#1 New York Times bestseller! Goodreads Choice Award for the best young adult novel of the year!In this sequel to the acclaimed Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—now a major motion picture, Love, Simon—we follow Simon’s BFF Leah as she grapples with changing friendships, first love, and senior year angst.When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so … angst.
When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic.
She’s an anomaly in her friend group: the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.
So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high.
It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.
Plus don’t miss Yes No Maybe So, Becky Albertalli’s and Aisha Saeed’s heartwarming and hilarious new novel, coming in 2020!
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Endearing and beautifully written, as you’d expect from this author!
Really look forward to a movie adaptation of this book. I read it and saw every page so clearly. Truly a good read!.
I loved this sequel to Simon vs. This book highlights on Simon’s best friend’s story and life, Leah. I loved her in the first book and was so excited to hear that she is the focus of the next one!
After Simon, I expected awesomeness. Leah doesn’t quite deliver. Maybe it’s because I never really developed any empathy for her. Admittedly, I am long past my teenage years, but I do generally enjoy YA. This one just didn’t quite deliver. The tone is annoying and Leah’s POV while trying to be acerbic and intelligent, instead just comes off as bitchy and rude. I never got a feel for the other characters in this one – and after the joy and pleasure of Simon vs the Homo Sapien Agenda, I think I expected brilliance and pure love. Leah didn’t quite deliver – the story is still decent, but all in all, I never quite loved it.
There were some things to like about it. Diversity, bi-representation (yay!) – but overall, if you come to this one expecting the warmth of Simon, you aren’t going to get it.
Great book!
Leah’s the BFF of Simon, the star of the bestselling teen novel (which became a hit movie), SIMON VERSUS THE HOMOSAPIENS AGENDA. She has a funky style, a snarky bite, a love of drumming, and a secret she still hasn’t revealed to any of her close friends: she’s bi, and the person she like-likes is suuuuuuper inconvenient.
So this book follows her as she angstily navigates like-liking someone in her friendship circle, as that circle deals with the fact that they’re all about to graduate high school, spread out to colleges across the country. Will the band break up? Will the couples? Will the friendships?
She’s an imperfect, messy character–meaning she’s believably teenagerish–who I bet LOTS of high school seniors will be able to relate to. Listening to it as an audiobook gave her voice even more bite, which was great both in the funny and absolutely cringy moments.
I love Becky Albertalli’s books, but had gotten the impression that people didn’t like this one as much as Simon and the Homo Sapiens Agenda so it took me a bit to get to it. I LOVED it. If anything, even better than Simon.
Good read, relatable characters, fun story
I loved the first book in this series, so there was honestly no hesitation in my mind that I would enjoy this one as well. In this one, we get to see some continuation of the events of Simon, but the focus is on Leah in this book.
I love the progression of relationships in this story. There are some hard decisions some of the couples must face and even some friendships are strained due to the growing up these characters must do in this, their senior year.
One thing that really stood out to me, was the topic of racism and how easy it is to let your mind go into that dark place. I was really proud of the people who stood up for and stood their ground for the person being marginalized. It’s easy to look the other way, but it’s not right. I always strive for the right and was happy to see that portrayed in this instance as well.
I think fans of Becky Albertalli or of Simon Vs. the Homo sapiens Agenda will enjoy this book.
Leah is a very relatable narrator. There are plenty of funny moments and likable characters, especially Simon and Abby. It’s a great sequel to Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. I loved getting Leah’s perspective. The book was very entertaining; thus, it is a quick read. Becky Albertalli does a great job capturing the mind of a teenage girl on a journey to discover what she truly wants.
big gay
I saw another review describe this as an author writing fanfic about their own work (Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda), and honestly that’s how I’m stuck thinking now. Not that it’s bad, though! This was still a very funny book with some good emotional notes. However, it felt like a lot of characters changed drastically from the first book, which would be normal if we’d been able to see literally any of these changes occur.
Entertaining, sweet and age-appropriately complicated, Leah on the Offbeat was a good continuation/companion novel to Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Although Leah is the focal character in this story, there is plentiful follow up with the remaining characters from the first book.
Overall, I liked Leah’s story. There were admirable and relevant themes threaded throughout with the primary being sexual identity. I found some of the involved drama in this book as a whole to be redundant based on my personal reading experience; however, fans of YA fiction will likely enjoy this story far more than my modest 3 stars.
It was an amazing sequel to Simon Vs. and I couldn’t stop reading it
I loved everything about this book, but especially the voice. Leah is such an original character, and the book captures all of the joys and pains of senior year in high school. A delightful return to the Simon-verse!
Warning – has spoilers
Going into it, I knew who she was falling for. The description made it pretty obvious.
Google books – an excerpt of their description:
With some messy dynamics emerging in this once tight-knit group of friends, senior year suddenly gets even more complicated for Leah, as she realises she’s falling not for the guy who’s taking her to prom, but for the girl who’s dating her best friend.
Let’s look back at her best friends. Simon, Bram, Garrett, Abby, and Nick.
Simon and Bram are dating, so they are out (plus its a female.)
Garrett is single (as far as we know)
And Abby and nick are dating.
So… Abby, being the only female in the friend group AND dating Nick, Leah’s best friend, it was pretty easy to guess who it was.
I was impressed with the book though. There where many inside jokes only the fandom would know, and it was very well written up until the ending.
The last couple chapters take place at prom. It’s what the whole book has been leading up to, so you would think it would be the best, most well written part… right?
It was rushed. Detailed were missing and it wasn’t long enough. Leah and Abby kiss, Bram and Simon see, and then it pretty much ends. We never see Garrett’s reaction, Nick’s reaction, or the schools reaction when they see Leah and Abby (hopefully) walking down the halls holding hands and being out. On the last emails, when Leah was talking to Simon (which btw, why did they change Simon’s email again? He’s had 3 different emails between his book, the movie, and Leah’s book.) we get to see what the aftermath was. Abby and Leah are dating and are roomates. They explain a little what happened after prom, but it wasn’t much.
But with all of its flaws, this book was truely, undoubtedly, beautiful. If you have read Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda already, I really really suggest you read this. It’s not Simon-Bram centric, but it includes them enough where we can see how their relationship is panning out.
9.5/10 would recommend.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda