Though, if this moment really belonged to me, it wouldn’t be happening. Not now, I mean. Not yet.
Rating: 4.5/5
Trigger Warnings: homophobia, bullying
Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t read the book, this review will contain spoilers so it’s up to you if you continue…
I’ve been meaning to read Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda for years but (as so often happens) it took the film being released (and my sister buying the book) for me to actually get around to it. I was going to say that now I’ve read it I’m mad I didn’t let myself enjoy it earlier, but actually this book came at the right time for me. I finished A Beautiful White Cat Walks With Me a day before I started Simon and whilst the former meant very little to me, Simon was the perfect thing to remind me that I love reading, and that books can make me feel things so explicitly.
The best way for me to sum it up is that reading Simon gave me the same heart-fluttering feelings I used to get when I read fanfiction. I wanted the characters to be together, to be happy and in love. When they fell out it hurt as if I was the one who had been hurt, and the personal jokes and small gestures touched me as if I had been in on the whole thing. I read it in two days because I was so invested, waiting to get home from work to pick up where I left off at 1am the night before. It’s been a long time since I felt both that eagerness and that emotional investment in a book, and the combination really and truly felt like the excitement of fanfiction. That’s possibly not a good point of reference for most people, but it’s the only way I can express it.
So into the actual review now I’ve had my little fangirl excitement.
First up: I love the format. I like when texts/emails/social media are/is involved in a book because those things are very relatable - obviously, that’s why it’s in there in the first place - but when they get slotted into the text, sometimes it’s difficult to not just read them as part of the whole thing. Giving them their own chapters separates them out and shows the importance they hold. These emails are a Big Deal in Simon and Bram’s lives, so they need to have that prominence to the reader too.
Simon’s family was cool and felt realistic, and I liked the lack of definition within his friendship group. That might sound strange, but compared to a lot of YA books/films, there was such a realistic looseness to his school friends. He had his close friends, and then there was a whole bunch of people around him that he knew and interacted with, and no one felt surplus or unimportant, despite being background characters. Even Taylor, who I thought was going to be ‘stereotypical popular bitch’ wasn’t as annoying as I thought she would be. She came up a couple of times as a ‘look at this funny thing this character said’ but not in an annoying way, just in a ‘yeah that’s what me and my friends would talk about’ way. It was easy and normal and the conversations felt so real.
Gotta put it out there Ms. Albright was a badass. A badass who unfortunately told people off by reading from the school rule book, but a badass all the same.
And Bram is a goddamn cutie. I really related to his shyness, and his jealousy when it looked like something might happen between Simon and Cal; his real life shyness combined with his email confidence accurately reflected how easy it is to say things to someone from behind a screen (but in the loveliest way, rather than the internet hate that is so often connected to this concept). As a fairly shy person myself, his open flirting and flourishing confidence in the emails was really lovely to see because we got to witness that growth in him.
And it grew until he was brave enough to come out. I could give a whole spiel about how you shouldn’t need to be brave to come out because coming out shouldn’t have to be a thing or, as the boys decide, everyone should need to come out because hetero shouldn’t be the assumption. Buuuuut I’ll let the book cover that life lesson. I just want to talk about the way Simon talks about coming out when he does so to his family at Christmas. The quote above is actually from that section and it really resonated with me: coming out should not only be his choice but his moment too. It should be about him, and no one else. I felt like it was an important thing to bring up in this review because I think it can be lost on people. A lot of people may wonder how their friend/sibling/family member’s sexuality may affect them, rather than instantly turning to that person and saying ‘okay, I’m here for you’. Leah said something that highlighted this too, and I can’t remember the exact phrasing but she says it isn’t her place to be angry about Simon telling Abby first. Though she was upset, she was so right in saying this. Yes, it would have been upsetting for her, but it’s about Simon first and foremost.
As for things I don’t like about it?
Sometimes things felt a tiny bit forced. I can only think of two or three instances, but it was in moments when they talk about being gay/coming out and suddenly being white or talking about the ‘default’ person comes up. I just felt a little like Albertalli slid them in to show she was being socially aware or ‘woke’. Great that she is, but it felt a little out of place at that moment of the story. Simon has just found out who the mysterious Blue is and in amongst all that emotion and excitement, he has this moment to think about how his assumption that Blue was a white guy shows the damning unconscious racism built into people because society sucks. There was something unrealistic about those moments.
But I’m really excited to read Albertalli’s other books, and definitely to watch the film, which will probably happen very soon this week! Loved this book, and highly recommend it.
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