Book Blog #244: Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Title: Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda
Author: Becky Albertalli
# of Pages: 306 (ebook)
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis: Simon Spier is sixteen and trying to work out who he is - and what he's looking for. But when one of his emails to the very distracting Blue falls into the wrong hands, things get all kinds of complicated. Because, for Simon, falling for Blue is a big deal . . . It's a holy freaking huge awesome deal.
Review: Yes, I watched the movie before I read the book.

Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda has been on my to-read shelf for so long; not only did I have my eye on it when it came out, but someone recommended it to me a year or two after it was published. However, with the (original) title as it is, I wasn't sure what it would be about, and so it kept getting pushed farther and farther down on my list of unread books.

However, when the movie came out, some how I figured out Love, Simon is actually the movie adaptation for this book (I guess the movie makers thought the title is too ambiguous as well). This movie happened to be the most appealing from the limited movie selection they have on the plane.

There's seems to be a trend amongst many contemporary-romance young adult movie adaptations (all of them seem to have a TFIOS vibe, probably because it was such a hit). Although this story differs from the mainstream romance story in that it does not focus on a heterosexual relationship, the movie still had same vibe.

But we are not here to talk about the movie (although I will be doing quite a bit of compare-contrasting between the movie and the book in my review).

After feeling guilty for watching before reading the book, I got my hands on an ebook version from my local library. I knew there were going to be differences (it's necessary), but I was shocked by how much was changed in the adaptation from book to movie.

Leah-from-the-movie is definitely NOT how I would imagine Leah-from-the-book. Leah, one of Simon's best friends, is definitely not one of the popular kids. She doesn't like going to parties. She dresses up like a character from a manga. She's an underdog who is one of the more emotionally problematic characters in this book. If she wasn't in the book at all, she wouldn't have been missed. In short, she wasn't necessary to the book at all.

On the other hand, Leah is Hannah Baker a much more prominent character in the movie. They made her more of a key character to increase the drama. This was not necessarily the right choice as well. One thing I hate about a lot of these YA books is the high school drama; it gets old. The last thing Simon needs is more drama with Leah.

I was very impressed with the book, Leah aside. While I did enjoy the movie, I enjoyed the book so much more. The story is told in first person from Simon's POV. Some chapters are purely email threads between Simon and Blue, and these chapters had me smiling like crazy as I read. This story is fun and cute, and it made me happy.

I would highly recommend this book!