Title: Leah on the Offbeat (#Creekwood #2)
Author: Becky Albertalli
Genre: Young Adult | Contemporary | Romance | LGBTQIA+
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: April 24, 2018
Source: Purchased
Format: Physical
Leah Burke—girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier’s best friend from the award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.
When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.
So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended (goodreads).
Well, that was a disappointment.
Plot: Leah on the Offbeat was one of those 'coming of age' tales where a young girl had to re-evaluate some friendships while preparing for life after high school. Leah on the Offbeat rubbed me the wrong way because it felt that Albertalli had to backtrack and rewrite a lot of things that happened in Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda. The romance did not feel easy and most times I was just annoyed with the situation. Honestly, I couldn't wait to be done just so I could forget it all happened.
Characters: Leah Burke turned me all the way off. She was rude and tended to attack first. The more time I spent in Leah's head, the more I kind of hated her. I understood that she was insecure and not comfortable in her own skin, but I just couldn't find any redeeming qualities to her. It was fun to reconnect with characters from Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda and The Upside of Unrequited but not enough to make me say I actually enjoyed reading this book.
Worldbuilding: Many of the locales that we visited in Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda were present in Leah on the Offbeat. As I expected, most of the action took place in a high school and most of the other locations seemed authentic. Of course, we returned to Waffle House.
Short N Sweet: This was not the finale I wanted for all of my Simon vs loves.
Labels: 2.5 stars, balzer + bray, becky albertalli, book review, review, simon vs the homo sapien agenda, the upside of unrequited
