This is The Book Everyone Should Read

Title: Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Author: Becky Albertalli

Published: April 7th 2015, by Balzer + Bray. 

Summary: 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.

My Musings: 

Ohmygod this beautiful book. Easily one of my favorites of 2015. I am in love. I want everyone I know to read this story because it is so important. It is so much more than cute exchanges of emails between Simon and Blue. It is a book about diversity, -of all kinds-, about finding yourself, about coming out, about family dinamics and friendships. Man! It's so complete. 

Simon

Such a relatable character. When he interacted with his sister, Nora, I kept thinking YES! There is a part where he thinks "well, if she wanted a sandwich she should have just told me. Though I guess I could have asked if she was hungry". I constantly find myself in those kind of situations, and my parents give me a hard time for it. But I hadn't realized that was a thing until I read this. Then there was the moment were Simon talks about the dinamic of his friendship with Leah and Nick, and how he felt as if he was on the outside, sometimes. Honestly Simon, get out of my head.  

At the same time, there were just so many existencialist questions Simon had, that I share too. On the other hand, he is also very funny. I found myself so many times laughing out loud at some of this comments. All of these things made me fall in love with him. 

Romance

But let's get back to the already mentioned emails: OHMYGOD I AM DYING RIGHT NOW, DO NOT TOUCH ME. Cuteness overload, seriously. I already know I am going to be re-reading this book just because Simon and Blue. If you haven't read this book please go do it right now! You won't regret it. The amount of booksmarks I have on their emails is ridiculous. 

But most importantly...

Then there is the more serious stuff this story contains: the coming out for a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person. I wanted to hug Simon when the thing with Martin happened, and no I never felt compassion for him. What he did was unacceptable. The way Becky Albertalli handled the subject made me understand what this situation is like for LGBT people. Having to force yourself to talk to your friends and family about it and then being the center of all the jokes and bullying. It definitely made me see how privileged I actually am and that, has got to be what a lot of kids go through on high school. 

For all of these reasons, I fell in love with this book. And I advice you to read it if you haven't. If, you have read it, what do you think? Do you agree with what I have said? Can't wait to read your comments! :)