Author: Becky Albertalli
Publication Date: 11 April 2017
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Page Count: 368
Reading Method: Audiobook
Synopsis:
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.
Right?
Review:
Yet another book that had the potential to be great, but fell flat. I loved Simon, but this was so far from the message it should have conveyed that I’m extremely disappointed. I really wanted to love this book. It started out okay. The cast was incredibly diverse and I loved the representation. The main character, Molly, is the single most annoying character ever. I get that she’s a teenager, and we were all a bit insufferable during that time, but this was over the top.
I would have been okay with the boyfriend obsession (literally she doesn’t stop whining about it through the entire book) if it hadn’t also worked out that she isn’t happy until someone else finds her valuable. Aside from the fact that she’s chubby and has never had a boyfriend, we really don’t know much about her. We honestly know very little about any of the characters, which is a shame because they all had the potential to be so cool.
Overall I just feel like this sends the message that “You’re not good enough the way you are unless someone else accepts you that way too” which is a major bummer of a message to be sending to the audience most likely to read this story.
You can purchase a copy of The Upside of Unrequited here
