Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda || absolutely delightful

Title: Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Author: Becky Albertalli

Genre: YA contemporary

Status: Standalone

Goodreads

---

Synopsis:

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.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

I read this book as part of the Dewey’s annual readathon held on twitter and I LOVED IT.

I bought this at a second hand bookstore and planned to sell back (as I usually do with books I buy there) but after reading it? I CANNOT. I NEED IT WITH ME.

I would have fangirled so much to my friend via text, who graciously listened to me, because it is FILLED with cuteness.

The Plot

Simon has an online friend with whom he exchanges emails under an alias. One day he accidentally left his account open at school and another guy sees it. The book starts off with Martin blackmailing Simon to set him up with Abby, one of Simon’s friends. I have to say, I’ve never read a book start with casual high school blackmail before and I really liked it. I was hooked in right then.

Throughout the book, we’re taken through Simon’s junior year at high school with the normal (but also not) teenager issues. Simon’s identification with being gay, his relationship with his friends and his family along with his casual flirtation online together made a whole package.

I immediately connected to the book through the writing style. Simon’s inner monologue was really easy to read.

The Characters

• I ABSOLUTELY ADORED Simon. I could adopt him. I want to. Reading through his POV was so fun, I couldn’t get enough of it. I finished the book pretty fast and I was sad because as they say, we’ll never know more about the characters. We can only what’s already written, and that makes me sad.
• Simon’s friends were also really nice to read about. They had their own drama in which Simon may or may not have played part, and I found myself invested in them as well.
• But what I loved most in the book, other than the romance, was Simon’s family. They are family GOALS. I loved reading every single scene, of how they all make a huge deal of everything, the siblings’ bond—just everything about them. I’m also really glad family played a big role, because with high school stuff AND romance, family isn’t usually shown much in YA books. But they’re a very important part as well.
• The love interest was also really cute. But I won’t say much because it’s a secret, and you should definitely and find out. I’ll say, though, I only kept guessing. Right when I thought I figured out who Blue was, we came across some new information and I was left guessing again. I LOVE online romances ❤

I think what I loved most about the characters was that all of them had flaws. Simon had quite a few of them, but it’s human and I adored him for them as well. None of them were “perfect” and I liked that it was realistic.

We see the teenagers make stupid mistakes, Simon being clueless in some areas and love triangles. But it’s all part of high school, and it was portrayed so well.

The Romance

IT WAS SO ADORABLE ASDFGHJKL I CAN’T.

With every email, I grew more attached to them as a COUPLE and I couldn’t wait for them to meet! My was bigger with every consecutive email.

The scene when Simon met Blue? D.E.A.D. Or it gave me life, whatever you want to call it. My heart couldn’t take anymore but the cuteness JUST KEPT INCREASING?? How even?

I was sitting in my living room grinning wide with tears in my eyes. This is why I read YA romances. I want this feeling.

I couldn’t be happier with the romance. Hats off to Albertalli.

Overall

I LOVED IT SO MUCH. I will probably be rereading it pretty soon if I’m out of new paperbacks to read (hahahaha). I definitely recommend this to all YA lovers!