Author: Becky Albertalli
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Length:336 pages
Source: Purchased Audio Book
Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love—she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.
Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny and flirtatious and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back.
There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker Reid. He’s an awkward Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?
Review:
Protagonist: Molly Peskin-Suso has a lot of crushes in her life, and out of those crushes she's never been in a relationship. So, when it seems like everyone in her life from her twin sister to her best friend all have relationships, she feels she's missing out on something and strives to have her first relationship, luckily her sister's new girlfriend has a cute hipster best friend. Then there's her new co-worker, a guy she would never have a crush on, but she can't seem to get him out of her head. I swear Becky Albertalli writes the most relatable characters for me. I've also had a lot of experience with unrequited romantic feelings and every word the author uses to describe those feelings and what Molly goes through in this book just hit home so freaking hard. I loved seeing Molly's POV, and I love that, after reading Leah on the Offbeat, that Molly's experience being fat is different than Leah's even though they face a lot of the same struggles. Molly is a character that flies off the page from the very beginning.
Romance: If I were to have any negative things to say about this book it would have to be in regard to the romance. It has nothing to do with Reid, one of Molly's love interests, since being a fat nerdy guy I really liked seeing someone like me as a serious love interest. It had more to do with the love triangle than anything else and possibly because of how much is given away in the synopsis. I never really felt that there was anything surprising about this romance and while I felt it played out in a very authentic way, I sort of wish there was something more to the romance in this book. Still, I do really like Molly's relationships with both her suitors.
World Building: Going into this book I knew that this took place in the same universe as both Simon and Leah, but I didn't know how much those characters factored into this book, I figured Abby would pop up, since this book is about her cousins, but I was extremely surprised to find that Simon also appears in this book. I loved seeing all the little call outs to Simon's book, but also this book could stand completely on its own, and it does, you don't need to read aby other Albertalli books, though you should they're fantastic. I loved seeing so much representation in this book, from racial representation to LGBT rep, to Fat rep, it was so great so many diverse characters in this amazing contemporary novel.
Predictability: So as I said in the romance section, the romance wasn't really all that surprising, but that doesn't mean that this book wasn't surprising. One of the biggest surprises I found with this book is how much more dramatic this book is than Simon's book, or even Leah's, there's more confrontation which was really great to see from this author as it seems she reserves drama for when it happens naturally, it never seems like, in any of her books, she goes out of her way to include drama and confrontation, everything just sort of unfolds naturally. There are also a few great twists in turns in this book which I also really enjoyed.
Ending: While I do feel that this book, much like Simon's does have a full ending, they both sort of end abruptly. I mean once the main plot is all settled there's a rather large chunk to make sure and tie everything up, but once everything s tied up the story just sort of ends, but maybe that's just because I never want to leave this world and I just love these characters too much.
Rating:
While this wasn't my favorite Albertalli book, I still freaking loved it and can't wait to read more from this author in the future, hopefully, there will be more books in the Simonverse to explore!
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