Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli was supposed to be a good read. I was so excited to continue reading about the Simon Vs. gang yet this book left me so incredibly disappointed. For starters, I didn't really care for a Leah story line, though I know many fans asked for this exact book to be made. Leah is bisexual and in love with Abby. Ok, but where was this ever hinted at in Simon Vs? This seems like such a random concept. I've seen many others describe this book as fan fiction, and honestly that accusation is not that far off. Becky published fan fiction of her own book. Abby was so head over heels for Nick in Simon Vs. and even more so in Upside of Unrequited, so it makes absolutely no sense that she would just decide to break up with him.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't entirely hate this book. I enjoyed the bits of the story when Simon and Bram were being adorable, yet it wasn't as often as I'd like. Honestly, I would've preferred an actual sequel where Simon and Bram take on college or something, anything other than the sequel we were given. Some other obvious flaws include the horribly paced story line, the complete change of personality in characters from the first book, and Leah's shitty character in general.
Leah was a serious bitch in this book. She was rude to literally everyone but maybe Simon. She was super shitty to Abby, I'm surprised Abby even liked her. Her mom was such a saint to put up with Leah's bad attitude, and don't even get me started on what a jerk she was to Garrett. Leah led Garrett on throughout the entire book. She knew Garrett liked her but she liked the idea of someone crushing on her so she never admitted to him that she wasn't interested. She was mad at Morgan through the entire book because Morgan sad one stupid thing when she was angry and upset. Ok Leah.. she genuinely apologized and realized her wrongdoings, lets move on now. The whole gang was not supportive of Nick at all, which was also upsetting to read. Its genuinely like Becky scrapped all the character development from her first book but wanted to write a sequel anyways. If she was gonna switch up the characters so much she should have just written a standalone.
The fact that she wrote this book at all really just makes it seem like shes trying to feed off of the fame from Simon Vs and Love Simon, obviously I don't want to believe that, it just really feels half-assed compared to her first book (even compared to Upside of Unrequited which I didn't even like that much either). However, I've also read some reviews where people really loved this book. Their reasons for enjoying the book is usually because they can relate to Leah and her situation or because they love that there is bi representation, and the fact that it is one of very few girl loves girl books out there. There are many books with bi representation that are a lot more genuine than this book.
Honestly, I wouldn't even bother reading this book, especially if you loved Simon Vs. It not only has horrible characters that don't reflect those in Simon Vs, but its just really boring. Nothing really happens and then all of a sudden Abby and Leah are together. Sorry this is so unorganized, I just have lots of mismatched thoughts that have collected over the month it took me to actually finish reading this book.
Have you read Leah on the Offbeat? What did you think??
Indiana Grace
