Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Creekwood, Book 1

Synopsis: 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.

Review: This is a novel that everyone talked about. I am usually a little against the current. When a book gets too much talk about it, I do not get too close to it, because I’m afraid of being disappointed, but I finally had the opportunity to discover this novel again and out of curiosity, I started it. And I must say that I really had a great time.

Simon is gay, but no one knows it, until someone discovers his email exchanges. Then begins a strange blackmail and our hero has trouble knowing exactly what to do. What he knows is that he is not quite ready to come out. And unfortunately this exchange of mails does not only concern him and he does not want his anonymous friend Blue with whom he loves to discuss, to run away.

I really enjoyed discovering this novel. Simon is very touching and I loved to see him interact with others and especially to flourish in his interactions with Blue. He would like to know who he is, he tries to understand, even though he knows he should not. We alternate between narration and emails in this novel and it was a pleasure to learn more about the characters. Moreover, they are really all interesting, whether it be his parents, his brothers and sisters or friends. They are all great!

It was a very good story that I am delighted to have discovered!