Leah on the Offbeat (Creekwood #2) by Becky Albertalli
"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."
“I hate when assholes have talent. I want to live in a world where good people rule at everything and shitty people suck at everything.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat
This is the first of the books from my “I’m determined to read these in 2020” pile that I’ve finished! It did not disappoint. High school me would have related to Leah so much. What I wouldn’t have done to have a book like this in my hands at 16! A main character who is unapologetic about her body size and bi? Seriously I loved this book! It makes me so incredibly excited for the kids growing up now who have access to all these beautiful books.
Leah is so unapologetic about her body size, but that doesn’t mean she’s not without her insecurities. Which I totally understand. Similarly to Leah, I can have a dozen people tell me I’m doing a good job, but all I can see are the imperfections. I think a lot of us do that. And it’s hard to get past those feelings of being inadequate. It can spiral and it’s so simple to want to just burn it all down. And it’s so much harder to keep going and learn from mistakes. But sometimes it all ends up worth it when we stick with things that we love.
My only minor grievance with the book was that there wasn’t more Leah and Abby. Because they seemed absolutely adorable together from the small tidbit at the end. I also just loved seeing Simon and Bram being adorable throughout this book.
Genre: ya, contemporary, lgbtqia+
Representation: bi, sapphic, gay
Content Warnings: Biphobia, Fatphobia, Homophobia
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