Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Simonverse, #1)

by Becky Albertalli

[Leah]

I have heard nothing but good things about Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda – especially from the fabulous Jen at Pop! Goes The Reader and Debby at Snuggly Oranges. So I had VERY, VERY high expectations going in to the book. Would I enjoy it as much as everyone else said? I have to say, everything Debby wrote in her review is absolutely spot-on. It was literally the perfect novel! It had everything I love in books!

It was just SO DARN CUTE. Simon is the greatest narrator you could every wish to freaking meet. He keeps it so real, and he was just freaking awesome. I’d love to have Simon as a friend. LOVE TO. More people should be like Simon, for real. It actually made me sad to see him struggle to come out to his friends and family because who the heck cares what his sexual preference is, he’s SIMON regardless of whether he likes girls or boys or both, ya know?

The novel had the right mix of normal narrative – where we see Simon in his daily life, with his awesome friends Nick, Leah and Abby (the coolest friends a guy could ask for, FYI), and being part of the drama club (theater club?) and trying to navigate family life with a mom and dad who think it’s news-worthy when Simon changes his socks. Ha. Talk about obsessed, eh? Then there were the adorable, ADORABLE, email exchanges between Simon and Blue. Oh sweet Lord did they make my heart sing and my stomach melt in to a puddle of goo. This book gave me ALL THE FEELS. I was dying to know who Blue was!!! WHO WAS HE?! And the best bit is the reveal was too damn cute. Too freaking cute, as Simon would say. It was perfect. So, so perfect.

Of course it wasn’t all hearts and roses – Simon lives in Georgia so being gay isn’t exactly a picnic, nor something to shout from the rooftops, and that wasn’t helped by Martin blackmailing Simon, which I hated as much as Simon did.

Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda hit all the right notes for me. It was warm, it was funny, the romance was deliciously sweet and cute and adorable and the kind of romance I just love reading about; Simon was the perfect narrator – snarky, but serious and I loved that he loves Oreos. I actually hated it, since I’m dieting, but I loved it, really, because I LOVE OREOS. It made me so hungry, mind.

I can see why everyone is raving about this book, it’s special. So special and very deserving of all the high praise. I loved it so much, Becky Albertalli is a writing star and Simon is easily my favourite character of 2015 so far and ranks VERY high on my list of all-time favourite characters.