13/03/2016

Book Review: Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda


Hey guys so originally I wasn't planning on posting this review until after my Lady Midnight one, but since I still haven't gotten around to writing that and this book's been stuck in my head all day, I thought we'd start here. 

First things first this book is perfect if you want a light hearted, 'fluffy' contemporary that is going to cause a lot of feels and overwhelming cuteness. It's been described as the love child of John Green (The Fault in Our Stars) and Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor and Park) and to be honest I totally agree with that description. It's so so so funny, the characters are all likeable and totally relatable and even if you can't identify exactly with what the main character is going through, it's written in a way that makes you feel as though you can.

The main character Simon, had such a strong voice throughout which sometimes I think can be lost in YA. As a reader I really got a feel of his personality, of who he is as a person and what he stands for, and for me that made me love him even more. Serious A+ main character. 

If you have no idea what this books is about I'll leave the blurb below before I go into the spoiler section. If you're wondering whether or not I would recommend this? Yes, yes, yes. I'd give it 5 stars and a 98%. The only reason it's not 100% is because it wasn't longer. Like seriously, I need more.

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The Synopsis:

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Straight people should have to come out too. And the more awkward it is, the better.
Simon Spier is sixteen and trying to work out who he is - and what he's looking for. 


But when one of his emails to the very distracting Blue falls into the wrong hands, things get all kinds of complicated.



Because, for Simon, falling for Blue is a big deal . . .
It's a holy freaking huge awesome deal.


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So I realised after googling the blurb that it's not very informative. As it says above Simon in a 16 year old, living in Georgia. He's also so far in the closet he's basically in Narnia. No one knows he's gay apart from his anonymous email pen pal - the mysterious 'Blue" - who he writes to most days. Blue also happens to be a boy at his school, who's also in the closet, and the two are falling for each other pretty spectacularly. However neither of them are prepared to tell the other their real identity or actually meet in real life. So when Simon (who we come to realise is actually the most dumb person ever lol) leaves a school computer logged into his email all of his correspondence with Blue suddenly become a living grenade. The boy who holds these screenshots demands that Simon try and set him up with his friend Abby and if he refuses he'll show everyone the screenshots. 

The majority of the story is Simon coming to terms with his sexuality and making some really poor life decisions. He goes through a list of people in his head of who he thinks Blue might be, ultimately missing who he actually is. To be honest I guessed pretty early on but on lot's of other reviews I've read people seemed to be really shocked upon the unveil. Nonetheless as I said above, I loved this book and would highly recommend. 

Now, if you haven't read it, I recommend leaving now, reading it and then coming back so we can discuss! Byeeeee. 

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Okay, have I mentioned that I loved Simon?! Well I did. His internal monologue was one of the funniest I've read in a long time and he just deserved so much better than the crap he was getting from Martin. Seriously that kid. He made me so angry, trying to justify the blackmail. Like no. No. That's someones life (two people if you count Blue) that you could just ruin with the click of a button. Class A asshole. But as much as I loved him, Simon was incredibly dimwitted at times. Like he was so obsessed with Cal that he didn't even consider that Blue might be someone else even though not at one point did Cal even hint that he might be. I definitely clocked onto the fact that he liked Simon though (as we later find out he's bi) so initially I kinda thought it might be him too. But then I thought that was too obvious so I scratched him off the list.

Next, I had this wild crackpot theory that Nick was Blue. However that only lasted about fifty pages or so because he was blatantly interested in Abby. I did consider that it might be a ruse to try and get Simon to be interested in him, but it didn't feel right to me.

At this point I was still fairly clueless about Blue's identity. But then as soon as we had that scene with the mixed up English papers I just knew.  It was Bram for sure. There were more clues throughout the book, some of them subtle, some of them not so, and in the end I was so happy. Him and Simon were so cute together.

I also loved reading their emails. They spoke about such funny things (like the oreos) and it seemed pretty clear that Simon was the more flirtatious one of the two, though whenever Blue said something flirty it made me swoon like a right idiot. Their dynamic was just so cute and so perfect and I need a second book like today please.

Then of course we had the side characters. This was where, in my opinion, the book could have done with being a little longer. Whilst I loved Nick and Leah and Abby, I still felt as though we could have delved deeper into their personalities and their histories. Of course this is Simon's story so I get why we didn't, but it's a shame. Nonetheless, what I saw, I did like!

As I said above I loved this book and am thinking about reading it again. (Who am I kidding, I reckon I'm going to start it again right now...) Do share you thoughts, I love knowing you guys' opinion!










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2 comments

  1. This book sounds amazing and this was a really good in depth review! Xx

    Kate/ katerosexo1.blogspot.com

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    Replies
    1. It's so so good! You should definitely read it! And I know, I just get really into it haha xx

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