Since you all know me and my tendencies to read hyped books, you know why I read this book. No need to give any further commentary than that. So let’s just move on to the review:
Summary (Goodreads): 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.
Review: I’m a little scared to write my review. I liked this novel and found it a very fast and good read. But I didn’t love it.
I don’t read many contemporary books, especially not cute ones. This is definitely a cute novel, and it had me smiling quite a lot. Simon is a very sassy character and I love all of the craziness he gets involved in. I absolutely adored the email correspondences because they were so genuine.
But I didn’t like Simon himself. I’m not saying that Simon has to be a perfect character; I love when the authors make their characters flawed. But Simon was a little too obnoxious and mean for me to like at times. I don’t think he was ever a good friend. And that bothered me a lot. The author gives Simon such an amazing support system with his family members and friends. But he is kind of an asshole and he’s also fickle. And every time he did something or said/thought something that wasn’t so nice, it made me distance myself from him. Even once he recognized he was wrong, there wasn’t really any remorse from him, and I think this bothered me more. I mean, if we’re gonna go cutesy, you might as well go all the way and make him a more caring person at the end of it all.
However, I think this novel raises some very important issues regarding sexual orientation. And I think the story handles it very well and presents these ideas to the public in a way that will make everyone understand what it feels like to be something other than heterosexual. Ultimately, this story is upbeat and full of hope and positivity, and I came out of this novel feeling happy. For once, the romance is amazingly realistic and sweet and it made me feel the emotions. To me, these are the things that make this book so great.
I finished this novel with a smile on my face, and with a better understanding about the struggles of the lgbtqia+ community (and everyone can always do with understanding more about this). For those reasons, I’m giving this a 3.5/5 stars, rounded to 4.
Happy reading ~
Completely admire you for writing a critical review of a popular book–I think people (myself included) should do it more often.
Thanks or this! I was literally so nervous to post this but I just didn’t want to join the bandwagon when I didn’t really feel it.
Stay true to you, otherwise what’s the point? 🙂
Very true! I aim to do that all the time, but it still feels daunting to be that person who is different! But I’m glad you liked the review 🙂
Saw the movie today it was so good! The book was better but I really enjoyed the movie!😍
I still haven’t seen the movie but I’m planning to watch it soon! I hope I like it as much as I liked the book, if not more!
I can totally see where you’re coming from! and I love that you were completely honest and transparent with your review. It’s definitely tough to voice critiques about popular books.
Thanks! It was hard, especially because I saw so many people talking about how meaningful and important this book was. And while I didn’t want to discount that, I also didn’t absolutely love it or think it had no flaws to it. At the end of the day, I just wanted to give my honest perspective. I’m glad you liked it 🙂