Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Gut Instinct Rating - 5

Characters - 4.5

Believability for type and topics - 5

Similarity to other books - 4

Writing Style - 5

Excitement Factor - 4.5

Story Line - 5

Title Relevance - 5

Dust Jacket Art - 5

Goodreads users gave this book a 4.26. I think it was more deserving of a 4.72.

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Published in 2015

Pages: 303

Publishing Company: Batzer & Bray

Number of books by author: 2

Genre: YA Fiction

I came into this book with high expectations, which is always dangerous, but

when I flew through the first 50 pages, I knew that we were on the right track. This book definitely stands as a potential top 10 winner. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who's coming out, either who speculates they might be GBLT, or who has just come out. I won't talk too much on this book, because it is so good, and I think it's a quick and easy read - so I don't want to dwell on what didn't work, because it wasn't much, but I want you to experience the uniqueness of this book for itself. Most books present the fairy book ending, and this one presents its challenges, but it's mostly unicorns and rainbows. The characters' story lines were really well done. Because of the way that we are introduced to Blue in this book, we get to know someone in a unique way, and I think that makes you fall in love with him the same way, and at the same time, that Simon does. But it also makes you feel the same emotions towards other people because you're experiencing the journey in a unique way that you don't get in most other romance novels. The believability is there. Especially since this was probably written closer to 2013, maybe 2014... and the Tumblr-sphere was popular then, especially for the un-outed to vent their frustrations and expressions. Unfortunately, the book felt almost exactly like the book Geography Club, which was written in 2003. Due to some technology and more acceptance of the GBLT community, this book was a bit more current, but they were very similar. I'm not sure if Albertalli has read Geography Club (or seen the movie for that matter), but they match up quite well. The writing was smooth, despite the emails. The to/from fields weren't necessary (nor were the subject lines, which I mostly skipped over because I found them annoying and unnecessary unless they were mentioned, in which I flipped back and read them) and could easily be skipped over if it felt disruptive to the reader. Despite my finding out who Blue was before Simon did, I still felt energized by the story. I felt the author did a great job of bringing in neutral story lines and regular teen drama into the mixture to take the heavy emphasis of GBLT matters away from the focus when necessary, while also highlighting those matters when it was necessary (and there were moments when it was definitely necessary and included well). The title and cover art were really tastefully done and fit well with the entire theme of the book... now, where's my movie or Netflix series?