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Romance. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. LGBTQIA+ (Fiction.) HTML: #1 New York Times bestseller! Goodreads Choice Award for the best young adult novel of the year! In this sequel to the acclaimed Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agendaā??now a major motion picture, Love, Simonā??we follow Simon's BFF Leah as she grapples with changing friendships, first love, and senior year angst. When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beatā??but real life isn't always so rhythmic. She's an anomaly in her friend group: the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she's bisexual, she hasn't mustered the courage to tell her friendsā??not even her openly gay BFF, Simon. So Leah really doesn't know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It's hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fightingā??especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever… (more)
User reviews
I spent this whole book hating Leah, then loving her, then hating her, then loving her again. And laughing, because Albertalliās writing is simply hilarious, even in the midst of the record-breaking amounts of drama Leah and her friends were generating.
Since this book is a proper sequel to Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, I highly recommend reading that book first (and not just watching the movie; honestly, and you call yourself a book lover?). A few of the characters from The Upside of Unrequited get mentioned, but not so much that you will feel like youāre missing anything if you skipped that one (though I do not recommend that course of action). This is such a fun book!
I honestly didn't connect that much with Leah in the first book and to be frank she seemed like a dick, but then I read this book. And HOLY CRAP I LOVE LEAH!
I LOVED being in her head and reading her thoughts, I think Becky did really well in portraying Leah's
I was so happy to see my babies from [b:Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda|19547856|Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Creekwood, #1)|Becky Albertalli|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1402915678s/19547856.jpg|27679579] playing a big part in this book. I was literally grinning like an idiot whenever Simon and Bram made an appearance (They're so precious bloody hell!)
I really enjoyed this book, it was so light and fun to go through! I hope there would be more books in the Simonverse bc I can't seem to have enough!
Oh and one more thing:
Dear Garette, just in case you don't find the perfect someone for you
He's so cute and funny and adorable I just can't take it!
I'm not going to lie. I loved Simon's book and I don't feel like any of Albertalli's follow-ups have been as good as that one. And that's okay. As with all of Albertalli's YA novels, there's lots of diversity in this one, and while that's good, I sort of feel like I did with her previous The Upside of Unrequited -- that she almost tried too hard to pack too much of it in there. And with Leah, you almost have to take her with a grain of salt. Simon was cute and adorable and endearing. Leah is more annoying and often unlikable, but yet in all honesty, she's probably a more realistic portrayal of a moody, dramatic teenager. So there's that. All in all, an enjoyable story with a decent amount of humor and fun banter back and forth between characters.
I loved "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" and I think this book was even better. :)
"āIt was amazing,ā I say. āIt was unicorns vomiting sunbeams.ā"
Two weaknesses.
First, the plot is thin for a 300+ page book. A group of high school seniors (the same group we met in Simon) is close to graduation. They are planning their lives after high school, and
The second and more serious problem is that Leah is simply a loathsome character. All of her friends are wonderful people... kind, thoughtful, generous, polite... Leah is moody, angry, ill tempered, selfish, jaded and generally a miserable person. She uses profanity like punctuation marks. (Granted, some people talk like that, particularly some teens. I myself do not enjoy being in the presence of such people, and neither do I enjoy reading a book in which obscenities are on nearly every page.) I found it impossible to believe that Leah's set of wonderful friends would ever have welcomed her into their clique, or that she would even want to be a part of their clique. I definitely couldn't imagine either Abby or Garrett having a crush on her, because there just wasn't anything in her personality to like.
In the end, she seems to have learned nothing, gained no insights into life, and is still a dreadfully self-centered and obnoxious person... but she gets everything she wanted.
I'll give it 1/2 star above one for a few chuckles here and there... especially when the whole gang goes to the dinner that Garrett kindly made reservations for on prom night.
This sequel to Simon versus the Homo Sapiens Agenda takes on the perspective of another member in Simon's friend group. It's an interesting way to still have a 'problem novel' that deals with the same characters while allowing the previous protagonist to continue to live his happy ending.
Leah is another compelling character, although having her interior thoughts really helps with that. I found myself a bit frustrated with her from time to time when she was making problems worse by never speaking up. However, that is true to life and especially to teens, which is fitting with Albertalli's writing style that has a good grip on high school students and their issues (good or bad). Here she does tackle a number of heavy issues (e.g., racism, fat shaming, etc.), although in a fashion that still feels entertaining on the whole. Once again, the happy ending might be a little too neat for some readers, but it's nice to occasionally have a book that isn't all doom and gloom.
For the audiobook reader, Shannon Purser did a decent job. I felt like her narration style fit Leah's character well, but she didn't do a lot of very distinct voices, which could get a bit tricky in scenes heavy with dialogue. Her enunciation wasn't always super clear either meaning sometimes something like "fan girl" could sound like "fang earl" for a moment. After a while though, I got used to her style of speech and that seemed to help.
We first meet Leah in Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda
There were a lot of things I liked about this book. I liked getting little glimpses into the lives of Simon and Molly (from The Upside of Unrequited). I liked watching Leah grow up and become more kind and more empathetic to her fellow classmates. I liked all quotable moments (and there were a lot). I liked being able to relate to the fear of putting yourself out there and trying something new. I liked that I can laugh and cry in the span of just a few pages. I [obviously] LOVED all the Harry Potter references.
However, of Becky Albertalliās book, I think this one was my least favorite. Part of the reason for this is that Leah is not a very likeable character. She has a lot of angst going on, and she is kind of b**** sometimes. She holds grudges, she is so stubborn, and she is self-centered. While I still enjoyed reading about life at Creekwood High School through Leahās eyes, I didnāt connect with her the same way I connected with Simon and Molly. My favorite parts in this book involved Simon (sometimes with Leah... and sometimes just Simon).
I am still SO glad I read this book; I flew through it! In a lot of ways, this books reminded me of Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I anticipate that if you enjoyed that one, or either of Becky Albertalliās other books, you will enjoy this as well!
I genuinely hope Becky Albertalli never ever stops writing. She knows how to write real characters and real(ish) high school relationships. I know she co-authored another book with Adam Silvera set to come out this fall, and I could not be more excited. Thank you, Becky Albertalli, for another beautiful story.
My rating: 4/5 stars.
āāAm I the worst person?ā āWell, no,ā says Simon. āThat would be Voldemort.āā
Apparently other people find Leah annoying and one-dimensional, but I think she's hilarious and snarky, just like the rest of her friends
LGBTA notes *spoiler alert* : Leah sort of jumps all over Abby for saying she's only "a little bit bi" meaning that she'd heretofore been attracted only to males, but finds herself attracted to Leah. Abby did respond with the fact that "other people do not get to choose her label" (paraphrasing here), but I thought Leah's attack was sort of unfair (sort of like how some gays don't accept bisexualism as a real thing when in reality there is a whole spectrum of things people can identify themselves as--even if "a little bit bi" isn't, perhaps, the correct term if that's really what they mean). But Leah was already having a rough month, and I could understand why she'd be angered by her perception of what Abby was saying. I'm of the opinion that the whole process of questioning/coming out to people can be hard enough as it is and Leah should probably have been more sensitive to that (I don't remember her apologizing for it later; instead Abby revises her statement to say she's totally bi after they've made up and come out to their friends).
The book is a quick read, very modern, and quite humorous. The dinner reservation scene for the prom is my favorite scene in the whole book.