Hi friends, happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a good week! Today I’m posting my review of Becky Albertalli’s novel Leah on the Offbeat.

You can read my review of book one: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
You can read my review of book two: The Upside to Unrequited

Leah on the Offbeat by: Becky Albertalli: Life isn’t always easy for Leah, and as senior year comes to a close there are a lot of stressors to prepare for, namely college and prom. Add to that, relationships within their group of friends start to implode as tensions run high and Leah must navigate her friends as well as her own feelings. As much as the reader wanted to like this novel, it was so hard to like when the main character was so unlikeable. Being in Leah’s point of view really let the reader down because she was just so negative and she hated everything. She gave nothing a chance and made everything about her, when not every single thing that happened around her, was about her. She was frustrating to read because of that; the reader almost DNF-ed this, but they were curious to see where this would go. In the end, Leah wasn’t as annoying and pessimistic, but it wasn’t until the very last chapter that she started to warm up, which by that point was too late in the story. Leah basically had no development and pretty much stayed the same throughout. This also went for the majority of the characters in this, there was no development. This felt like it hurt the plot too because as much as there was a lot going on and that’s what kept this novel’s pacing so quick, the fact that the characters didn’t progress, ensured that the plot didn’t either. As for the plot, it was your typical teenage, high school drama, end of the year, prom, college stuff, which the reader had no problems with, but it just felt like the drama had been turned up to an eleven and everything felt so life and death with them all. The reader understands how the end of high school can feel very final, but this didn’t feel like any of the plots were handled well, from a character coming out, to dealing with racist comments, none of it was given any care; it was all seen through a judgemental lens, which turned the reader off. Then the way this ended was so unhinged; it made no sense. After everything we’ve seen from these characters to see how some of them reacted just didn’t add up. Also, if we were supposed to feel happy for Leah by the end, she didn’t earn that happiness from the reader so it felt tacked on for a happily ever after ending, which felt fake. The only redeeming quality this novel felt like it had was seeing Simon again, aside from that, everything else just didn’t do it for this reader.