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:
I just won this is in a giveaway so I’m happy to see this glowing review. 😀
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Lucky you! That’s awesome! I hope you enjoy it!😄
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I love light, witty books that have a touch of humor to them! I’ve been seeing this book around for a while now but I guess I never really thought it was going to be a book that would make me laugh, or I would have read it already! Definitely bumping this one up on my to be read list. Awesome review!
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Me too! I hope it makes you laugh and smile as much as it did for me! Thanks, Kelly!😄
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I just finished reading this and I really liked it too! It was so cute, and Simon was such a great character 🙂
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I’m so glad you liked it, Amy! I definitely agree!😄
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I’ve heard nothing but good things about this book. Very time I see another positive review, I’m motivated to buy it even more haha. I definitely have to bump this one up on my TBR. Hopefully I can get to it next month! Great review, Kayla! 😀
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You definitely should, it’s worth it! I hope you enjoy, and thanks!😄
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I just read this one and I loved it so much!! It was so adorable and I read it one day because I couldn’t put it down. Great review 😀
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I’m so happy you enjoyed it! I read it in a day as well. Thanks, Lauren☺️
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I loved all the little discussions about Oreos throughout the novel it was beautiful
– Yasmin
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Me too!☺️
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Great review! I love this book so much! I think I heard its becoming a movie?? I hope that’s true!
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Thanks! And yeah, I have heard rumours about it becoming a movie… If they’re true, I’d definitely see it!😄
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Me too!! 😀
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Everyone loves this book! I need to give it a try sometime!
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Definitely give it a shot and let me know what you think!😊
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Always!
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How funny that you read this book in the same month I did.. hahaha.. I have glued my eyes into books this month and missed your review 🙂 Yeah, we both guessed wrong about Blue. I really like that surprise. Also, Marty uses the school computer after Simon and found that Simon forgot to log off his email so Marty was able to read the emails between Simon & Blue and then Marty blackmailed Simon into playing matchmakers for him and Abby. (You might want to change your version of the synopsis? :-))
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Haha, I know! Great readers think (and read) alike!😉
I for sure absolutely loved the mystery aspect of this book- it was so unpredictable!
And thanks for letting me know about the synopsis- sometimes I don’t get it 100% right, haha😂 . But then again, I found this book pretty hard to synopsize in itself.
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Thanks Kayla for not getting upset about me pointing your synopsis out. I don’t mean to criticize or anything. I like to read your review because it’s not too lengthy haha and it’s always great to read a review to a book I already read so I know what’s going on 😊
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Haha, no problem, I’d rather you be honest about it!☺️
And thanks so much, Jasmine! I love your reviews, too!💜
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