Leah on the Offbeat

2.25/5 stars

Imagine going about your day knowing someone's carrying you in their mind. That has to be the best part of being in love- the feeling of having a home in some else's brain.

first book spoilers so beware

insert shrug emoji here

[b:Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda|19547856|Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Creekwood, #1)|Becky Albertalli|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1402915678s/19547856.jpg|27679579]

[b:The Upside of Unrequited|30653853|The Upside of Unrequited|Becky Albertalli|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1487956734s/30653853.jpg|45749039]

the Cursed Child Curse

Simon Vs.

obviously

If that ship didn't get together in the end, I would have literally cared less. I didn't ship them and I still don't.

Simon Vs.

really

everyone

have

perfect

cute

Simon Vs.

were planning on attending it

Upside

[b:Six of Crows|23437156|Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459349344s/23437156.jpg|42077459]

Six of Crows

to Abby which I'll forever be bitter about.

"Lowkey bi, a little bit bi. Just be bi. Like, come on.""What? No." She draws herself up. "You don't get to decide my label.""It's not a real label!"

Initial Thoughts: I'll be honest, I read this for more Simon and Bram. I initially was not into reading about Leah's story, but as soon as I started, I immediately loved Leah and was rooting for her! Yes, I still had my Simon and Bram scenes which were adorable, but I genuinely cared about Leah's story.

It was fine, I guess? Almost nothing happens in the first half of the book and then all the plot is crammed into 150 pages at the end. I'm not mad at it or anything, but the pacing is definitely off. Also, if you don't know the characters from the first book in this series, you won't get much of a conception of them here. It's been a while since I read Simon and I kept having to remind myself who was who. This book does really well at capturing that “we're seniors and everything is about to change” feeling, especially in the last few chapters. Worth the read but nothing life-changing.

I'm usually a very easy reader to please and there are very few hyped/popular books that I haven't loved. But this seems to be a bad week. Simon vs is one of my all-time favorite books and Love, Simon was an absolute delight. I have to be upfront that I didn't really like Leah in the first book but I still decided to read this one because I love Becky's writing and ofcourse, to read about Simon and Bram as a couple.

Let me talk first about what I loved. Becky writes in such an easy manner with lots of sweet, hilarious, humorous moments that I couldn't stop reading once I got started and had a smile on my face most of the time. It was amazing to read about a fat MC who is confident about her body, is not interested in a diet and will not entertain any ideas about fatshaming. Leah is also an artist and loves doing fanart on tumblr. I loved the references to HP and various fandoms, especially fanfics of Drarry and Inej/Nina.

The various friendships are also depicted very realistically. It was nice to see Leah develop a bond with Bram considering that she and Simon are great friends. It's heartening to see a wonderful depiction of a m/f friendship which remains platonic. I want many more such friendships in books (especially without one of the two having to be gay) which don't end up in a romance. This book also has some adorable Simon and Bram moments that I just couldn't get enough of. They are so cute together and so much in love and I wanted to read more. Bram's promposal is one among the cutest and loveliest gestures I have ever read. He is so thoughtful and caring and overall such a precious cinnamon roll .

The cast here is diverse just as we have come to expect from Becky's stories and everyone is very accepting and there is no homophobia. It might seem very idealistic but sometimes, it is necessary to take a break from dark, gritty potrayals of the real world and read a feel good love story where gender identity/sexuality of the MC's is not an issue. It was also great to read about a bisexual female main character who is very comfortable with her sexuality but still has troubles with coming out to her friends. There are also some very important discussions around racism and financial insecurities that were integrated well into the story. I will, for obvious reasons, not comment about the bi rep in the novel and I'm sure you can checkout other appropriate reviews to know more about it.

Now, I will get on with what I didn't like in this book and that is unfortunately, Leah. I thought I would get to know her better if I read a book in her POV but I didn't start to like her character. She is extremely rude to many people throughout the book but her attitude towards her mom (and her boyfriend) was especially irritating. She is very judgemental of everyone (which is necessary in some cases but not all), quite hypocritical (expects apologies when others are wrong, but there were very very rare instances when she does the apologizing), can't be bothered to even try to be nice (even in reciprocation) and has an extremely pessimistic attitude. What's more grating is that she is very much aware of all this, knows she is hurting others but doesn't want to even try to change. She is also never called out for her attitude, almost like everyone is resigned that they can't expect anything else from her. There is no character development for her and she just remains the same till the end.

I am one among everyone who is very happy to see a book with an f/f romance as #1 on the NYT Bestseller list but to be frank, I was very underwhelmed by the romance in this book. I never felt any sort of chemistry between Leah and Abby and there was hardly any buildup to it. Since reading Simon vs, I have only felt that Leah hated Abby or didn't like being around her but never saw the romantic interest. It just came out of left field halfway through the book and even though I knew it was coming, it was jarring. I also hated that Leah strung along Garrett, going to prom with him knowing fully that he had a crush on her and she didn't like him at all. Also, the idea that she did all this because she liked the idea of being pursued felt very juvenile. We also never get to know how Nik or Garrett reacted to Leah and Abby together and the epilogue, where everyone is randomly paired up felt like a copout, as if the author didn't want any confrontational scenes.

In the end, I can say that I enjoyed the experience of reading the book, especially when Bram and Simon were around. But Leah was annoying throughout and I wish she had consciously chosen to change her attitude a little - because she valued all her relationships and not just because she got a girlfriend.

Honestly, it's not 5 stars because of that one scene. You know the one. The football field one. I hated that scene.

I also think they got together way too fast? As in, we have Nick sad af and drinking and idk just feeling terrible and suddenly he's... dating Taylor so that Leah and Abby don't feel bad about dating, I guess. I think I would have loved the book more had it been set on their first year of college and having Abby break up with Nick because distance and their friendship growing (instead of making up that they were friends before???) and then evolving into romance.

Either way, I really liked Leah with all her faults and f ups. I wish we had gotten to see more of Abby and I would love to get a book from her POV. Also HOW CUTE ARE SIMON AND BRAM????

???Am I the worst person???? ???Well, no,??? says Simon. ???That would be Voldemort.??? ???But I???m close, right? Like, Voldemort is here.??? I level my hand up, almost to the roof of the car. ???And I???m here.??? I drop my hand a few inches. ???And then the next worst guy is down here. Like, the dentist who killed that lion. He???s right here.???

Becky Albertalli is one of the best YA writers today – fight me!

She consistently writes diverse, funny, relatable character, and she did it again. I'm not sure any book will beat “Simon” in my heart, but I think I had more laugh out loud moments this time around.

When I say she writes diverse characters, I mean she does it in this wonderful this-is-the-world-today way that seems so natural and right, and I'm a sucker for it.

If you like her previous books, I don't see how you wouldn't like this one, with all the familiar characters, the poignancy of realizing their group is about to break apart as they head to different schools, the confusion of first love, the funny moments – like where they ate dinner prom night – and even a plot about the courage to call out a friend for being racist and not letting anyone convince you it's not a big deal.

The parts that included Simon and Bram were the best part of this book in my opinion. I felt like Leah's character was forced and trying too hard to be sacastically cool. I guess this kind of character would have be ok for me a while back, but now I just see right through it... I'm sad to say that I just didn't care for Leah and her story.

Appart from the scenes with Bram and Simon, my favorite scenes were the shopping scenes. They illustrate very well how it is for a plus-size girl to shop for clothing, even more for formal-wear.

It was an ok read, but had I read this book when it came out I would have been really dissapointed because it's nowhere near as good as Simon vs. the homo sapien's agenda. But, because I waited to read it, I heard a lot of comments about this book and I had a good idea on how I would like it.

It's not too late to fall in love, ask the special one out. After all, we have a short time left on this planet, so we might as well live with no regrets. The characters in the Simonverse are graduating, falling in and out of love, and dealing with the inevitability and consequences of moving onto the next chapter in life.

If this had been a stand alone book, I don't think I would have rated it so high. However, Leah on the Offbeat is the sequel to Simon vs. The Homo Sapien Agenda a book and movie (Love, Simon) that I loved. Therefore, it gets 3 stars just for being related. The 4th star is because despite, in my opinion, Leah not being my favorite character, Albertalli does a great job of normalizing teen, LGBT relationships. She moved the story forward for all of the characters, while still focusing on Leah, which was satisfying enough in itself. Leah is snarky, sarcastic, anxious, and pessimistic. Honestly, her inner voice got annoying. She's a perpetual naysayer who wants a fairy tale ending while doing everything she can do to get in her own way. It was annoying for 60% of the book. However, the last 30% or so was a lot smoother and I really enjoyed the last few chapters in particular. There's a great pay off, which after all that whining the majority of the book, was great to hear. Oh and another thing, as an audio book? I wouldn't recommend it. The narrator is great, don't get me wrong, but again Leah is so WHINY that I think it might not have been so potent if I had just been reading it rather than listening to it.

Leah is one of my favorite characters in Simon Vs. and I was so excited to read this. However, this book disappointed me.

What I liked:
I appreciated the diversity in this book especially because the main character is bisexual and it also has characters who are gay and are people of color. I also liked Abby Suso's character. I really liked her personality and she honestly deserved better.

What I disliked:
I didn't like Leah's personality in this book at all. She's so rude, she's self-centered and she's making everything about her. I just couldn't get past on how negative her character in almost everything. It saddens me because this is not the Leah that I liked in the first book. It seems like she's a completely different character. I also didn't like how she didn't apologize to Abby after she came out to her. Its just frustrating. The romance, at first, I thought it was very cute but now that I think of it, it felt very rushed for my taste and the timing was just off. And the ending? Psh. The way this story ended is pretty bad in my opinion because we didn't get to see how their friend group was affected after what happened. Except we're just told through an epilogue email which is very brief so we didn't get enough information. I also didn't care much about Simon and Bram which is surprising but I feel so bad for Nick and Garrett though.

It took me ages to get through this. And I didn't even like it. I should have just DNF'd it honestly. I hated Leah and how shitty she was most of the time. I hated the way Nick was treated/the way his character was changed. I felt like Leah's romance was forced, it didn't feel natural to me. I felt no chemistry between them. The only thing I liked about this book was seeing more Simon and Bram who are adorable. This book was definitely a miss for me and it felt more like a fan fiction in my opinion. So much disappointment.