Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Creekwood #1)

If you do not own this book yet go buy it. Like, NOW! You will want to own it and it will sit on the top shelf with all your other favorite books. And then go see the movie. You can thank me later. No really, you will.

Sixteen year-old Simon is keeping a secret from his family and best friends: he is gay. When a fellow student anonymously posts on tumblr that he is gay, Simon also anonymously tells him his secret. They strike up a companionship through email and then Simons emails get into the wrong hands. He will be blackmailed in order to keep his secret behind closet doors. The rest, you will need to read to find out: and I trust that you will. What are you waiting for, I would have thought you wouldve already bought it and started reading it by now? Wasnt my intro convincing enough?!

This book will bring about all the feels. There is one part of the book where I was desperate to hug Simon. I found my emotions going from anger, sadness and outright laughter all within a few short chapters: it was an emotional rollercoaster that I was glad to ride. It also made me so thankful that I never have to relive high school ever again. I cant even imagine having to go through high school with social media; and here I thought dial up AOL instant messenger chat rooms were brutal.

You will fall in love with all the characters: I hated one tremendously, but I guess things changed in the end (just a tad)look at me, I am growing.

I also loved author Becky Albertallis writing style. It was fresh and real.

Are you still reading my review?! Thank you, but what the heck are you waiting forI already told you to start reading this book!

Im totally kicking myself for waiting so long to read Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda! This was just about the cutest novel ever! When I was midway through my ebook I went out and grabbed a paperback so I could have it on my shelf. Thats how much I loved it even before I was finished!

The book starts off with Simon in the closet about his sexuality and emailing back and forth with an anonymous boy from school, Blue, who was in the same boat. Simon found himself getting more and more attached to this boy without even knowing his true identity, desperately wanting to meet in real life. These interactions were everything! I love the connection they had and the support they gave each other as they worked their way around coming out to family and friends. There was even a bit of teasing and flirting going on as they tested the waters of their friendship to see if there was the potential for it to go further. I just loved the progression of their relationship from start to finish and found it just completely adorable!

Simon is a breath of fresh air of a character. He wasnt just adorable with Blue but in every other capacity as well. He gets along with others easily and genuinely wants to find the good in people and make friends. He sort of navigates a lot of lifes changes throughout the book in sometimes awkward and hilarious ways and sometimes in serious and real ways that made him that much more relatable.

But Im tired of coming out. All I ever do is come out. I try not to change, but I keep changing, in all these tiny ways. I get a girlfriend. I have a beer. And every freaking time, I have to reintroduce myself to the universe all over again.

If Simon and Blue werent enough, Simons relationship with his family and friends also made this book everything that is was. Little family moments cracked me up like The Chipmunks, the Facebook Scavenger Hunt, and of course OREOs! Thats the sort of family I strive for with my own kids, a close knit family that have fun together. Simons group of friends with all of their ups and downs (and love triangles) were a great addition and showed the reality of what friendship can be and the art of forgiveness.

Seriously, if you havent read this book yet, dont be like me and wait for anything! Grab yourself a copy and introduce yourself to Simon and the rest of the amazing cast of characters. Dont forget to grab yourself some OREOs for when you do!

The characters were pretty generic and one dimensional. I think this book only became popular because of the message they were trying to send to readers and definitely not for the writing. I mean, the message is why I picked up the book in the first place and I was really, really looking forward to it. Sadly, this book fell flat. It’s not the worst book I’ve ever read, it was just mediocre. The author inserted information and characters that didn’t need to be in the book and seems to have been haphazardly thrown in with no idea how it’d be tied into the story later. Well, it’s simple, the author just doesn’t bring it up again. No one will notice, right?

If you’re looking for inspiration on coming out, then I’d suggest asking real people on what they went through personally. The book tried to do that by having Simon and Blue “talk” through email about it but they’re both new to coming out and thus have no knowledge of how to do it or how it will go. I don’t think this book would be the best informative tool on that front.

I think this is a really well written book with a good story. It is written by a child psychologist, who is writing it in a way that is relatable to teenage audiences. It is still a really entertaining, heartfelt, heart-grabbing page turner. I think the characters are realistic and never go too over the top. They are real teens that react the way real teens would to situations. Such as alcohol at parties. Not all teens are dumb and think it’s cool to get drunk. Also, the way people react to someone else dating a person they like is realistically illustrated.
I think the author really, accurately gets in the head of what it’s like to be a teen struggling to come out as gay, and his whole experience surrounding being a gay teen. The way it feels to them when other people make insensitive jokes/remarks unknowingly in front of them. The way it feels when other people know and hold it over them. The way it feels when the anxiety won’t let them be open, even to their closest friends even when they know the reaction will be positive.
It was really fun to follow along with the emails Simon and “Blue” exchange…trying to guess at “Blue’s” identity along with Simon. Great book. Can’t wait for the movie!

Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda is a really fun novel to read, but it’s not the easiest novel for me to review as a straight reader. I’ve read the arguments that this novel is more written for straight readers than LGBT ones and perhaps that’s true. Really, I have no way of judging it. Perhaps this novel will speak to you on a personal level and perhaps not. However, I can say that I really enjoyed it.

While the book doesn’t have much by way of a plot, it presents a really moving character study of a gay teenager as he is forced to come out. It’s really a look at why coming out is such a “big deal”, contrasting the views of Simon’s straight friends (many of whom don’t fully understand him) with the complexity of Simon’s feelings. While the story seems simple on the surface, it explores some very complicated themes as Simon struggles to define himself and discovers what he means to those around him.

The chapters are interspersed with emails between Simon and Blue. These were some of my favourite parts of the story as they felt very natural. Their relationship clearly blossomed over the course of the story and both boys, while witty and heartfelt, also had noticeably different voices. However, I didn’t really think that the novel dropped enough hints as to Blue’s true identity. While there were some clues later in the novel, when this is finally revealed the story tries to make it seem as though this should have been obvious despite some of the information that was available to Simon was withheld from the reader.

Yet the novel is still very sweet and I did get very invested in their relationship, ever hopeful that the two would eventually find happiness together. However, I did think that some of the secondary cast felt a bit shallow. While the cast of the story is quite large, Simon’s viewpoint is understandably self-centred. All we really learn about the cast is how they react to Simon. Ultimately, we don’t learn much about most of them purely because Simon doesn’t know them on a personal level.

So, in all, this novel is definitely one that I would recommend. I loved Simon as a character and found that I was incredibly invested in his relationship with Blue. While it’s not my favourite LGBT novel, it’s definitely one that I’d recommend.

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