This morning I finished reading a book called Simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda written by Becky Albertalli, and I thought that it was worth to write a review of it. So here I am. The first thing that I would like to underline is that I'm not a huge book fan. I mean, I like reading but I find it difficult to read for hours and hours. To me, it's something that needs a break once in a while. That's why it usually takes me forever to finish a book. Despite all of this, I have to say that I managed to finish this novel in three days. To be honest, the plot is not complicated at all, but maybe it's right this that makes this book so powerful. Simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda is about a seventeen years old boy (Simon) who deals with whether or not to come out. One day, on the school's Tumblr page, is posted a coming out letter of a boy who calls himself Blue, in order not to reveal his real identity. Simon decides, in turn, to send Blue an e-mail (always not saying his real name) to talk about all the things which he couldn't say to his friends. The two start liking each other, without knowing names and physical appearances. For a lot of reasons (that I won't say in order to prevent spoilers) Simon is forced to come out and of course, this changes a bit his everyday life.
A lot of people, after reading the plot, could think that this is just one of the billion American love stories and that it has nothing special. When I started reading it I was skeptical as well. I personally think that there's more than that. This book makes you understand the pressure that a lot of teenagers have. At one point of the book, Simon explains to his parents and his friends why he had so many doubts about coming out. In his point of view, he just didn't want
it to be a huge thing. He didn't want to be just that.
In my opinion, the concept 'I don't want to tell/do it because I'm afraid of how people are gonna react' can be extended to a lot of other things, for example people who want to radically change their hairstyle, or people who have a completely different opinion about something. Of course, there are a lot of people that don't care about what others think, but i think that we shouldn't blame those who are more insecure.
For these reasons, I previously said that this book is important. If everyone read it, there wouldn't be so many incomprehension and difficulty to understand each other (classmates, friends, family). I highly reccomend this book to everyone, there is no specific age group: teenagers, parents, teachers should read it.
The film inspired from this book is called Love, Simon and it's currently on cinemas. I hope you check it out as well!
In my opinion, the concept 'I don't want to tell/do it because I'm afraid of how people are gonna react' can be extended to a lot of other things, for example people who want to radically change their hairstyle, or people who have a completely different opinion about something. Of course, there are a lot of people that don't care about what others think, but i think that we shouldn't blame those who are more insecure.
For these reasons, I previously said that this book is important. If everyone read it, there wouldn't be so many incomprehension and difficulty to understand each other (classmates, friends, family). I highly reccomend this book to everyone, there is no specific age group: teenagers, parents, teachers should read it.
The film inspired from this book is called Love, Simon and it's currently on cinemas. I hope you check it out as well!
