Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
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This is what you want a reading experience to be, a clear strong voice, a writer who stays out of the way but makes great decisions, characters that emerge, a compelling beginning, a through-line of energy, and an ending that lands exactly right. For me, this was also a bit like a homecoming, since the book is set in Atlanta and refers to so many places that were my home for decades, like Little Five Points, Junkman’s Daughter, Zesto’s. My neighborhood actually. Simon is a wonderful creation, the blackmail he endures on page one hooked me right away, and for the first time in ages I can talk about not being able to put a book down. In this case it wasn’t just the drama, though that was strong. The writing was sure and steady, the first person handled with elegance, and the world executed fully and completely. This was not my era of teenagedom but by the end I felt as if I knew this era better, a generation that I taught in creative writing classes when they were a bit older. I found myself looking up all the music references that I didn’t know. It was a book that made me happy to read even in the painful moments. It is not a hard book or a dark book, and that was fine with me. I know that not everybody has the privilege of family or friends like Simon, I know there are much harder stories out there, but I was delighted to encounter this one, even if I’m years late to the party. This is one of those young adult novels that anybody can read; it deftly touched the young adult that still hides away in me.