one year after the events in Simon, the gang of friends face new responsibilities and anxiety for the future as seniors in high school who would be graduating soon. As the friends begin to settle with their roles, Leah languidly unravels herself in maturity and identity that she internally denies in all of her teenagehood years.

By this plot point, a direct storyline is almost non-existent, unlike the first book that has a straightforward conflict. Instead, readers are given a coming-of-age tale akin to the slice of life trope that primarily centers around self-reflection, creating a dramatic phase where the issues are externalized from within Leah's mind. This results in readers understanding better of her character, perceiving the negative impressions of her personality as bypass products of the imperfect life that she leads behind the scenes, and to see the more positive lights of her body that should've overshadowed the contrary ones—this predicament shifts my view towards the character: she only tries to maintain the false confident persona to protect herself from her own insecurities. As readers flip the pages, it becomes clear that Leah on the Offbeat comes off more as an expansive journal of her life instead of a third-person view story of someone else.

Following its suit to be more female-centric, Leah allows the readers to be further familiarized with Abby Suso that has been introduced as the perfect beauty with brains. Her social personality is pierced slowly to see how she struggles with her insecurities and the fact that she has a certain selfish side, such as her nonchalance to her break-up with Nick in order to save her feelings from the hard truth. On the other hand, while the relationship dynamic between Leah and Abby is commendably cute, it feels queer-baiting at the same time. Abby comes off stringing Leah along numerous times in the excuse of self-doubts even when she is sure of what she feels towards the main character, which makes the pay-off that is their get-together doesn't have such charming sparks.

I also wish that Leah would've covered more of the supporting characters' side stories as much as Simon did, but I do understand that the negation of this is there because we are already familiar with other characters' stories like Simon and his boyfriend.

Nonetheless, Leah on the Offbeat is a laudable addition to the Creekwood series. It might as well become my favorite out of the two novels released as it surprises me with its take in illustrating a character-driven tale.

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haddy's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

<spoilers> I mostly enjoyed this book and read it quickly, but sometimes I did struggle with Leah’s character slightly, and I felt there was very little character development for her and she had to change very less, whereas for Abby there was a huge amount of character change from the beginning. I also felt like there was huge ‘not like other girls’ vibes off Leah.

Also, The last half/third seemed very rushed. I just felt like a lot was left unfinished and more could have happened.

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rayne_1906's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Audiobook - 4 hours 42 minutes - This book was *okay*. That's all I can really say about it. I liked how the author chose to focus on a different character in an existing book, but the plot just felt a bit lacking. Nothing really happened. The titular character just raised the same issues about bisexuality, race, and college over and over again, which was fine at first but became boring. It was interesting enough to read about these characters, but it definitely wasn't anything special.

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theasbookworld's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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limiwh's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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leahlovesloslibros's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Leah marches to the beat of her own drum, and she's not shy about it. But she is hiding something big. Simon is Leah's best friend, but he doesn't know she is bisexual. No one does, except her mom. Leah is struggling with how to handle herself in her group of friends, which seems to be crumbling at the worst time ever - the months and weeks leading up to graduation. Can Leah be true to herself without losing the people who mean the most to her?

This book was cute. The main character, Leah, is bisexual, which immediately drew me in. The story focuses around her senior year in high school, especially the second half of the year during prom season. The characters were going through some of the big themes that many teens face as high school comes to a close - choosing what college to go to, how to fit in when you get there, whether or not to do long-distance relationships with your high school sweetheart, prom, etc. There were some struggles within the friends group that took me back to my own high school years, too. And of course you can't forget the battle with your parents. This book was chock-full of teenage rites of passage.

If I were a high school or even college student reading this book, I probably would've appreciated it a bit more. While I typically enjoy YA books, this one was a bit too "teen angsty" for me. I don't blame the author or the book for this, since it is targeted at a YA audience, and would probably be very relatable to them. The story was well-written and I liked the characters; I just didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.

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