Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2015
320 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he's pushed out - without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he's never met.
Incredibly funny and poignant, this twenty-first-century coming-of-age, coming out story - wrapped in a geek romance - is a knockout of a debut novel by Becky Albertalli.
"Starred Review. Debut novelist Albertalli writes believably in the voice of a confused, openhearted 16-year-old [and a] large cast of companionable and well-developed characters." - Publishers Weekly
"Rife with realistic, high school relationships and drama, with a laugh or two at every turn, this is a coming-of-age, coming-out, and defying-the-odds story with which many teens will identify. Grade 8 and up. " - School Library Journal
"Starred Review. Funny, moving and emotionally wise." - Kirkus
"I am so in love with this book." - Nina LaCour, author of Hold Still
"Delightfully funny and at times heart-wrenching. Readers will ache for Simon's awkwardness, cheer his small triumphs, but, most of all, fall in love with this kid and with this remarkable gift of a novel." - Andrew Smith, author of Grasshopper Jungle
"Are we absolutely certain that Becky Albertalli didn't just steal the diary of a hilariously observant teenage boy? Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is a pitch-perfect triumph of wit and wordplay that feels timelessly, effortlessly now." - Tim Federle, author of Better Nate than Ever
"Becky Albertalli has written the best kind of love story: the kind in which you fall in love with the characters as they fall in love with each other." - Alex Sanchez, Lambda Award-winning author of Rainbow Boys and Boyfriends with Girlfriends
This information about Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Becky Albertalli is a clinical psychologist who has had the privilege of conducting therapy with dozens of smart, weird, irresistible teenagers. She also served for seven years as co-leader of a support group for gender nonconforming children in Washington, DC. She now lives with her family in Atlanta.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is her first novel.
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A million monkeys...
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