This book, well… tried.

Simon vs. The Homo Sapien Agenda is psychologist Becky Albertalli’s first book and it shows. It follows Simon, a closeted high school junior, who emails another closeted junior who goes by the name Blue. Just as they begin to fall for each other over the internet, Simon makes the mistake of not logging out of his email in the school library and his secret email relationship is compromised. He is then “blackmailed” by a classmate, Martin, who wants Simon to help him get closer to one of Simon’s friends, Abby.

Yes, this book is as cheesy as it sounds.

The book is so obviously written by an adult that has not been a teenager in a while and really should not be categorized in realistic young adult fiction. Just the way the characters speak and act seems dated, or like cheesy movies written by other adults who have no idea how this generation thinks. I mean, the author thinks that Tumblr is a social hub for every teenager (which it obviously is not), and apparently it is completely normal that their school basically has a Gossip Girl account where people send in drama and everyone and their mother keeps track of it.

Throughout the story, all the characters are very two dimensional, meaning they are boring and only act one way. Simon is reluctant to do anything. Blue is scared of everything; then his friends are just full of annoying high school stereotypes. Simon’s friend Nick, the “cool guy” that always gets the girl and that everyone likes. Sadly, the plotline does not help whatsoever. It is so anticlimactic and predictable and in no way unique. Even though the story is supposed to be all about Marty blackmailing Simon, Marty clearly states several times that he is not going to show anyone Blue’s emails which pretty much makes the rest of the story pointless. Then finding out who Blue actually is is even more so, since he ends up being a random background character. The book all around just seems like another book written to appeal to the young adult demographic for it’s soul purpose: making money.

Because of its anti-climactic plot and boring characters, Simon vs. The Homo Sapien Agenda is not the type of book that you can fall in love with.

Rating: C-