Book: Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda
By: Becky Albertalli
Edition published: 2015
By: Penguin Books UK
Goodreads description: Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.
My rating: ☽☽☽☽☽/5
Amazon | Book depository | Wordery

I can already tell I’m going to be in a reading slump for the next couple of days, or at least take a while to get into How To Be Bad, the next book on my TBR list.

Because I couldn’t help but love Simon. I know he’s gay, but he’s so freaking awesomly adorable that I can’t help it.

And the way he writes – the way he writes about Blue – was so freaking perfect. And I feel like I have to write the word ‘freaking’ all the time just to portray my love for this book.

 FROM: hourtohour.notetonote@gmail.com
TO: bluegreen118@gmail.com
DATE: Nov 18 at 7:32 PM
SUBJECT: Re. Why why why?
So, I’m a little scared to read what I wrote to you last night. I’m glad I was cute and grammatical. I think you’re cute and grammatical, too. Anyway, I don’t know what the hell that was all about. Too much sugar yesteray, I guess. Sorry sorry sorry.
Yeah. I’m still so totally brain-dead. I don’t even want to think about how I did on my quizzes.
Don’t know much about reality TV? You mean your parents don’t make you watch it? Because mine do. And I bet you think I’m kidding.
You bring up a good point about our voices. I guess we would have to warp them so they sound like Darth Vader. Or we could just do other things instead of talking. I mean, I’m just saying.
-Your Zombie Jacques

I’m not going to lie, I expected this book to be just a little bit childish. Because it’s about bullying (due to sexuality), and I put ‘bullying’ under ‘children’. Because honestly, bullying is just so immature.

But this book really wasn’t childish. And the bullying didn’t remind me of children. In fact, the bullying was portrayed perfectly for that age group, it really was. What Becky wrote about is genuine, gets-under-the-skin bullying that people (apart from those affected) tend to not notice as much.

And the other thing is, this book is laced with the cutest emails I’ve ever read. Literally, the cutest. I love emailing, I love the excitement as if it’s actual mail. And two gay guys emailing who don’t know who each other is in real life? Almost as cute as oreos.

I also love the way this book does not discriminate against anyone. In my opinion, it’s utopia.

If you’re gay and struggling to come out, or if you’re trying to cope with bullying, this book is the one for you. And if you’re not any of the above, you really need to read this anyway. Because it explains how life should be, for us, all of us, all of the time.

Everything, everything about this book was just…perfect. Freaking perfect.

It even nearly forced me to vote for it on the Goodreads Choice Awards…because it is just such an adorably sweet love story…but I stick by my original choice, and went with All The Bright Places all the way.

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽