Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli
Love, Creekwood
Series: ‘Simonverse’
Author: Becky Albertalli
Published: June 30, 2020
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: August 7-10, 2020
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Fall in love all over again with the characters from the bestselling Simonverse novels in this highly anticipated epilogue novella. Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli, the movie Love, Simon, and the new Hulu series spin-off, Love, Victor!
It’s been more than a year since Simon and Blue turned their anonymous online flirtation into an IRL relationship, and just a few months since Abby and Leah’s unforgettable night at senior prom.
Now the Creekwood High crew are first years at different colleges, navigating friendship and romance the way their story began—on email.
Jessica’s Review:
I 1000% adore Simon and this series of books by Becky Albertalli:
Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda
The Upside of Unrequited
Leah on the Offbeat
Now we have the ‘book-end’ novella: Love, Creekwood that Albertalli wrote for the fans, and it truly is for the fans of the series.
Love, Creekwood is a 127 page novella that we did not need, but really wanted! It follows where the others in the series leave off as our gang are in their first year of college, some together and some not. And they all communicate by email! It was different that in this time and age that was their method of communication, but the reason why is also addressed with one sentence for those curious. This novella is made up of solely the emails to each other, so I was missing the ‘in person/real life’ interactions between our cast of characters.
I still adore Simon to the end, despite his extreme missing of Blue. But what would college life be like if you were far away from your boyfriend? Of course you would be dramatically pining away for him too. I’m still not a big fan of Leah, but I do adore Abby.
I listened to the audio book version and all of our previous narrators are back! Michael Crouch IS the voice of Simon for me! I will be listening to more of the books he narrates. And my favorite narrator Bahni Turpin voices Abby. Pretty much anything she narrates I will listen to. And as mentioned before, I adored the film version of Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda, called Love, Simon.
I think this will be the last we see of the Creekwood gang, and I will miss them, but I enjoyed going back into their world and seeing what happened next for them: College. Many thanks to Albertalli for writing this final book-end for those who it mattered: The fans of the series!
The Upside of Unrequited
Author: Becky Albertalli
Published: April 11, 2017
336 Pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: January 24-31, 2019
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love—she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.
Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny and flirtatious and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back.
There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker Reid. He’s an awkward Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?
Jessica’s Review:
Please Note: To shorten the review instead of saying the entire titles throughout the review, I have shortened them to one word:
Upside- The Upside of Unrequited
Simon- Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda
Leah- Leah on the Offbeat
Upside is not part of the ‘Simon’ series, but it is in the same universe as Molly is Abby’s cousin. I listened to the audio of Upside after listening to Simon and Leah.
I liked Molly; she is what Leah could have been. Also being a ‘fat girl’, Molly has had many crushes (26 exactly), but nothing ever came about them. Then suddenly two guys come into the picture: One Molly meets via work and the other via her friends. I know who I was rooting for Molly to end up with by the end.
I enjoyed how Upside was connected to the other books through Abby; She and Simon even make some appearances throughout the novel! I did not like the narrator’s portrayal of Abby: she made Abby seem whiny with the way she narrated Abby’s voice. I enjoyed the narration of Abby’s voice much more in Simon.
I really liked Molly’s moms and enjoyed hearing from them; they are just as important to the story as Molly is.
As with the other two novels, Upside has foul language including the ‘f’ word. The language is not as extreme as it was in Leah. Of course, Of course, this series is about teen drama so be prepared for lots of it; if that’s not your thing it may be disappointed.
I enjoyed reading these three books, Simon is my favorite. If you read and enjoyed Simon, give Upside a read. Becky Albertalli: Please write more books with these teens! I really enjoyed them over the course of the three novels!.
The Upside of Unrequited is recommended.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Leah on the Offbeat
Author: Becky Albertalli
Published: April 24, 2018
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: January 13-16, 2019
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Book Description:
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.
Jessica’s Review:
The whole gang from Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda are back for their senior year of high school and all the drama that will unfold with that important year: picking a college, prom, and for Leah: should tell my friends that I am bisexual? This time the novel focuses on Leah, Simon’s bff.
It actually surprised me that the focus was Leah, as of all the friends, she was the one I connected with the least, but that might have been because she was more of an afterthought in Simon. But we get to know her through this novel. And even when I was done with Leah, I still found her my least favorite character of the group. She is an angry girl, who is also petty and uses excessive foul language. I did enjoy how Leah is a self-taught drummer and there were constant musical references throughout the novel, including the title.
The one character I really had empathy for was Garrett, the poor boy was so clueless but no one would help him out. I had some sympathy for Nick, but not as much due to his negative attitude. I wanted more Simon and Bram moments, they are just adorable!
As the gang goes through their senior year they experience the changes that inevitably will come which includes growing apart and moving on by attending different colleges. The novel was just an ‘ok read’ for me until the ending. The ending is what made me award it 3.5 stars vs 3. The ending had me ready to see what happens next for the gang when college starts. Hopefully Albertalli will continue with their story. Now, in the same universe as Simon and Leah is The Upside of Unrequited. In Upside the focus is Abby’s cousin Molly.
Due to the mature themes and constant foul language used, I would say this one would be for older teens.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK