Review: Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Title: Simon Vs. The Homo sapiens Agenda
Author: Becky Albertalli
Publisher: Balzer & Bray
Release date: April 7th 2015
Pages: 303
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: Purchased
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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. 

I know I'm super late to this party, but... what an adorable book! I watched Love, Simon a while ago and bought this book because I loved the movie, but then never actually got around to reading it. After watching the spin-off series Love, Victor (which I loved even more than the original movie; so cute!!), I decided to finally read the book that started this franchise. And I was not disappointed!

I loved Albertalli's writing style, in particular the dialogue and Simon's internal dialogue. It took me a little time to get used to because it's different from what I usually read, but after a somewhat slow beginning, I loved everything about it. Albertalli's writing and dialogue are witty and endearing, but not in an unrealistic John-Green-type of way (not that I don't love John Green's writing--but.. I don't know any real people who talk like his characters), but in a way that felt entirely relatable and realistic. There are so many hilarious and insightful pieces of dialogue and Simon's thoughts in here that I absolutely loved. Because the writing is so great, I honestly didn't even care what happened; I'm sure this book would have been even more of a page turner if I hadn't already seen the movie and known who Blue was/how the story would end, but I couldn't put the book down regardless, because the writing is so captivating and brought elements of this story to life that the movie couldn't capture.

I also loved the characters. Simon does plenty of things that are not okay, and admits to not always being the best person, like when he realizes how little he knows about his friends' lives. But none of those flaws make him a less lovable character; he is a completely realistic teenage boy, and I loved him. Blue is also an adorable character, and I the romance and chemistry between them through their emails is incredibly well done. I also loved him family dynamic and especially his relationship with his sisters. 

To be honest, I was a little suspicious of this book because it was written by a heterosexual white woman and, if the identities were accurately represented in the movie version, it would be primarily about teens of color and a white gay boy. I was worried that this would be another case of the characters' races not even being mentioned or being mentioned in passing but having nothing to do with the story and not being addressed at al. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this book's discussion of race. This is one of the few YA books I know that were white author about a white protagonist where secondary characters' races are actually discussed and addressed in a more meaningful way than just a passing comment on someone's skin color. Race definitely still isn't discussed enough in this book, but it is addressed a few times in a way that doesn't reduce race to skin color or diversity but actually addresses the histories of racism. While of course this can't replace #ownvoices stories, I do think that this is a step in the right direction in terms of what white authors can do to not just make their books "diverse," but to actually incorporate discussions of race and racism into their work. And asides from one comment about "coming out" being easier for girls, which I think is a little simplistic, I did really like the discussions of homosexuality as well.

I really loved everything about this book; this is such a cute, fun story that still addresses some important issues. I can't believe I waited this long to read it! I definitely need to catch up on the rest of the Simonverse novels.

Review: Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann

Title: Let's Talk About Love
Author: Claire Kann
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Release date: January 23rd 2018
Pages: 304
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: Purchased
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Alice had her whole summer planned. Nonstop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting--working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she's asexual). Alice is done with dating--no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done. But then Alice meets Takumi and she can't stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!). When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library-employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she's willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated--or understood.  

This is such an important book! I don't know many YA books (or any books) about asexual teens, and definitely none about a Black biromantic asexual girl, so the sheer existence of this novel is great to see. When you add a unique and entertaining writing style and a lovable main character into the mix, you end up with an equally fun and important novel.

I loved Alice's character and the writing style of this novel, which are hard to separate because, even though the novel is written in third-person, the writing is very much shaped by Alice's personality. I would love to be Alice's friend; even though she makes her fair share of mistakes, she is one of the most endearing characters I've read about in a while. Her strong personality, penchant for all things cute and romantic, and pop culture-influenced way of speaking closely shape the writing, which is very informal, using internet-speak (for lack of a better term?) and tons of parentheses for additional commentary. I could see how this writing style would get on some people's nerves, but I loved it!

I loved the secondary storylines of this novel, primarily the exploration of Alice's relationship with her friends and her parents. Both her friends and her parents were infuriating at times, but their relationships were definitely realistic. I especially liked the exploration of Alice's jealousy of the relationship between Feenie and Ryan, her two best friends who are engaged to each other--even though Feenie pissed me off throughout the novel, to be honest. Why was she mad at Alice for leaving a party after she went upstairs to go have sex with Ryan (honestly, do you really need to have sex with your fiancé, whom you live with, in someone else's bedroom while you are at a party with both him and your best friend??), especially when Alice was cornered by a scary abrasive guy at this party after her friends left her? I was not the biggest fan of the way Feenie was not held accountable for this and the way the novel made it seem like both Feenie and Alice made mistakes, because yes, but.... I was 100% team Alice. But regardless, the exploration of these conflicts was realistic and well done.

Since I'm not asexual, I cannot judge the accuracy of the portrayal of asexuality, but I will say that I learned a lot about asexuality by reading this novel, and I think someone who doesn't know a lot about asexuality would really benefit from Alice's explanations of her sexuality. I was especially interested in the way Alice navigated her relationships with partners who are not asexual, and I'm not sure what to make of the novel's take on this. In the beginning, Alice's ex-girlfriend Margot breaks up with Alice because Alice does not want to have sex with her and Margot wants to be with someone who actively desires her. In the process, Margot does say some ignorant things about it being unnatural not to desire sex, which is of course aphobic, but asides from these statements, I don't know how to feel about the novel's vilification of her character. I do think that sexual incompatibility is a legitimate issue and that wanting to be with someone you are sexually compatible with makes sense. Even though I of course understand that Alice shouldn't need to have sex just to please her partner, I also don't know if you can expect an allosexual person to give up sex in order to date someone asexual, especially if feeling sexually desired by their partner is important to them. To me, this seemed like a legitimate reason for Alice and Margot to not be compatible and to break up, so I was a little taken aback by the novel's vilification of Margot's decision as a refusal to accept Alice as she is. Is this just my allosexual bias/privilege talking? This seems like a complicated issue with no easy answers to me.

I also had mixed feelings about Alice's and Takumi's relationship. On the one hand, I thought they were super cute together, and I loved the exploration of romance as separate from sex. On the other hand, their relationship moves really fast, and did seem a little insta-love-y to me--or maybe not insta-love, but insta-we are best friends together 24/7 now, since they do take a while to actually get together. And, honestly, if it hadn't been for the way this works in conjunction with the exploration of asexuality, this level of romance would have been a little too much to handle. In some ways, though, it felt like the novel was self-aware in this sense, since Feenie calls Alice out on abandoning her friends and spending every day with Takumi as soon as they meet, so maybe this was an intentional exploration of Alice's character. Regardless, I did like the romance; it's very sweet, even if it moves very quickly. I do wish, though, that the ending had been less rushed--especially since Takumi's handling of Alice's asexuality is contrasted to Margot's, I would have liked to see how they handle this as their relationship progresses. Takumi (who is allosexual) saying he's okay with sex not being a part of your relationship seems easy enough at first, but harder to actually deal with in a long-term relationship, so especially because a nuanced exploration of this seemed to be missing from the beginning of the novel, I would have liked to see this discussed in more detail at the end. 

Regardless of these smaller issues, this novel definitely sparks a lot of interesting conversations about asexuality (not to mention its discussion of race, feminism, and biromanticism). Alice is a lovable character, and Kann's writing style and voice are very entertaining. I'm definitely going to check out Kann's newer novel soon!

Review: Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore

Title: Blanca & Roja
Author: Anna-Marie McLemore
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release date: October 9th 2018
Pages: 375
Genre: Young Adult; magical realism; retelling
Source: Purchased
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The del Cisne girls have never just been sisters; they’re also rivals, Blanca as obedient and graceful as Roja is vicious and manipulative. They know that, because of a generations-old spell, their family is bound to a bevy of swans deep in the woods. They know that, one day, the swans will pull them into a dangerous game that will leave one of them a girl, and trap the other in the body of a swan.

But when two local boys become drawn into the game, the swans’ spell intertwines with the strange and unpredictable magic lacing the woods, and all four of their fates depend on facing truths that could either save or destroy them. 

Anna-Marie McLemore's books are one of a kind. Their books took a little while to grow on me--when I first read When the Moon Was Ours, my first McLemore book, I had no idea what to make of it, other than thinking it was beautiful and confusing, since their books are so different from what I'm used to reading. But if you go in with no expectations and just accept the queer, magical realism-influenced retellings McLemore writes for what they are, I think there's no way not to love them.

Blanca and Roja are the youngest daughters in the del Cisne family, a family that was cursed by swans a long time ago to always have two daughters, one of whom will survive as a girl while the other is turned into a swan. While we get some speculation as to how this came about, there is no explanation of this "magic"; you just have to accept that this is the way things are for Blanca and Roja. And even though this might seem like a strange idea for a story, it makes for a very compelling read that allows McLemore to explore sisterly love, colorism, gender identity, and much more.

I never know what how to review the characters of McLemore's novels, because I wouldn't say that I like any of them or that any of them are realistic or fully developed, but those stock terms just don't really apply to McLemore's stories. Blanca and Roja just are, and it works. The secondary characters are similarly clouded by mystery and magic, and I loved the way the narration switches between the four central characters.

McLemore's unique story allows for a powerful exploration of how colorism deeply shapes a small, predominantly white town's perception of this Latinx family, as well as Latinx communities themselves. Blanca, with her blonde hair and golden complexion, can sometimes pass for white, and abides by societal expectations, while Roja, with her brown skin, red hair, and rebellious attitude, is feared and reviled by the town. McLemore beautifully explores how deeply these differences shape their experiences, their relationship with one another, and their relationship with their parents. My only issue with the character building is the family's assumption that because Blanca is the more conventionally beautiful (by white beauty standards), more demure and "respectable" sister, that she would be spared by the swans and that they would take Roja, the rebellious sister, instead. Wouldn't the swans want Blanca, the sister who is perceived as "better," especially because she would fit in better with the white swans? I was confused by this element of the world building.

McLemore also weaves explorations of gender and queerness into their stories in a very unique way. Page, Blanca's love interest, is a non-binary transgender boy who uses both male and female pronouns. While Page's gender is not the central topic of the novel, the text makes space for some important conversations between Blanca and Page exploring nonbinary identities.

What really stands out about this novel, as with all of McLemore's novels, is the writing. Even in the beginning, when I honestly had no idea what was going on, I enjoyed every single one of McLemore's beautiful words; their writing is the kind you can get lost in regardless of the story--even though they always do lead you back to a fantastic story.

If you enjoy magical realism, or if you're looking for something different, or if you appreciate beautiful writing, or if you like fairy tale retellings, or if you like queer books (so... basically everyone?), I highly recommend this book! I need to catch up on the McLemore novels I haven't read yet.

Review: The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sánez

Title: The Inexplicable Logic of My Life
Author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Publisher: Clarion Books
Release date: March 7th 2017
Pages: 452
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: Purchased
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Sal has always been certain of his place with his adoptive gay father and their loving Mexican-American family. But now his own history unexpectedly haunts him, and life-altering events force him and his best friend, Samantha, to confront issues of faith, loss, and grief.

Suddenly Sal is throwing punches, questioning everything, and discovering that he no longer knows who he really is—but if Sal’s not who he thought he was, who is he?  

I really appreciated Saénz's Aristotle and Dante for all the important contributions it made to YA, even if I was a little bored by the lack of plot at times, and it seems like writing really beautiful, important novels that nonetheless drag a little bit is Saénz's thing. His writing is beautiful, straight-forward but lyrical, and the characters and relationships he explores are really powerful. But even though I understand this isn't a plot-driven novel, there were points where I had to push myself to keep reading because it just felt like nothing was happening, so I have mixed feelings about this one as well.

Like in Aristotle and Dante, Saénz beautifully explores friendship and family. I loved reading about Sal's relationship with his dad, who is literally the most perfect YA dad that has ever existed. They not only have a father-son relationship but also a great friendship, and they talk about almost everything with one another. This was especially powerful in relationship to this novel's exploration of queerness and masculinity; the set-up of having Sal figure out how to stand up for and defend his father against his peers' homophobia in a way that doesn't resort to masculinist violence is really well-done. The novel also does a fantastic job of decentering biological family relations and demonstrating the importance of non-biological kinship, both between Sal and his adoptive dad and between his dad's relationship to his friends Sam and Fito, neither of whom have supportive parents and for whom he becomes a father figure. I also loved Sal's friendship with Sam and Fito, and I was especially glad that the novel showed a heterosexual guy being platonic friends with both a heterosexual girl and a gay guy that actually stays platonic. Asides from Sal's dad's storyline, there is absolutely no romance in this novel, which was great to see because of the way it allowed us to focus on family, kinship, and friendship.

While the novel does a great job of discussing masculinity and homosexuality, its discussion of race is somewhat lacking. The premise of a white boy who was adopted by a Mexican family could have opened up a lot of important conversations, and I thought the exploration of Sal's anger at being called a gringo because it limits his ability to fully feel like a part of his family is well-done. However, the message that Sal is Mexican because his family is Mexican forecloses any meaningful conversations around whiteness. Sal being culturally Mexican does not mitigate his white privilege, which is never acknowledged. Additionally, Sal's family's race is never really addressed, i.e. we know nothing about their relationships to whiteness, indigeneity, and Afro-Latinidad. This premise could have made for some important discussions of whiteness by exploring the racial anxieties of a white character who doesn't identify with whiteness, but the implications of this are left unexplored.

***This paragraph has some spoilers (but none about the main plot).***
I wish Sam's character had had some more development over the course of the novel, and that her experience of sexual assault had been explored in more detail. Even though Sam and Sal's friendship is really beautiful, Sam can be a little irritating. She has no female friends and keeps talking about how annoying other girls are, and even though her desire for male attention is problematized throughout the novel, her disregard for other women is never discussed, and I wish we had seen some character development there. Additionally, I was really frustrated with how this novel handles sexual assault. Sam's boyfriend Eddie attempts to rape Sam at a party, and she escapes and calls Sal to come to her rescue. Later, Sal sees Sam talking to Eddie at school, and comes up to them to tell him to leave Sam alone, but Sam slaps Sal for interfering in her conversation and explains that Eddie was apologizing for "hurting" her. The message ends up being that Sal was wrong for trying to protect Sam from her attempted rapist since Eddie was apologizing, as if he obviously deserved forgiveness or as if "apologizing" for sexually assaulting someone somehow made it okay. The book also never refers to the attempted rape as attempted rape or sexual assault, but just calls it Eddie "hurting" Sam, and Sam does not at any point struggle with moving on from this experience. This might've just been because the novel is written from Sal's male perspective, but I really wish Sam's experience of sexual assault was actually addressed as such and explored as the traumatic event that it is.

Asides from these more political critiques, I just found myself a little bored at times while reading this novel. I feel a little strange calling this a character-driven and not plot-driven novel because there is actually a LOT that happens over the course of this novel, but the actual events aren't the focus; they're more so just catalysts to explore these characters and their relationships. I usually like character-driven novels, but at times this novel just dragged a little. It's 450 pages long, and even though admittedly, the chapters are really short and there's not actually as much text as you'd expect from that amount of pages, it still felt like a little much. In hindsight, I appreciate every element of the novel and wouldn't want to cut anything, but while I was reading I frequently had to push myself to keep going because it just felt slow at times.

My review is ending up sounding really negative because there were definitely some things that bothered me about this book, but I did really like it overall. It's a beautifully written story that explores family and friendship in new and important ways, and I'm really glad I read it. This might just be one of those books that you're a little bored by while reading it, but that you really appreciate once you've finished it. Regardless, if you liked Aristotle and Dante, you should definitely check this one out as well--but if Aristotle and Dante was already too slow-paced for you, this one probably isn't for you either.