C.E. Clayton, official author website
  • Home
  • About the Author
    • C.E. Clayton
    • Requesting Book Reviews
  • List of Works
    • Starfish Ink >
      • Eerden Novels
      • Eerden Novellas
    • The Monster of Selkirk Series
    • Freebies and collectors editions for TMOS
    • Other Published Works
  • Musings
    • What I'm Reading
    • Blog
  • Newsletter
    • Giveaways
    • Clayton's Super Friends
  • Members Only

What I'm Reading


Want to get more reviews and bookish giveaways? Be sure to sign up for my Book Club!
Sign up for the Book Club now!

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda; Becky Albertalli

4/28/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
I’m really late to the party on this book, but hey! At least I got here, right? “Simon vs.” is a cute, contemporary self-discovery book that had me on the verge of tears on occasion. We get a close-up view of Simon who KNOWS he’s gay, but no one else does. When he finds a Tumblr post from his school from another gay boy, he responds, and a whirlwind email pen pal relationship ensues. But there’s one problem: these boys don’t actually know who each other are, and because neither is out to their friends and family, they decide to keep their identities secret. But part of the thrill is getting to know someone without fear of judgment, because they don’t really know you, right? But then these adorable boys catch a case of feels, and suddenly the excitement of anonymity begins to slip away… Except anonymity is only fun with Blue, Simon’s crush, but that secret is important for Simon to keep from the wider school. Now he just has to keep the guy blackmailing him from spilling the beans to everyone… This story was endearing, and fun, and quick, and each time I was CONVINCED I knew who Blue was, the author did the old switcher-roo, which kept this otherwise straight forward story exciting.

It’s a bit hard for me to enjoy contemporary YA novels anymore, just because I find they don’t age well. Or maybe I’m not aging well in comparison? Who knows? All that to say, it was a little hard for me to get into the style of Simon at first, but then you settle into it, and the dairy-esque format of Simon’s thoughts (he writes his emails how he thinks and talks, it’s adorable) hits its stride. It wasn’t long before I was flying through this book. It’s such an easy read too, and the way the author has you guessing and frantic to know who Blue is, is really well done. Which makes the pay off absolutely adorable. Blue is such a romantic, and Simon is so clueless, that it was really endearing to watch these two boys finally discover each other away from their emails. But for all the times that Simon is adorable, he also has some really powerful lines, especially about what it means for HIM to come out. I absolutely adored that scene, but I won’t say more than that to avoid any potential spoilers.

The only thing I didn’t really like about the book, was that Simon has these 3 best friends, but outside of Abby, the other two just feel… barely there. Which I thought was odd considering Leah gets her own book. I didn’t particularly love Leah in this book either… She often felt a bit petty and mean, but that could be simply because she didn’t get enough page time with Simon for me to get a firmer understanding of her as a person the way you do with Abby. There were also a few scenes where I just did not like how Simon’s friends treated him as secrets begin to unravel, but that could be by design because they are teenagers and teenagers generally kind of suck as a rule.

All in all, this was a super cute, fast, and adorably queer book. Everything has this touch of innocence to it that I, as someone who’s been reading manly adult fiction lately, has been missing. The author does a wonderful job of capturing Simon’s voice, and while some of Simon’s friends didn’t feel all that actualized, others in the story were so easy to see and to love (or hate) as the case may be. The mystery around Blue was really well kept and, like Simon, there are several times where you’ll think you’ve figured it out, just to be proven wrong which made this an adorable page turner with just enough gut punches to keep me on that feel roller coaster. Still, it took me a minute to get invested in the story, and I still feel odd about some of Simon’s friends, so I’m giving this book 4 stars, and am willing to be convinced about reading Leah’s sequel.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Click the book images to see them on Amazon!

    C.E.'s bookshelf: currently-reading

    The Night Bird
    The Night Bird
    by Brian Freeman
    tagged: currently-reading
    A Boy From the Chesapeake
    A Boy From the Chesapeake
    by Larry Roszkowiak
    tagged: book-review-requests and currently-reading
    The Mine
    The Mine
    by John A. Heldt
    tagged: book-review-requests and currently-reading
    September Sky
    September Sky
    by John A. Heldt
    tagged: book-review-requests and currently-reading
    Made Men: An Urban Fantasy Novel
    Made Men: An Urban Fantasy Novel
    by Seth Creamer
    tagged: book-review-requests and currently-reading

    goodreads.com

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Action
    Adventure
    Anthologies
    Christian
    Contemporary
    Crime Drama
    DNF
    Dystopian
    Fantasy
    Fiction
    Graphic Novel
    Historical Fiction
    Horror
    Humor
    Literature
    Memoir
    Middle Grade
    Mystery
    Mythology
    New Adult
    Non Fiction
    Non-Fiction
    Novella
    Paranormal
    Poetry
    Romance
    Science Ficton
    Short Stories
    Steampunk
    Thriller
    True Crime
    Urban Fantasy
    Western
    Young Adult
    Zombie

    Upcoming reviews

    The Squire's Tale
    Division of the Marked
    Night Watch
    Hatter
    The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
    The Blade Itself
    Dealing with Dragons
    Harbinger
    Over Sea, Under Stone
    Neverwhere
    Demon's Prize
    Terra Obscura: Volume 1
    The Thousand Names
    The Name of the Wind
    The Thorn of Emberlain
    The Time Traveler's Wife
    Babayaga
    The Goldfinch
    Wake Up, Sir!
    Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood

Support

Privacy Policy
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • About the Author
    • C.E. Clayton
    • Requesting Book Reviews
  • List of Works
    • Starfish Ink >
      • Eerden Novels
      • Eerden Novellas
    • The Monster of Selkirk Series
    • Freebies and collectors editions for TMOS
    • Other Published Works
  • Musings
    • What I'm Reading
    • Blog
  • Newsletter
    • Giveaways
    • Clayton's Super Friends
  • Members Only