Swoon Swoon Swoon

After two good, but grim murder books in a row, I need something lighter and this was the perfect pick. If you want to read something that will make you happy, this is that book. I didn’t think of it until after, but if you like Rainbow Rowell’s books, you’ll probably like Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Although it’s a young adult novel, it’s not dumbed down and the love story will make you swoon just as much as Fangirl or Carry On.

Simon is a high school junior with great friends and family. He knows they’ll probably be supportive when he decides to tell them he’s gay, it’s just that he’s not ready for all the attention and curiosity that’ll come his way when he comes out. For now, he’s content to keep writing his secret pen pal, Blue. They both go to the same school and they’re both gay, but they don’t know each other’s true identities. Everything is going swimmingly until some jerkface gets ahold of these emails and decides to blackmail Simon into helping him date one of Simon’s best friends.

I loved this books soooooo much. If you have teenagers, they’ll probably like this, but I think many adults would love it too. It deals with old issues like figuring out who you are, friendship, and trying to fit in and newer issues like the effect new technology has on bullying. That’s not to say that it feels like a “very special episode” of some schlocky after-school show, it just weaves these issues naturally into the plot. This was Albertalli’s debut novel and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what she writes next.