Review: Leah on the Offbeat

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A companion to Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda; center stage is one of Simon's best friends, Leah.

It's senior year; Leah is bisexual, but hasn't come out to her friends. So she's going through her senior year -- people assuming she's only into boys -- working out friend dynamics -- and having a crush on a girl who is straight. Or is she?

I love how Leah addresses Leah's being bisexual, and why coming out matters, and how having this secret means she is never wholly herself around others.

I love Leah's crush and the heartbreak and how it resolves.

This book also addresses the particularities of a high school friends group and those dynamics. I'll be honest: as an adult reading this, I just wanted to say at times "folks, you all need to chill a bit." But this book isn't written for me, a fiftysomething adult.

But a teenager reading this will identify so much. Of particular, how invested friends can be in each other's relationships, and that so-and-so have to be together always, and what it means to the connections if so-and-so break up. The intense feelings and drama. The belief that it's all for always and forever. (Now that said... some couples were indeed together at the end, implying a certain amount of always and forever.)







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