Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Publication date: April 2015
Series: Creekside #1
LGBTQ+ author? Bisexual
Setting: Modern USA
Content warnings: Homophobic bullying

This book is almost ten years old now so I’m a bit late to the review game. But it was a very sweet and wanted to add it to my young adult review list.

Simon secretly writes flirty emails to a boy in his high school with the pen name Blue. But neither Simon nor Blue knows who the other is in real life. The story unfolds during Simon’s junior year, as he rehearses the school play, hangs out with his friends and tries to figure out who Blue really is.

The book inspired a movie that was released in 2018 called Love, Simon. It’s on Netflix and I am definitely going to watch it!

Old tech alert

This book’s plot relies heavily on the social media of the mid 2010s — mostly Tumblr and Facebook. It’s almost hard to imagine a teenager ever looking forward to reading birthday messages on Facebook. But apparently that happened once upon a time.

It’s a bit of a shame how much this tech this dates the book, as the story is timeless in a way. Or is it?

Being LGBTQ+ in high school

Simon and his romantic pen pal Blue are both really scared of coming out to their friends and family. Simon also faces some very public homophobic bullying at school, although it is challenged by his teachers and friends.

When I was a teenager in the 90s, things were so scary I don’t know anyone who came out. Me just talking to a girl I secretly liked — while I had a boyfriend — subjected me homophobic bulling. Not great.

I wondered how things were with teens ten years after this book came out — and twenty five years since I’d be in high school.

The most recent data I could find was on this survey by the Trevor Project in 2022. Only 55% of kids said school was an LGBTQ+ affirming space and 37% said home was. And 73% of LGBTQ+ kids report symptoms of anxiety. Well, that’s just not great.

So perhaps this story is sadly rather current.

What I loved about this book there was a lot of suspense around who Blue is. I kept thinking “Oh no, not that person!” and “Maybe that guy!!” It was like a murder mystery without the murder. And Simon’s friend group is sweet and mostly kind to each other.