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Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Review: The Upside of Unrequited

Title The Upside of Unrequited
By Becky Albertalli
Genre YA Contemporary
Format Print
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Molly knows all about unrequited love, she's had twenty-six crushes in her 17 years. None of her crushes ever knew about her fondness for them because the other thing about Molly is she keeps herself very guarded and never puts herself out there for rejection. When her twin sister Cassie begins to fall in love, Molly finds herself feeling slightly left behind and decided it might be time to put herself out there at last.

First Sentence
I'm on the toilet at the 9:30 Club, and I'm wondering how mermaids pee.

Just the title of this one had me wanting to read it. I grew up knowing a thing or two about unrequited love. What I didn't expect was to find myself so closely relating to the MC in more ways than the above mentioned.

This one had a shaky start for me. I haven't read any other of Alberalli's books but I'm aware she always has all the politically correct characters covered. But this one started out feeling like maybe she was trying TOO hard??? Every type of LGBA was included all races were included and the MC is even overweight. It just started feeling more like walking on eggshells than writing a story. Does that make sense?

But then we get into the story. And what a story! I related so much to Molly! It's not even that we had too much in common but I just fell in love with this girl and felt all her feels so deeply that I was sobbing at one point. I couldn't finish the book fast enough to make sure everything turned out OK.

The whole cast of  "politically correct" characters were so dang memorable and I fell in love with them all. Reid is my new book boyfriend and Abby is my new best friend. Loved it!

13 comments:

  1. I literally just finished Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda like three minutes ago and absolutely loved it so I'm looking to read more by this author. I'm so happy to hear that she wasn't a one-hit-wonder and you loved this one, Jenny!

    Laura @BlueEyeBooks

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    1. Right? I’m going to read all her books now!

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  2. I'm glad to hear that the story prevails in this because I've been wanting to read these, but I've been wondering if they're too in-your-face. I'm glad they're not. :D

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    1. This one started out feeling that way but totally didn’t go there.

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  3. I'm glad this one had more to it than political correctness. Some authors seem to lose their stories because they're trying so hard to make everyone like them.

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  4. I adore the first sentence for this book! 🤣 It feels like something I might randomly think about, lol.

    I'm so happy you enjoyed this one, because I've been eyeing it for awhile! Books that make me feel are the BEST, and I love when I'm emotionally invested in the characters.

    Do You Dog-ear?

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  5. I like the sound of this book. Will add onto my wishlist.

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  6. I haven't read this one, but I've heard really good things about it. It does drive me crazy when authors put in "diverse" characters just to be PC, though. Inclusion is important but if it doesn't feel natural or realistic in a story than the novel ends up feeling contrived and false. I hate that.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, it needs to feel natural and I was starting to worry about this one but it turned out ok.

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  7. I'm worried about the politically correct stuff. Is it buggy?

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    Replies
    1. Mostly just at the beginning. And then it’s just character driven.

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