The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

2/12/2018

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?

Synopsis from Chapters.Indigo.ca

PERSONAL REVIEW

I recently read Simon vs. the Home Sapiens Agenda and immediately fell in love with Albertalli’s storytelling. I was excited to start reading The Upside of Unrequited to read her style again, and found that I really enjoyed Molly’s story. I thought it was just a really cute love story and enjoyed every character that Albertalli introduced to us!

What I Thought:

Celebrating LGBT characters and relationships:
In Simon, we are following the story of a boy trying to figure out how to tell his family that he is gay. In Upside, characters are openly and comfortably out and it’s wonderfully done. While there are acknowledgements about ignorant comments made by peripheral characters about Cassie being gay (one character asked her if she was just trying to “emulate her moms”. Talk about insulting!) and what it means to be bisexual, overall, this was a story about someone falling in love and it just so happens that her sister and mothers are lesbians. Reading about Cassie fall in love was just as sweet as reading about Molly’s relationships.
The Story Wasn’t as Meaningful:
I didn’t feel like we really got as close to Molly and the other characters as we probably should have. Although I liked everyone, this book was missing the connections for me. We barely knew Reid, Cassie was often away with Mina, and we were largely just stuck in Mina’s head. I hate to compare so much, but in Simon we had the emails between Simon and Blue for us to fall in love with their relationships. We just don’t have that same connection in Upside and that was a bit of a letdown. I think it was this lack that made the whole story seem “fluffier” then it was probably meant to be.
Brief Return of Beloved Characters:
A lot of my favourite moments in this book are when we get glimpses of Simon, Abby, and Nick again. I loved the exchange between Molly and Simon (anything that references Harry Potter is a win for me!) and it was great to know that Abby/Nick and Simon/Bram relationships are as cute as ever! It was fun to catch up with them again and I like the connection between both books. Sadly, it was also a reminder of how much I had loved those characters, vs. my more nonchalant feelings towards these characters.

Overall, this was a fun read but I just didn’t connect with it the way I anticipated. The storyline was fun and I still love Albertalli’s work (I can’t wait for Leah Off the Beat to come out!), but this didn’t connect with me the same way her other book did. I am hoping that we hear more about Molly and Cassie in other books, because I’d love to know how their lives are going!

FINAL RATING: 4/5