Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Release Date: April 7th 2015
Publisher: Penguin
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥♥♥

THIS BOOK MADE MY HEART HAPPY.

Oh my god. I don't know what I was expecting when I read this, all I knew was that a handful of my friends had loved it and one of those lovely friends literally handed this book to me and said "You HAVE to finally read Simon" and that was that.

Simon is a gay teenager and emails with the mysterious Blue - a boy who goes to his school, but whose identity is unknown (Simon's identity is also unknown to Blue). After forgetting to log out of his email, Simon is blackmailed by asshat another student, Martin, who threatens to publish his personal emails with Blue.

This book was brilliant from start to finish. While it focuses on serious themes such as sexuality, gender, race, coming out and blackmail, it's all surprisingly very lighthearted and an adorable read. While it's lighthearted, funny and just downright cute, that's not to say it belittles the seriousness of those themes. It's just a wonderful mix and makes for a fantastic read.

Simon is witty, sassy, honest, clever and just downright adorable. He loves Oreos, Harry Potter and good grammar, and I so want him to be my friend. The relationships with his friends and family were realistic and while they weren't perfect (aka: teenagers are mean to eachother), it was so well done and I still LOVED ALL OF THEM. (Except Martin. Martin's an asshat and his behaviour was not cool).

Simon's family and friends were super supportive of him coming out and while this might be too neat and tidy for some, I think it was wonderful and I only wish every LGBT person had the same support group as Simon. While his friend group is imperfect, it was REALISTIC and I loved all of the supporting characters (petition to have a spin off novel for each of them). The little things his family does made me laugh and their dynamic is so loving and wonderful to read about. Simon's family is hilarious and I can TOTALLY relate to the Chipmunk's Christmas thing. Simon and his siblings joke that they're named after Alvin and the Chipmunks, but aside from that, they listen to the Chipmunk Song at Christmas. I probably freaked out way too much over this one tiny sentence but my mum and I would listen to Alvin and the Chipmunks on record EVERY SINGLE CHRISTMAS UNTIL I MOVED OUT OF HOME. I'm serious.

We get to understand more about Blue through emails and reading the conversations back and forth between the two had me internally screaming BECAUSE I JUST WANTED THEM TO MEET EACHOTHER BECAUSE AHSDGKSK. ALL of the cute. Their relationship blossoms throughout the novel and while things begin to unfold, I found myself so attached to Simon's character, I would get angry when he was angry or sad when he was sad. This sounds pretty standard for books to have characters we give a shit about, but I dunno, Simon is pretty awesome.

When we finally find out who Blue is, I felt so incredibly happy for Simon and could not stop grinning. It. Was. Perfect.

(If you can't tell already, this book turned me into a raving fangirl and I am not ashamed)

Becky Albertalli is a brilliant story magician and I am absolutely going to read anything she writes in the future.

I want to shout from the rooftops and tell everybody to buy this freaking book. It's amazing.