Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda Review

Title: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Author: Becky Albertalli

Genre & Age Group: Contemporary, romance, LGBTQ+, young adult

Goodreads Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for 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.

Source: Public library

How I Found Out About It: Blogging

Ahhh. What an adorable, light read! This book made me smile and giggle so much, and I’m so happy I read it.

Ever since I created my blog and started following others, I have seen rave reviews of this book. I can’t even recall any reviews under 3 stars, to be honest. Also, I’d heard that it contained OREOS which are some of my absolute favourite cookies, as well as a couple Jewish characters, which, for the record, is MY religion, so I hopped right onto the bandwagon and never looked back!

For a quick synopsis, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda revolves around a teen named Simon. He is in the closet and a bit scared to come out, so when an email he writes is sent to the wrong person, Simon thinks it could harm his secret. He often emails a ‘pen pal’ code-named Blue, who is also gay and understands Simon and his struggles. But if Simon’s secret gets out, it could cost him everything- including Blue.

I’m sorry if my synopsis is a bit confusing- this book is just kind of hard to explain. You’ll have to read it to see what exactly I mean.😉

I absolutely loved Simon, our protagonist. He was AWESOME, to say the least! I found him to be super quirky; always with a joke in mind, as well as super understanding to Blue. I’d want to be his friend for sure- and, of course, eat a few Oreos with him.😄

Who was Blue, you may ask? Well. That is a secret limited to readers of this fabulous story, sorry! But I do want to say that you won’t be disappointed with the outcome- it will totally surprise you, as I wasn’t expecting it to be that character at all! And trust me, I thought I did have an idea of who it was, but the ending proved me wrong.

All in all, this was a fascinating, cute read about finding yourself and learning to be able to open up to others without risking too much, and I really enjoyed my time reading it! If you’re looking for a diverse/LGBTQ+ book focusing on digital relationships (and, for the third time, OREOS🍪), then put Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in your TBR agenda!

Now, here’s an Oreo gif to make you hungry for Oreos as well as this delicious book:

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