Leah on the Offbeat

I loved Simon vs. The Homo Sapien Agenda. I love how Albertalli writes. I am in the minority of not loving this book, but it wasn't a bad book.

Albertalli's story rest heavily on dialogue instead of descriptions, and it works really well. It makes for a quick read and it's very entertaining. For me, I just didn't like Leah very much. Parts of the book I liked her a lot and she was relate-able: like her torn feelings about Abby and how graduating high school really does go by fast. But I just couldn't actually like her.

I feel as though her character was shallow and lacked the depth that went into creating Simon in the previous novel. I felt like I didn't know Leah very well, and just couldn't get behind the character like I had been able to do for Simon. That being said: I will read every book that Albertalli writes no matter what. Her writing pulls you in and doesn't let go, and most of her characters stick with you. This may have not been my favorite, but I'm still glad I read it.

3/5 stars

Paperback Crush

Holy nostalgia!! This book was so fun!

I loved the book covers throughout: there were so many I recognized that I had completely forgotten about, and now I want to find them to read again. The author talked about books I've never heard of, getting into how the 70's YA fiction set the stage.

The history of how these books came to be and the taboo subjects the late 70's and early 80's produced was really interesting to read. Who thought a book about the history of YA books would be so compulsively readable?

It would have been nice to delve a little more on some of the series she mentions, and some sections (like the one on equestrian books) were a little sparse. I personally would have loved to have read a little more about the Thoroughbred series. I was a horse girl and those were my favorite books of all time.

The only thing that really bugged me about the writing was the author's political inserts. Mentioning Trump and Pence in a book about 80's and 90's YA fiction had zero place for that. I'm sure the author was trying to be funny, but that fell super flat and was really weird that it was there at all. Also, the book just ends. No warning, just literally ends with no tie-up or anything at all. I do wish that was done differently; the reader doesn't expect it and it's odd.

I will definitely be buying a copy of this book for myself, however. I truly enjoyed revisiting these books and a time that will never be reproduced. It would be great to go back to when these were sold new and experience it all over again.

4/5 stars