Pages: 303
Publisher: Blazer & Bray
Published: April 7, 2015
Synopsis:Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama f
or 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. (Goodreads)
My Bookish Thoughts:
I honestly had no idea what to expect from this book when I picked it up. My initial interest was sparked when I found out that there was going to be a movie based on this book.
I picked it up as an audiobook from SCRIBD. And it was very enjoyable. This book is a coming of age story about two male high schoolers who have been talking via email, as they establish a relationship and face the struggle of coming out. But there is a twist, our main character Simon Spier has his e-mail fall into the wrong hands and all of a sudden he has to face being blackmailed and risk having his email messages leaked to the entire school. And although he isn’t ready to be out himself, he is more worried about outing the boy that he has been talking too.
This book is written in an upbeat and very fun writing style. Becky Albertalli really sucks you into the story. There is a little mystery involved because the main character doesn’t know who the person is that he has been emailing too, all he knows is that the other person is a male and goes to his school.
I really enjoyed that this story wasn’t superficial. There was no instant love. The two main characters didn’t know what the other person looked like until almost the end of the novel which I thought was an honestly a very fresh way of writing a YA love story. I loved that this story showed that there is so much more than falling in love with a person’s outer shell, and how important it is to fall in love with the inner shell first.
This story I think teaches a lot about not only love romantically but how to learn to love yourself too. Throughout the e-mails that the two characters send to one another, they acknowledge their past relationships and why they didn’t work out and they stop shaming themselves in thinking that something is wrong with them. I think this is such an important message for today’s youth.
There is a lot of diversity in this book which should be noted, there are colored characters and LGBTQ+ representation. And all of it is done so perfectly. This also has healthy relationship representation which is important to note as well.
I enjoyed my experience with this book, I can’t wait to see the movie. If you are planning on settling down with this book I recommend you have your oreo cookies out and your tissues on hand because if you are like me, you will tear up at some of the cute little parts in this book.
Overall, good read, good representation, good audiobook.
With Warm Cups Of Tea and Just a Few More Chapters,
Rina
marinainw0nderland 