Book Review: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda By Becky Albertalli

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Lgbt, Romance
Pages: 303 pages
Release Date: April 7th 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bay

Plot: 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.

My Thoughts: I ended up picking up this book because of all the hype it was getting and I was planning to go see the movie with my friend. So why not read the book before I go see it. (I am very excited because I will be seeing the movie today.) However unlike everyone else I didn’t really love this book. I did enjoy it but it wasn’t what I was expecting.

I really enjoyed the scenes where Simon and Blue are writing each other letters. I loved seeing them get to know each other and fall in love when they didn’t know each other. The whole time I was anxiously waiting for them to meet in person. I did love when they do finally meet. Pretty much after that I thought was really cute and enjoyable. I was happy because I did have a guess who I thought Blue was but I was way off. I am happy I wasn’t right about that.

I didn’t like that Simon was getting blackmailed for his secret. I didn’t think it was fair that this one person had this information about Simon and if Simon didn’t help him out he would spill the beans. I thought that was really unfair. I also didn’t like how close him and Simon were becoming. I felt there should have been a lot more tension between them. Here is this one person who knows your deepest darkest secret that you don’t want people to know. They want someone out of you or else they will tell everyone your secret. I know they were hanging out because of the blackmail but I just feel things should have gone a bit differently.

I also didn’t like Leah. She was one of the characters I feel was only created just to add more tension to situations. I just felt she overreacted a lot of the time and was very annoying to deal with. There was a situation in the book where she ends up being really upset at Simon that she avoids Simon at all costs. I felt that was a bit overdramatic for what he did. I know we have all been in a similar situation like that. I’ve been upset about it but I’ve dealt with it and moved on.

I think the main reason I didn’t like most of the book was the writing. It made this story very uneventful for me. I only enjoyed the parts when Simon and Blue email each other, after Simon and Blue meet, and the one scene where Simon, Abby and Nick go out. Everything else was very uneventful  for me.

This is one of those book made into movie situations where I feel like I might enjoy the movie more. I am interested to see how I feel since I know Becky helped with the script. I was really upset that I didn’t end up enjoying this. I really did think I would like it.

---

Have you guys read this book? If so did you end up enjoying it? If possible I would love some Lgbt recommendations.

Advertisement