Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Everybody is talking about Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda!"A remarkable gift of a novel."—Andrew Smith, author of Grasshopper Jungle"I am so in love with this book."—Nina LaCour, author of Hold Still"Feels timelessly, effortlessly now."—Tim Federle, author of Better Nate Than Ever"The best kind of love story."—Alex Sanchez, Lambda Award-winning author of Rainbow Boys and Boyfriends with GirlfriendsSixteen-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 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.Incredibly funny and poignant, this twenty-first-century coming-of-age, coming out story—wrapped in a geek romance—is a knockout of a debut novel by Becky Albertalli.

I don’t even know what to say about this book other than buy it. Then read it and fall in love and read it again and fall in love again. That’s what I’ll be doing.

I absolutely adored every single thing about this. Simon’s story is honest and funny and realistic and he’s just plain adorable… He jumps off the pages and I promise he will land right in your heart. Simon is equal parts funny, and witty… but he’s also vulnerable and unsure, and Albertalli did an amazing job of creating him.

Simon is gay, but that’s not the story… as it should be. Instead, it’s about Simon’s personal growth and falling in love and traversing the world that is high school and hopefully coming out the other side in one piece.

Simon has been having a relationship of sorts with an unknown person named “Blue” via email. They share the defining things happening in their lives and commiserate with each other over life in general, but they never divulge who they are to each other as neither are exactly out yet. What starts out as friendship progresses to feelings that are a bit deeper, and when Simon accidentally forgets to log out of his email at school someone finds out about Simon’s ‘friendship’ and he blackmails him to in order to keep it a secret.

Being in Simon’s head for this story was wonderful. I loved how Albertalli was able to portray all areas of Simon’s life for us… we weren’t just at school, instead we get to see him with his friends, we get to see him with his family, and we get to see him, via email, make a connection with Blue.

I thought the way Albertalli kept the suspense of who Blue was a secret was genius, I never had a clue, but once it was revealed it totally made sense, and their romance was probably one of the sweetest things in all of YA. The romance is fricking adorable. I don’t know what else to say about this.

“The way I feel about him is like a heartbeat — soft and persistent, underlying everything.”

Albertalli manages to cover some pretty serious topics in this story, but it never once feels like preaching, and I truly appreciate that. I honestly can say that this will most likely be amongst my favorites when the end of the year rolls around. If you don’t have this on your TBR list, put it there now, and then bump it to the top so that on the day of release you’re cracking the cover on this. I promise you’re going to love the story, you’re going to love Simon and you’re going to put Becky Albertalli on your Auto-Buy list like I have.

Thank you to the Midnight Garden for providing me with an ARC in a giveaway – and Becky for the amazing oreo cookie recipe I found in the cover!!

About Becky Albertalli

Becky Albertalli is the author of the acclaimed novels Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and The Upside of Unrequited. A former clinical psychologist who specialized in working with children and teens, Becky lives with her family in Atlanta.

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