Book Review: THE UPSIDE OF UNREQUITED by Becky Albertalli

FACTS ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: THE UPSIDE OF UNREQUITED

Author: Becky Albertalli

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Price: $12.00

Pages: 336

Genre: Coming of Age, Romance, Family, with LGBTQ* elements

Year: 2017

 

 

 

 

BACK OF THE BOOK

   

 

 

Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly's totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie's new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. If Molly can win him over, she'll get her first kiss and she'll get her twin back.
There's only one problem: Molly's coworker, Reid. He's a chubby Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there's absolutely no way Molly could fall for him.

 

 

 

 

 

MY OPINION

 

Diversity

 

I like that the main character Molly has a queer twin sister and two mums - that's a very appealing set up for me. (Though I sort of thought that the main character of this book would be queer aswell. But the book ended up being mostly about a straight romance, which was encapsulated in a very queer surrounding.)

I was so thrilled about the fact that this book mentioned the Supreme Court's legalisation of same sex marriage in such a beautiful way. I loved the way in which the book celebrated that and spread rainbows all throughout the whole novel.

 

I was also quite pleasantly surprised when it was revealed that half of Molly's family (her one mum and her brother) were black. That brought another element of diversity into the book.

 

 

 

Relatable

 

Although this book is definitely aimed at younger readers, I could still relate a lot to Molly's thoughts and feelings because I vividly remember having them aswell when I was a teenager.

The book tackled a lot of worries concerning boys that I also had when I was younger and that I thought no one else had. That's why I would have actually 'needed' this book earlier on in my life but still enjoyed the reassurance of not having been the only one with such thoughts and sorrows.

 

 

 

Slowly paced, not much happening

 

The story's speed was extremely slow and I often wondered what this book was actually about or what it was aiming at or where it wanted to go. Eventually I just went with that slow pace, but it therefore took me a lot more time to get through the book.

 

Nothing much happens in the book, there is no real plot, no thrill to it and it's easy to get sleepy or bored while reading it. (This is especially the case if you have read something with a lot of action beforehand.)

 

But, I read through the last 100 pages really quickly because I just couldn't put the book down anymore since (finally) a lot of stuff happened. (I wished that that had been the case earlier on in the novel though.)

 

 

 

 

Confusion

 

Since there was such an abundance of female names in this book, I got way too often confused as to who was who. The fact that Molly's two mums also get called by their first name by their daughters didn't help that confusion very much either.

 

 

 

 

Fandom References - Reference to Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

 

I adored Becky Albertalli's last book "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" a lot because of its vast amount of Harry Potter references and bought "The Upside of Unrequited" also because I hoped that there would be a lot of them in there aswell. There definitely were some in this book but it could have been a whole lot more in my opinion.

 

Fairly at the end of the book I wondered why the author hadn't mentioned Simon from "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" in this book when the scales fell from my eyes and I realised that Molly's cousin's best friend 'Simon' who had popped up once or twice in the book, has actually BEEN THE Simon from "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda". I really don't get why I hadn't noticed that earlier on in the book, and so I reread all of the scenes that had Simon in them. (Those were also the scenes that had the most fandom references in them)

Now I SO want to reread "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" because Simon was just too adorable in the few scenes in which he was in this book - and also because I definitely want to reread the book before the movie comes out.

 

 

 

Twins

 

I was a bit sad that the author had chosen to make Molly the protagonist and not her twin sister Cassie at first. Cassie is the queer girl and I immediately loved her for her badass character and her strength and personality.

 

 

 

 

Molly as the protagonist

 

I really enjoyed Molly's interest in decorations and that she took a lot of her inspiration from Pinterest. That felt quite realistic for this time and I enjoyed her getting artsy and creative a lot.

I could totally understand Molly's thought process and think that she is a great character to easily identify with, especially for introverted readers.

 

I normally would have found Molly's extreme obsession with getting a boyfriend or getting at least kissed by a boy to be extremely problematic, but because she overthinks and analyses everything and everyone in such vast detail, I actally bonded with her and connected to her and understood her reasoning and feeling.

That's all because I feel like I have been in a similar mindset to Molly when I was younger.

 

 

 

 

The (straight) lovestory

 

There were many lovestories in this book and a lot of them were queer - except for the main character's one. But, surprisingly, I didn't mind the straight romance in this book too much.

I actually don't like to read straight romance novels anymore, but this one felt so different to others because it had so many queer characters surrounding the straight girl, wherefore the book still felt quite 'rainbowlike', especially since the queerness was always a very important topic in the book.

 

Miraculously, I ended up really enjoying the romance in this book because it felt so real. I could relate a lot to Molly's thoughts and felt very understood by the book. It didn't feel cliché - although I will never not find it problematic to desperately WANT a boyfriend just for the sake of having a boyfriend.

It also helped a lot that the love interest was such a precious, geeky character - although I would have liked it better if Molly herself had been a geek aswell, instead of always pointing out the 'weirdness' in her love interest.

 

 

 

   

CONCLUSION

I never did not like the book while reading it. I always had a nice time when I read it but it was too slowly paced so that it took me way too long to get through it. I would say that it is an 'okay' book that one can definitely read and have a great time while doing so, but it's no masterpiece - like the author's last book, "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" had been.

This book has a lot of different queer characters in it and I absolutely loved that diversity and the vast amount of queer representation in this novel. I would have liked it even more if the main character had been queer aswell, though. (Because, although I enjoyed it, I sort of felt tricked into reading another straight romance because that story was so well wrapped into a very queer surrounding.)

I also found it quite problematic that the main character desperately seeked for a boyfriend. It didn't matter who or what, just that she could tick the box of "having a boyfriend" and I really think that that is a problematic mindset. However, I could still relate to the main character a lot of the time because she was quite introverted and overthought and analysed everything and everyone like I do aswell.

 

 

 

MY RATING

It's actually quite hard to rate this book because it wasn't an excellent book but I still had a nice time while reading it and also enjoyed it.

 

I award this book with 3,5 out of 5 stars.