The Upside of Unrequitedby Becky Albertalli
Published by Penguin Random House UK
eARC (received via NetGalley)
Young Adult, LGBT, contemporary, romance
Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. 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. 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 a chubby Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there's absolutely no way Molly could fall for him.
Right?
After Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda, which is one of my favourites, I had extremely high expectations. Albertalli did not disappoint with her amazing writing skills because I was almost clued to my Kindle. Albertalli also has a real skill to make it all seem so real and she knows how to capture the feeling of being a teenager.
The characters were on point. Molly was adorable and very easy to relate to; especially her unrequited crushes were something easy to identify with. It was also very lovely that Molly's family, including her mothers, were very present in the story. The chats and advice they offered were fabulous and the fact that the parents were present in young adult story was something that I don't often see. Cassie, Molly's twin, was the only character that kind of annoyed me a bit but that's because she was one of those people who seem to forget everyone else when they start dating someone, and I have never appreciated people who do that. But Simon made a small cameo! I was absolutely delighted about that because Simon is the best and I just need more him.
The romance was cute and lovely, and I absolutely love how diverse the book was. Albertalli did it all right because the diversity was basically the beautiful sphere of diversity that the real life is full of. Overall the story was very inspirational, adorable and truly enjoyable. It just didn't blow my mind the same way Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda did, which doesn't make this anything less but I guess my expectations were a bit too high.
Do I recommend this? Absolutely. Albertalli's books are not something to miss because they are so real, and basically have everything a good contemporary young adult story needs.
The characters were on point. Molly was adorable and very easy to relate to; especially her unrequited crushes were something easy to identify with. It was also very lovely that Molly's family, including her mothers, were very present in the story. The chats and advice they offered were fabulous and the fact that the parents were present in young adult story was something that I don't often see. Cassie, Molly's twin, was the only character that kind of annoyed me a bit but that's because she was one of those people who seem to forget everyone else when they start dating someone, and I have never appreciated people who do that. But Simon made a small cameo! I was absolutely delighted about that because Simon is the best and I just need more him.
The romance was cute and lovely, and I absolutely love how diverse the book was. Albertalli did it all right because the diversity was basically the beautiful sphere of diversity that the real life is full of. Overall the story was very inspirational, adorable and truly enjoyable. It just didn't blow my mind the same way Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda did, which doesn't make this anything less but I guess my expectations were a bit too high.
Do I recommend this? Absolutely. Albertalli's books are not something to miss because they are so real, and basically have everything a good contemporary young adult story needs.
4 of 5 stars
Thank you, Penguin Random House UK, for giving me a chance to read and review The Upside of Unrequited!
(A copy of this ebook was provided in return for an honest review.)
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