“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.”
Got to say Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is a completely charming
book (if not a greatly titled one). As a middle aged gay man with no kids, it might be hard for me to completely
understand the teens presented here, the exploration of their daily lives
(especially in the age of social media), but some things, some basic real-life
tropes, are always identifiable no matter what age you are.
Simon, our
main protagonist, is well developed and is presented in a very relatable sort
of way. And while he’s dealing with being gay and trying to figure out how to
come out to his friends and family, he’s not too much a stereotype (though
author Becky Albertalli lays on the emo music love a little thick –he may look
like any “normal” teenager, but his musical tastes do run in the obsessive, dark,
and bit depressing route). Still, like me, he’s a bit cynical and I liked that.
I saw me a little bit here and there in Simon. His family life, while a bit
hyper-realistic, is finely drawn. His parents are very liberal, but also strict
in some ways (and there is a tender moment when his mother sits down and talks
to him about how she misses the openness of all her children –what a parent
must go through when they finally realize that their once talkative children
are growing up and don’t want to be around anymore). I did find the mystery of who
Blue was fun, and it kept me reading. I did not guess who the boy was, so I may
need to revisit the book to see if the author dropped any obvious clues.
I did get
distracted by Simon’s friend Abby, as I kept thinking about Jay Bell’s Abby
from Something Like Summer. They’re two totally different characters, but they
do share the same name and ethnic origin.
Also, it did
take me a little bit to get into the story, as well, as the author quickly
introduced so many characters and I had trouble keeping them straight at times,
but that’s only a small quibble. Also, the cover of the book is pretty
horrible, but then maybe I don’t understand modern publishing towards young
adults.
There will
be a motion picture version, called Love Simon, of this book coming from 20th
Century Fox next spring, which is a pretty big thing. This is a major studio
releasing a gay romantic comedy/drama and it’ll be interesting to see if the
mainstream audience –beyond the gay community- will embrace this love story
between two guys. Sure it’s directed by super producer Greg Berlanti (the
entire DC line-up on the CW) and stars some well know actors, but this film may
end being a test rat to see if gay themed films can break-out of the independat
film world they’ve existed in for a long, long time
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