Title: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens AgendaAuthor: Becky Albertalli
Series: -
Genres: Contemporarym LGBT, Romance, YA
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release: April 7th, 2015
Source: Audiobook
Pages: 303
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BLURB:
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.
MARTYNA's REVIEW
EXPECTATIONS: Just like Call Me By Your Name saw the trailer for the movie, and find an audiobook of it. I actually read this book before Call Me By Your Name, so I kind of compared these two books, but actually they are for different audiences and they should not be compared. I did enjoy Simon, very very very much! Let me explain why!
THE WORLD: Our world, nothing special really. Every day school life, of course I can imagine that when you are a teenager who is figuring out their sexuality and true self, nothing is really ever regular, but in any case this book does not focus on any world building. We know the world, we live it.
CHARACTERS: Our main character is Simon! A cute young boy, who is not popular, but not really an outcast, he is performing in the school play, does his homework, had a dog called Bieber (yup :D ), lives his life what would seem to us very normally, but in fact he is being kind of blackmailed by Martin, who by accident find Simon's emails to a pen-friends named Blue. Emails that tell Blue that Simon - is gay.
In the book we get to join Simon on the ride of his life, as he comes into terms with being gay, trying to tell his family, his friends, being in love with his pen-friend Blue, but not knowing if this feeling is real or easy because their emails. We get to see Simon grow up as a person, open up as a person, find himself and most importantly stop being afraid. This kid was so strong and cute, and just adorable! I liked Simon.
Besides him we have Blue, this mysterious pen-friend who all throughout the book you are left to guess his real identity, and I have to say, I totally failed to guess who he was! I had two theories - both wrong! So if you will read and get it soon - let me know!
We also get to see Simon's friends and how they react to everything, and deal with their own issues and self-establishment.
But in all honesty, I loved Simon's family - mostly his parents. I mean any kid - straight or gay, would be so lucky to have such family. I mean you might not know this, but I love The Bachelor (the stupid yet amazing TV Show - totally hate the new guys btw), and in the book his parents, Simon and his two sisters all have viewing night for The Bachelor, where his dad has a rose in his hands! I mean....family goals right there! I mean the level of support and love they have for their kids was just a blessing to read. They reacted to everything just like normal parents would.
Spoiler do not continue reading if you do not want to get spoiled some details!!!!!
After Simon comes out to them, and some time passes he has a guy friend over for a sleepover or something and they tell him that they need to it over if they are OK with a boy sleeping in his room now. Simon gets angry, but they explain that it's not because he's gay or anything, the same rules apply to him as it does to his sisters. No boys allowed to sleep in their room or something. I mean, reading this was a breathe of fresh air! If you remember I reviewed a book called Just Juliet, where the father of an openly gay girl allowed the main character to sleep in his daughters room, after like an hour they met - he was like - oh yeah sure stranger go sleep with my only daughter in the same room, it's not like I don't know you or anything! I was so angry that he let a perfect stranger anywhere near his child. And now having these parents normally establishing boundaries was just - logical!
ROMANCE: Whole kind of romance going on! Simon and Blue was my favorite I guess.
GOOD: Realistic. This book was realistic I think. I enjoyed Simon in his family, his inner thoughts, the letters with Blue. I also liked the writing a lot.
BAD: Seemed a little stretched out and I have to say, I had some problems. I didn't really understand why Simon was so awful sometimes to his parents. They were beyond supportive and sometimes he was a total brat. Also everyone seemed to forgive everyone very easily in this book. Well not one character, but I don't want to go into spoilers. Let's just say that they were some plot holes I kind of got mixed up about.
OVERALL: In total, I think this was fantastic. It is totally YA, but having such a beautiful book makes my heart happy! I would 100% recommend to read this book.
HANNAH's REVIEW
EXPECTATIONS: I know pretty much everybody has read this book by now but I was not among these everybody. I actually had a feeling this book despite being a great for the community is not necessary for me. But then the movie was about to come out and I wanted to watch it but who watched the movie without reading a book. So I did after all ended up reading it.
THE WORLD: Just an ordinary world of ordinary folks.
CHARACTERS: As Martyna already mentioned our main character is called Simon and he is a very friendly high school teenager. He is this actually pretty standard teen - he has a circle of close friends, is into entertainment TV and cares about what others think more than he should. Also he has this secret crush on his very much secret friend who nicknames him as Blue. There is actually a lot of emails back and forth and thought on Blue which I rather enjoyed. Now Blue is a mystery, we do not know who he is up till the end so of course we keep guessing. But frankly I was not a fan of blue, there was too much I like you but I won't tell you who I am and for me who hates such 'games' it was a bit much. The main idea of the book is that Simon is gay but nobody really knows it till one day a guy from school finds out and starts to blackmail Simon. To be completely honest I do not know I feel about the characters in this book. I do indeed like Simon, not the character as a person but the way he is written. I really doubt Simon and I would be friends in real world cuz there is just so little we have in common when it comes to hobbies and interests. But the way he was written...it was real. There was no sugarcoating, he was a teenager boy in love. As I already mentioned I did not like Blue, even after we finally find out who this mysterious boy is. I think if he did not have guts to tell Simon who he is and they were on very close terms, their relationship will suffer very much in the future. I know coming out is a topic that is difficult but if you cannot even tell the person you consider closest to you who you are then how can that person really trust you? I know it's not really an issue when you are a teen but when you look from adult's perspective...I just had a big issue with this whole Blue never saying who he is till the last pages.
ROMANCE: The only romance I really cared about and I think is really a developing story and not just side prop was between Simon and Blue. Tho again I don't like relationships that are not built on trust so yeah...it was cute, the emails and such but I don't know. It just felt off.
GOOD: As I already mentioned I really liked the way characters or well Simon was written. It was real.
BAD: This did not feel real to me. Like one of those books where things happen just for the purpose of the plot. I mean don't get me wrong, this book is definitely important but there are a lot of points which felt very off. Also the whole deal with Martin. There is no excuse to being a bully. I was not a nice person in high school and saying that I was that way because of one or other excuse is rubbish. Plus give me a break, the guy blackmails you and then next things you basically buddies just because he apologized? We are talking teenagers here!
OVERALL: I think it was a powerful book reminding us all that even today being other than straight and white can be as scary as hell. So let's all support our friends who don't feel safe or don't feel they would be accepted for being who they are. This book has a huge message and we should never forget it.
What do you think about SIMON VS THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA ?
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