Leah on the Offbeat (Simonverse, #3) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jan 10, 2019 Claire rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: precinct-81, grchoice

Mmm... not a very bad book. Not a rather good book.
I might just be too old, but remembering my days as a young adult, I wouldn’t have liked it a lot neither.
Just my opinion: I don’t like YA when it is too much about the messages.
Books are there to tell stories, to let you enjoy beautiful language and to dream away with other, new worlds, to challenge you in a lot of ways. A message can be given in a better and more direct way.

At the same time I found the writing style too childish for YA. I r ...more

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May 11, 2019 Anita Reads rated it liked it

Shelves: romance, read-2019, contemporary, storytel, young-adult, 2018-april-releases, series-completed-2019

[3.5 stars]

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May 07, 2018 Kate rated it really liked it

Leah and the Offbeat is the sequel to Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda. I loved the witty play of words with the title (Leah is an awesome drummer). This is a quick and easy read, written from the perspective of Leah, Simon’s best friend. It is set during their senior year of high school. I wonder if there will be a third book in this series about what happens when they all go off to university!

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Sep 18, 2020 BookishStitcher rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this book, perhaps because Leah reminds me of a friend.

Leah is having one crazy senior year. Her friend group is all struggling with where to go to college. Couples that seemed like they were forever are breaking up. There's a boy who seems into her. A crush she has had for years comes to the forefront again. She's also bisexual, but none of her friends know. Leah is so sarcastic and adorable I just kept thinking of my friend, who I now feel like I understand even more from gett ...more

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May 13, 2018 Ashleigh rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series-books, diverse-reads, romance, sapphic-wlw-ff

Leah on the Offbeat takes place a year after the events of Simon vs. the Homo-Sapiens Agenda, but the main character in this story is Simon's best friend Leah. In the beginning of this book, we find out that Leah is bisexual, a fact she has told no-one except for her mom. Despite having a best friend who literally knows what it's like to consider 'coming out' to everyone and dealing with the repercussions of that, she keeps this fact secret. But things get a little complicated when she realises ...more

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Aug 05, 2018 Daniel rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. So. I was a huge fan of Simon vs..... and I was going into this book totally ready to reconnect with these characters. I don’t know who THESE people are, but they are not the lovable misfits I knew from the first outing at Creekwood High. And, maybe that’s the point? I’m unsure.
This book picks up a year after the events of Simon vs. the Homo Sapien Agenda and focuses on Leah, Simon’s best friend who fell hard for her closeted bff in the first book. Now it’s time for Leah to struggle with her ow So. I was a huge fan of Simon vs..... and I was going into this book totally ready to reconnect with these characters. I don’t know who THESE people are, but they are not the lovable misfits I knew from the first outing at Creekwood High. And, maybe that’s the point? I’m unsure.
This book picks up a year after the events of Simon vs. the Homo Sapien Agenda and focuses on Leah, Simon’s best friend who fell hard for her closeted bff in the first book. Now it’s time for Leah to struggle with her own sexuality as she tries to decipher what her exact feelings are towards one of her female classmates.
The audiobook was engaging and I was never bored. I will say that was a huge plus. I will also say that the Leah in this book bears little to no resemblance of the Leah from “Simon vs..”. This Leah is, frankly, super unlikeable and her shitty attitude through the bulk of the book was a real turn off. Especially when it came across as being a moody teenager for the sake of being a moody teenager. Also, I don’t remember her being fat in the first book. I don’t take issue with having positive plus-sized main characters in YA books. I’m a big guy myself and lord knows, we need as many positive characters in the plus sized community that we can muster. However, it seems like the decision to make Leah overweight in this book simply to give her opportunities to bemoan her size (despite the unrealistic aspect of an insecure chubby girl having not one but TWO popular-ish people vying for her affections) seemed forced and a plot device, at best. Also, some developments in this book make the Leah from the first book appear to be the world’s biggest bitch - given the way things panned out in book one when Simon finally came out to her. I get that her reaction could be a realistic reaction but at the same time it sort of makes me dislike her even more as a character when thinking about the events of the first book.
Basically, I feel like they decided to make her chubby and a miserable twat dealing with her sexual orientation in order to piggy back on the success of the first book and it really didn’t work for me.
That being said, would I read another novel about these characters ? Heck yes! They’re charming in their own ways and I enjoyed visiting with them. And, the writer touches on some very important and very real issues teenagers are dealing with. However, overall this book left a bad taste in my mouth and what’s worse did the same for its predecessor which is one of my favorite YA books of all time.
Best book ever? No. Realistic? Not at all. Enjoyable? You betcha...except for when I was cringing and bemoaning these choices made for what I can only assume was to help sell more books.

3.25/5⭐️ ...more

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Jul 23, 2020 Chaitra rated it it was ok

Shelves: lgbt, romance, part-of-a-series, young-adult, queer

I liked Simon, and that was weird enough. YA Romance is just not my thing. But I liked Simon, the character. There was something refreshingly earnest about him. I guess I should have identified with Leah more, because Leah has some of the same characteristics I do but doesn't have an ounce of self-awareness. She doesn't do romance, but by being as difficult and judge-y as she is, she creates drama. It's all fine, if she got called out for it in some reasonable fashion, but she gets a pass pretty ...more

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