The Upside Of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
Release: 11th April 2017
Publisher: Penguin (UK), Harper Collins (US)
Rating: 4/5 stars
Goodreads synopsis:
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?
I seriously loved this book, the writing was great and addictive, this is my first read from this author and I now immediately want to go read Simon VS The Homosapiens Agenda (.. I feel like i’m the only person that hasn’t read that yet)
But before I get into anything else I just have to mention about the diversity in this book, which was amazing.Pansexual, Bisexual, Jewish Characters, Gay side characters, Main Character has two mothers.. (I feel like i’m missing a few, because it was that great) this is the kind of representation that I want to read about more often, it also didn’t feel forced.
I loved the main characters, (Mollys), voice. She is very relatable, from how awkward she is around boys she doesn’t really know to her love for being creative & Pinterest! Molly is finding a way to move past her own insecurities, the book mentions multiple times her struggle with anxiety, which as someone who struggles with anxiety, I appreciated in the sense of it not being something that was mentioned once and put in the background.
This book was full of amazing quotes and feminist moments, One of my favourite quotes is:
“There’s something really badass about truly, honestly not caring what people think about you. A lot of people say they don’t care. Or they act like they don’t care. But I think most people care a lot. I know I do.” ❤️️
But one of my favourite things about this book is the sibling friendship, between Molly & her twin sister Cassie, it was so adorable and just felt very genuine, they argued and had their moments, like any siblings do. I always tend to connect to stories when the main characters are siblings. Both of them are so different
..also now i really want cookie dough *reference*.
I received an e-ARC from Penguin Random House UK Children’s through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
[…] Of which was the first book I read by this author, I ended up giving it 4/5 stars, I didn’t love it as much as Simon VS, but I still really enjoyed it. Becky’s writing is great and her books are always full of diverse & wonderful characters. I’m really looking forward to Leah On The Offbeat, which comes in a few months, a spinoff novel to Simon VS. following Simon’s best friend Leah, (of which is one of my favorite characters from Simon VS) So I’m pretty excited. See my full non-spoiler review of The Upside Of Unrequited here. […]