Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (2015)

 Simon’s a pretty open book. His family is super close, he has awesome friends, and overall a comfortable life as a junior in high school. There’s just one, kind of big thing: he’s gay. It’s not that he’s ashamed of being gay (he’s not), it’s just that he’s never found the right time to tell anyone. Well, not anyone. There’s Blue, an anonymous boy from his school that he emails back and forth. One day, Simon gets impatient and checks his email on a school computer and forgets to log out. His sort-of friend Martin finds the emails, and begins to blackmail him. Simon can either do Martin’s bidding or decide to come out, something he isn’t quite ready to do. 

For some reason, I really did not want to read Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda. It’s been wildly popular since its release two years ago, but, like always, I was being stubborn and refused to read it. Finally, I listened to the audiobook this winter break, and it was spectacular. Arguably one of the best audiobooks I’ve listened to that captured the heartstrings of this book for sure.

One of my favorite parts of the story was definitely how Simon, and teenagers in general, were portrayed. Simon felt completely relatable and real. His language was pretty spot on, in my opinion, except for that fact that he called Tumblr “the Tumblr.” But, speaking of that, the references to pop culture was great. People were talking about social media and Tegan & Sara and popular movies that really added to the environment. I also liked that Becky Albertalli didn’t try to minimize Simon’s problems. Too often, I think problems of teenagers are minimized and framed to not be that important when in reality they’re hugely important.

Going with that, I liked that Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda acknowledged all the feelings that go around monumental moments like coming out or any big moment, really. Simon was super caught up in his problems, which I can’t blame him for, but he became mean to his other friends because of it. Instead of pushing it aside, he was held accountable for his actions and expected to apologize. It was also discussed that sometimes problems are so bad it’s better to walk away from the toxic situation then solve it, and that it’s okay to do so.

Still, I had some problems with this book. Mainly, I found some of the scenes and plot lines to be super unrealistic even though the characters were really realistic. For instance, there’s a scene when Simon gets drunk at a bar and is never asked to present an I.D., which I feel is not a good idea to send out. I also felt the whole blackmailing thing, which is literally the basis of the plot, was really odd. I don’t know, I’ve been a teenager for awhile, and I’ve never heard of something like that happening.

However, those problems still didn’t stop me from completely enjoying the book. Like I said, the audiobook was spectacular. I also connected with the characters and though the book was hilarious. I would definitely recommend!

4 Stars