Love, Simon

Simon vs. the Homo-Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

So, this was on the TAYSHAS list in 2016, and I somehow missed it. No worries, obviously, as my son picked this up for me last week. It's also been made into a movie that comes out next week, and I wanted to read it first. I also didn't realize that it was by the same author as TAYSHAS #12 that I read last week.

Simon. Simon is gay and has not yet come out to his family or friends, but it's ok because Simon is not in any hurry to come out. He has a nice group of friends--Abby, Nick, and Leah--who are cool with him however he is. (Abby, Nick, and Simon are the same characters as in The Upside of Unrequited) 

Simon has been emailing a guy at his school who goes by Blue. He is also gay, and not out to his family and friends. They have a lot in common and are kind of falling for each other through email. Neither knows who the other is.

One day, Martin comes up to Simon, and tells him that he forgot to log out of his Google account, which resulted in him seeing his emails to Blue. Whoops. It would probably be ok, except that Martin uses that information to blackmail Simon into setting him up with Abby. Simon makes a feeble effort, but ultimately doesn't do much because it is abundantly clear that Abby and Nick like each other.

Martin picks up on the fact that Simon is not doing much to further his cause with Abby, and takes it upon himself to out Simon on the school's Tumblr account. As a result, Simon has to come out much sooner than he planned.

Seems everything is going smoothly, but then Simon and Blue seem to lose touch. Will they ever meet?

This book was a quick read, but even if it hadn't been, it was so worth the time. It was an excellent story. I hope this author writes more with the characters in both this book and the other of hers that I read.