The Upside of Unrequited
Author: Becky Albertalli
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (April 11, 2017)
17-year-old Molly is the queen of crushes, carefully tabulated and shared with her twin sister, Cassie, and good friends Abby and Olivia, but never, ever shared with the boys themselves. She is shy, but also afraid that the boys might see the overweight girl Molly sees in the mirror.
In this entertaining and often poignant story of taking chances and breaking out of her self-imposed boundaries, Molly must rediscover the girl in the mirror while at the same time dealing with her changing relationship with her sister. In a way, it reminds me of the theme (though not the story) of the Disney movie, Frozen, with sisters learning to define their own roles while exploring love outside, and inside, their safe but confining home.
With a wonderful cast of characters, from the sisters' helpful but unhelpful moms to the gorgeous Mina who sweeps away Cassie on her tangent to the smooth hipster Will and adorkable Reid who, in Molly's mind at least, vie for her first big step out from unrequited love to real live boyfriend, The Upside of Unrequited is fun and authentic and caring.
I strongly recommend for young adults, and anyone who remembers what it was like.
Five stars!
Amazon
P.S. This also reminds me I should really get a copy of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Ms. Albertalli's first novel, which has been highly recommended.
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