Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Series: No
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: April 7th 2015
Source: Publisher [Edelweiss]

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is a book I've been seeing around a lot of blogs over the past few months. The hype around this book has grown and grown until I just couldn't help myself any longer and I had to know why it was getting all the hype. First of all, this book deserves the hype it's been getting. It was fantastic, adorable and hilarious. And second, WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG TO READ IT?

So, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda follows our main character Simon Spier who is gay but hasn't told anyone yet. He's been emailing back and forth with a guy called Blue under a secret identity and they can both relate to each other. But when one of his emails is discovered by his classmate Martin, Martin decides to use it to his advantage and blackmail Simon into getting him a date with a girl. So not only is Simon in danger of being outed before he's ready, Blue's identity is also in danger. 

Simon Spier is the most adorable character ever. I fell in love with him the minute he disowned his sister for not know what a Death Eater is (I've done this countless times to family and friends). His geeky, adorable personality makes him so likeable and he's also such a hilarious character. But Simon is also struggling with coming out to his friends and family. He's not entirely sure how they'll take it and he's not sure how to actually do it since he's been keeping it to himself for so long. 

Simon's friends were amazing. Abby was by far my favourite. Abby was hilarious and she always seemed to be there for Simon when he needed her. She knew exactly how to cheer him up and she was an amazing friend. Nick and Leah are Simon's BFF's that he's know for years. Leah has feeling for Nick, but Nick has feelings for Abby which kind of makes things weird between them. But they're both always there for Simon, even if Leah does kind of over-react sometimes, but Leah, Nick and Abby are all a huge part of Simon's journey in the book and they couldn't be more awesome.

I loved Simon's family too. His parents like to think of themselves as hipsters and call themselves 'cool parents', but Simon found it extremely difficult to tell them he was gay mainly because of the way they acted. His parents did have a lot to learn, but they were brilliant. His sisters Nora and Alice were amazing too. When the three of them got together they were  extremely close. I loved hearing about Simon's childhood and how they used to sing the chipmunks song together (They're called Alice, Simon and Eleanor - I almost died. It's perfect) and I just loved all of Simon's family.

And then we have Blue. I loved the emails between Jacques a.k.a Simon and Blue. They were adorable and they really helped each other. They were keeping their identities a secret because neither of them had told anyone they were gay yet and they also didn't want to change things by revealing who they were. But their emails grew more personal and it was amazing seeing both of them falling for each other without knowing who they actually were. They fell in love with each other's personalities first and it was such an amazing thing to read about. I was slightly surprised when Blue revealed his identity, but as soon as Simon met Blue, everything just fell into place and I almost cried over the adorableness of the moment. 

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Martin. When he started blackmailing Simon I didn't like him, but just like Simon, the more time they spent together, the more I began to like Martin. He was funny, goofy and could have been a brilliant friend until he went and done the unforgivable. I get that Martin was angry and confused, but what he did was wrong and it'd take a lot to forgive that.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is a fantastic coming out story that revolves around friendship, family and love. It was hilarious, adorable and even though it was mostly lighthearted, it dealt with some more serious things like blackmail and bullying, but Albertalli did a fantastic job of fitting it all together and not lowering the seriousness of blackmail and bullying. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is the best book I've read this year so far and I can already guarantee that it'll be on my top books of 15 list - most likely in the top 5. I've even bought myself a finished copy even though I technically couldn't afford it, but w/e, I NEEDED IT. If you haven't heard of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda yet, or you just haven't gotten around to it, I'd definitely recommend getting to it ASAP because it's such an amazing read and it'll leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. I can't recommend it enough. Also, it will make you crave Oreos like never before.