2.5 Sterne Well, well... Wo soll ich anfangen? Bestimmt eine unpopular opinion aber naja: Ich beginne bei den Protagonisten. Molly fand ich extrem negativ! Sie hat ultra oft rumgemeckert & war mega launisch. Cassie, ihre Schwester nutzte sie so oft aus! Sie erzählte peinliche Geschichten über Molly, vor ihrem Freundeskreis ohne ihr Einverständnis zu holen. Genauso wie einfach ihre Handynummer weitergeben & hinter ihrem Rücken reden. Allgemein war die Kommunikation zwischen Molly & Cassie total komisch & für mich nicht immer nachvollziehbar. Auch die Beziehung zwischen Olivia - Molly & Reid war ja mal richtig toxisch und kindisch. Dieses sich gegenseitig eifersüchtig machen & sich ignorieren war irgendwie total unnötig. Was mich auch extrem genervt hat war Mollys Aussage zu Slut Shaming. Zitat: „Here‘s what I would never, ever admit out loud: a part of me always thought it was some kind of a secret compliment when someone got called a slut“ weiter im Text: „It meant you were having sex. It meant people wanted to have sex with you. Being a slut just meant you were normal.“ GIRL STOP! JUST STOP! Grundsätzlich eine süsse Idee. Ich kam auch locker flockig durchs Buch durch & war innerhalb eines halben Tages durch. Doch damit war es für mich nicht getan. Ich konnte mich mit keinem Charakter richtig identifizieren, habe vieles nicht verstanden & habe mich recht oft genervt. Den ersten Band habe ich abgöttisch geliebt, weshalb ich Band 3 auch gerne nochmal eine Chance gebe. Ich hatte erwartet, dass das eine schöne Liebesgeschichte ist, die mich mit einem guten Gefühl zurücklässt. Doch es war mir einfach durchs Band zu negativ... Schade!

An sich finde ich das Buch ganz gut, aber ich glaube es war einfach zur falschen Zeit. Ich konnte mich leider nicht wirklich drauf einlassen und bin oft mit den Gedanken abgeschwiffen, sodass ich wieder zurückspulen musste. Ich weiß nicht, woran es genau lag, da mir die Charaktere, der Schreibstil und die Stimme eigentlich ganz gut gefallen haben. Ich denke, ich werde es einfach nochmal hören oder lesen, wenn ich dann in der richtigen Stimmung bin

5 ⭐️ I myself am surprised that THIS book is my favorite from the whole Simonverse. I was sure that either Simons book would stay my favorite because sequels/spin-offs rarely live up to the hype, or that I would fall in love with Leah because she seemed the most similar to me. But Mollys story took me by surprise and made me believe in love again. Becky Albertalli never disappoints when it comes to diversity; a book filled with different sexualities, ethnicities, sizes, religions and family types. I related to Molly so badly the whole time, it was awkward and funny, and it just felt so real. “It's funny, because you always think the hard part is meeting someone the first time. It's not. It's the second time, because you've already used up all the obvious topics of conversation. And even if you haven't, it's strange and heavy-handed to introduce random conversational topics at this stage in the game."

Ich muss sagen, es ist mittlerweile eher ein Abbyverse als ein Simonverse. Diesmal geht es um Abbys Cousinen, Zwillinge, die ich beide ziemlich sympathisch finde. Ich mag insbesondere, dass die Charaktere so vielfältig sind.. Mir war allerdings ziemlich schnell klar, für wen sich Molly entscheiden würde. Trotzdem waren Molly und Cassie mir als Hauptcharaktere sehr sympathisch. Die Dynamik zwischen den Zwillingen und die Familien Konstellation fand ich sehr cool und authentisch beschrieben. Ich kann Molly sehr gut verstehen und gerade die Unterschiede zwischen den Zwillingen fand ich sehr spannend. Ein sehr schönes Jugendbuch, welches ich nur Empfehlen kann. Eine spannende Coming-of-Age Lovestory mit einer queeren Note.

Another disappointment. The only thing the main character, Molly, does is complaining about her 27 unrequited crushes and the fact the she really wants to have a boyfriend. She literally says “Chubby girls don’t get boyfriends, and they definitely don’t have sex.” ??? kind of offensive. This book is the opposite of empowering. I also didn’t like her twin sister, who wants to set Molly up with her girlfriend’s best friend because she thinks it’d be cool to date best friends. The text her boyfriend then sends her (“Your adorable saliva. The adorable saliva of Molly Peskin-Suso.”) weirded me out. Whenever Molly walked around with a guy, she immediately assumes that everyone else thinks she dates this one guy. I highly doubt that people care. I really appreciate a book with diversity, but it seemed to me that the author had a check list for diverse characters. I also think that there was no story or character development at all.

I can understand both sides of the opinions about this book. The ones loving it and the one hating it and especially the characters. But it would helped me if i read it earlier. If i read it as my 15/16 year old self who was like Molly in a way. Lots of crushes, overweight and thinking she was unlovable it would have opend my eyes. Because I made everything about myself, not like outwardly showing it but internally. My friends talked about their boyfriends and i was there smiling and listening but internally thinking that would never be me. I think I would have realised how bad i was behaving and how unhealthy it was. Molly was relatable but in a way were you also don't like her so you want to change yourself. Want to be a better version of yourself. The book made my 15-year old self inside me really happy and i think that's what counts.

After I read and fell utterly in love with Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by the wonderful Becky Albertalli The Upside of Unrequired became one of my most anticipated reads this year. Unfortunately I hadn’t had the time to pick it up until recently. I finished the book in only two days. If you want to know if I liked it or not, keep reading. Although it’s not mandatory to read Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda before The Upside of Unrequired I’d definitely recommend you to do so because there are some cameos that will seem like totally irrelevant if you don’t already know the history of some of the side characters. And since Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is one of the best books I’ve ever read I recommend you to read it first, although it’s of course not required to read it before The Upside of Unrequired. This was such an unbelievably adorable, cute and fluffy read that will give you all the feels, I promise. It’s so different from most YA books which is one of my favorite things about this books. It focuses on underrepresented body types, our main character Molly for example is not one of those super skinny super models most YA have. She also has anxiety and takes medication for it and her twin sister Cassie, who’s, concerning her looks at least, the total opposite of Molly likes girls, specifically a Korean-American pansexual girl. They have two moms and are also sperm-donor babies. Usually family doesn’t play a big role in most YA books because it seems like it’s much easier to write about decayed family circumstances than include a loving family in the story. It also adds some drama to the story too, which might be another reason why most authors don’t want to include a happy family in their books. But in this book family is very important. It was a breath of fresh air to finally have a loving and happy family in a YA book. Molly does not only care a lot about her twin sister, but also about her whole family, her two moms, her little brother and of course her friends who basically are like family to her. FAMILY IS A VERY IMPORTANT There’s just one tiny little thing that kind of bothered me. The book kind of gives the reader the impression that the only right way to live your life to the fullest is to get married and have children. Some people just do not want to get married. A wedding would rather make them feel trapped instead of happy. But only because they don’t want to get married or have kids does not mean it makes them a less happy person. Mostly there’s a reason why some people choose to live their life unmarried and without children and that is not a bad thing, it is totally fine. I also did not like how Molly always thought that the only way she can ever be happy is to have a boyfriend. She calls herself a feminist but at the same time she believes that the only way she will ever live a happy life is to have a man by her side, to have a boyfriend. I mean of course it’s okay to have a boyfriend and to want a boyfriend, that doesn’t make you less of a feminist, I just don’t think it’s very healthy to make people believe that if you aren’t in a relationship you are automatically unhappy because that is not true. Some people simply don’t want to be in a relationship; they rather be single what doesn’t mean they aren’t happy and are not living their lives to the fullest. But despite that I really loved how realistic the story was and how realistic the life of teenagers was portrayed in this book. Teenagers drink, they talk about sex, they lie to their parents at times, they are self-conscious and also doubt themselves sometimes, they are curious, they panic over things adults think are minor, they exaggerate, they feel jealousy, they say and do mean things, but they also make up again … it was immensely nice to finally read a book that portrayed family life and the life of highschool teenagers in such a honest and realistic way. But not only the characters were well written and well developed, also the relationships all seemed so real and honest, no matter if it was a romantic releationship or just regular friendship. If I had to choose one favorite character, I’d definitely go with Reid – or Olivia. The whole story has such an ease to it. It’s a fast paced and very quick read; a read that will defenitely get you out of a reading slump if you are currently experiencing one. What I also absolutely loved about this book is that it speaks to a variety of readers. The book represents so many different groups of people in a very beautiful way which makes this book so special. Although I did not like this one as much as I liked Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda I really really enjoyed this read and I’d highly recommend this to anybody, especially to those who are looking for a cute and fluffy story to read. I promise you, you will not regret it.

Of these three books taking place in the Creekwood Verse (and this one does take place there, even though Goodreads doesn't place it in the series), this one definitely resonated with me the most. I listened to all three audio books (in weird order actually, I listened to Leah on the Offbeat second and it was weird to go back. step with this one), but they are all great audio books and amazing companions for long walks. I love the connections to Simons story that existed here. This little universe is very lovely and fluffy and it does keep great company on walks. But this book has the same issues I saw in Simon VS. and Leah, the ending is a bit rushed and everything just turns super happy very fast. I'm a fan of bittersweet endings, but I wouldn't have liked that here anyway. Would have just enjoyed a bit more time to develop the actual romance. It was still very cute. I really enjoyed Molly's road to her first kiss and relationship. This is a very lovely, cute story, with loads of diverse characters (different skin colours, backgrounds, body types, mental illness and sexuality). I really enjoyed how it dealt with Molly being a fat girl, how it showed the pressure family can put onto you and how other people react to it. Her "Fuck you" at a boy who calls her "gorgeous for a fat girl" is truly iconic. Even though the ending fell a bit flat for me, I still overall enjoyed this audio book a lot. At some points, the woman reading it made this super sweet girly voice that really got on my nerves, it just sounded a bit stupid and childish, but I could live with it overall. Would recommend this to anyone who enjoy a good, sweet contemporary. Actually my favourite of these Simon Vs. Universe Novels, but one should really read Simon Vs. first, cause this book spoils some bits of it.

read my complete review here: http://isabellsbooks.blogspot.de/ MY OPINION Diversity I like that the main character Molly has a queer twin sister and two mums - that's a very appealing set up for me. (Though I sort of thought that the main character of this book would be queer aswell. But the book ended up being mostly about a straight romance, which was encapsulated in a very queer surrounding.) I was so thrilled about the fact that this book mentioned the Supreme Court's legalisation of same sex marriage in such a beautiful way. I loved the way in which the book celebrated that and spread rainbows all throughout the whole novel. I was also quite pleasantly surprised when it was revealed that half of Molly's family (her one mum and her brother) were black. That brought another element of diversity into the book. Relatable Although this book is definitely aimed at younger readers, I could still relate a lot to Molly's thoughts and feelings because I vividly remember having them aswell when I was a teenager. The book tackled a lot of worries concerning boys that I also had when I was younger and that I thought no one else had. That's why I would have actually 'needed' this book earlier on in my life but still enjoyed the reassurance of not having been the only one with such thoughts and sorrows. Slowly paced, not much happening The story's speed was extremely slow and I often wondered what this book was actually about or what it was aiming at or where it wanted to go. Eventually I just went with that slow pace, but it therefore took me a lot more time to get through the book. Nothing much happens in the book, there is no real plot, no thrill to it and it's easy to get sleepy or bored while reading it. (This is especially the case if you have read something with a lot of action beforehand.) But, I read through the last 100 pages really quickly because I just couldn't put the book down anymore since (finally) a lot of stuff happened. (I wished that that had been the case earlier on in the novel though.) Confusion Since there was such an abundance of female names in this book, I got way too often confused as to who was who. The fact that Molly's two mums also get called by their first name by their daughters didn't help that confusion very much either. Fandom References - Reference to Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda I adored Becky Albertalli's last book "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" a lot because of its vast amount of Harry Potter references and bought "The Upside of Unrequited" also because I hoped that there would be a lot of them in there aswell. There definitely were some in this book but it could have been a whole lot more in my opinion. Fairly at the end of the book I wondered why the author hadn't mentioned Simon from "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" in this book when the scales fell from my eyes and I realised that Molly's cousin's best friend 'Simon' who had popped up once or twice in the book, has actually BEEN THE Simon from "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda". I really don't get why I hadn't noticed that earlier on in the book, and so I reread all of the scenes that had Simon in them. (Those were also the scenes that had the most fandom references in them) Now I SO want to reread "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" because Simon was just too adorable in the few scenes in which he was in this book - and also because I definitely want to reread the book before the movie comes out. Twins I was a bit sad that the author had chosen to make Molly the protagonist and not her twin sister Cassie at first. Cassie is the queer girl and I immediately loved her for her badass character and her strength and personality. Molly as the protagonist I really enjoyed Molly's interest in decorations and that she took a lot of her inspiration from Pinterest. That felt quite realistic for this time and I enjoyed her getting artsy and creative a lot. I could totally understand Molly's thought process and think that she is a great character to easily identify with, especially for introverted readers. I normally would have found Molly's extreme obsession with getting a boyfriend or getting at least kissed by a boy to be extremely problematic, but because she overthinks and analyses everything and everyone in such vast detail, I actally bonded with her and connected to her and understood her reasoning and feeling. That's all because I feel like I have been in a similar mindset to Molly when I was younger. The (straight) lovestory There were many lovestories in this book and a lot of them were queer - except for the main character's one. But, surprisingly, I didn't mind the straight romance in this book too much. I actually don't like to read straight romance novels anymore, but this one felt so different to others because it had so many queer characters surrounding the straight girl, wherefore the book still felt quite 'rainbowlike', especially since the queerness was always a very important topic in the book. Miraculously, I ended up really enjoying the romance in this book because it felt so real. I could relate a lot to Molly's thoughts and felt very understood by the book. It didn't feel cliché - although I will never not find it problematic to desperately WANT a boyfriend just for the sake of having a boyfriend. It also helped a lot that the love interest was such a precious, geeky character - although I would have liked it better if Molly herself had been a geek aswell, instead of always pointing out the 'weirdness' in her love interest. CONCLUSION I never did not like the book while reading it. I always had a nice time when I read it but it was too slowly paced so that it took me way too long to get through it. I would say that it is an 'okay' book that one can definitely read and have a great time while doing so, but it's no masterpiece - like the author's last book, "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" had been. This book has a lot of different queer characters in it and I absolutely loved that diversity and the vast amount of queer representation in this novel. I would have liked it even more if the main character had been queer aswell, though. (Because, although I enjoyed it, I sort of felt tricked into reading another straight romance because that story was so well wrapped into a very queer surrounding.) I also found it quite problematic that the main character desperately seeked for a boyfriend. It didn't matter who or what, just that she could tick the box of "having a boyfriend" and I really think that that is a problematic mindset. However, I could still relate to the main character a lot of the time because she was quite introverted and overthought and analysed everything and everyone like I do aswell. MY RATING It's actually quite hard to rate this book because it wasn't an excellent book but I still had a nice time while reading it and also enjoyed it. I award this book with 3,5 out of 5 stars.

I liked that book. But I didn't like it as much as Simon Vs. I think Molly made herself more problems, but I also understand her. Cassie was most of the time an ass with all her assumtions and how-it-should-be-manner. I wish Molly would have stepped up more for herself and didn't let anyone tell her how to feel. But as always itwas a really cute story that should be cherished for what it is and not what it isn't. So read it, love it, recommend it. I definitely do that. Okay, I'm crying over the acknowledgments. Because Grandma Molly. I understand you.

Eine Geschichte, die mir aus dem Herzen spricht und von jedem gelesen werden sollte! Der Schreibstil der Autorin war wie immer genial, die Seiten flogen nur so dahin und trotzdem ist der Inhalt im Gedächtnis geblieben. Das liegt vor allem daran, dass ich die Probleme und Ängste der Protagonistin so gut nachvollziehen kann. Molly ist mir direkt ans Herz gewachsen. Ich verstehe sie so gut, denke manchmal die gleichen Gedanken und fühle mich durch die Geschichte wirklich verstanden. Ihre Zwillingsschwester und ihre Eltern waren auch wirklich realistisch geschriebene Charaktere, als wären sie aus dem echten Leben gegriffen. Gleiches gilt auch für Molly's Freunde. Und Leute! Abby, Nick und Simon kamen vor. Wie cool! Und all die LGBT-Erwähnungen. Die Eltern, die Zwillingsschwester. Ach, es war so toll und wirkte so natürlich, wie es einfach sein sollte. Und ich hätte übrigens auch so einen coolen Laden wie der, in dem Molly arbeiten und den wirklich unglaublich süßen und sympathischen Reid kennenlernt, in meiner Nähe. 5 Sterne für dieses fantastische Buch!

While not as good as Simon (but what is, honestly), Albertalli's first novel still manages something most books just aren't able to: making me grin, and, at other times, actually feel a pang of sadness. Our main character Molly is charming and relatable--although she blushes and smiles into various things a bit too much for my taste--and the rest of the cast is colorful, diverse and entertaining. Albertalli succeeds in something neither Rainbow Rowell nor John Green are able to for me: creating believable teen characters who aren't overly dramatic and placing them in a story that never once feels boring. Honestly, this book really makes me wish my life too was a YA contemporary novel in which all the loose straws come together in a nice bow in the end. Maybe it will someday. Till then, novels such as these give me both hope and happiness.

Das Buch war so lustig und schön! Ich habe die Message absolut geliebt und Molly war als Protagonistin so sympathisch und authentisch. Wie sie mit ihrem Gewicht und ihrem Aussehen ab und zu hadert, konnte ich komplett nachvollziehen. Doch Molly blieb sich und ihrem Körpergefühl treu und das habe ich so gemocht. Wie ihre Schwester und ihre Familie sie dabei unterstützt fand ich auch so schön! Leider fand ich Cassie sonst ziemlich daneben. Wie sie die Ängste von Molly ignoriert und sie gegen ihren Willen mit jemanden verkuppeln wollte, empfand ich als sehr toxisch. Das Highlight in dem Buch war für mich definitiv der Humor. Ich hab Molly und ihre inneren Dialoge so gefeiert und musste so oft lachen. Mir hat das Buch richtig gut gefallen und ich hab es auch schnell durch gelesen. Absolut empfehlenswert ❤️

This book! I never actually thought that it would make it into the "I'll forever love" category! It was beautiful!!! Te characters feel so real, every day people! Tangible. Like this could happen to anyone. It broke my heart more than a few times, but it had so many cute, adorable, funny moments! This book is even lovelier than Simon vs the Homo sapiens Agenda, which is saying something! It broke my heart more times than I can count but it also gave me this weird sense of hope and happiness, and that is just the book. It's the characters, mainly Molly's, thoughts and actions interactions that do that and it's perfect. Her relationship with her sister is not perfect. Her relationship with her friends (Olivia) is not perfect. Mina and Max and Will and Reid are every day characters. And because of all their imperfections and complications they are perfect. They resolve their issues, they talk, they understand. I never thought this book would be next to the Shatter Me trilogy (my previously unique favorite), but it is. This is a must read to everyone, even if you never thought or went through similar situations as Molly, don't miss this book. It makes your heart soar and hope and fall in love. You'll dons yourself smiling and laughing and crying at times and being mad on Molly's behalf and you'll never regret reading this book ❤️❤️❤️