Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda (Creekwood #1) - Becky Albertalli
Book 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 have to admit, I did commit the "cardinal sin" and watch the movie first instead of reading the book. Oh well, at least the film was highly entertaining. This made me want to give the book a second chance and honestly, I'm glad that I did.
Let's kick this off by starting on what I did like.
The format. Emails are always interesting to read, especially when they are from a fictional character.
Now, let's see what didn't work for me and there were two major points that I feel weren't necessary to propel the story.
Blackmailing. Forced love perspectives.
Martin was a huge jerk, I want to use a stronger word, but I prefer to keep things G rated on my blog. Simon was a jerk too, but for letting himself be victimized and coerced into blackmail. Being outed as anything, is not fun and that part was realistic, however...
Abby and Martin would've never worked, in any universe, real or fictional. What I mean by forced love perspectives is that it felt a little unrealistic and pushing an agenda that I'm not interested in reading.
If you don't like to read, then I would suggest you skip the book and just watch the movie. However, it was a great book and you'll be missing out.
Unpopular opinion, I'm not sorry for not loving this book, but let's be real, not everyone is going to like everything. We all have different perspectives and likes and dislikes, it's what makes us human.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5 Stars