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Imogen, Obviously: New for 2023, from the bestselling author of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda

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Gosh, my brain is mush. You'll just have to take it from me that I, too, have a fat crush on Tessa now. Their lil romance did something to my lil heart and I'll probably be thinking about this book for the next week. Just look at them. Edith lets out a startled laugh. "This is wild. I don't think I've ever seen you just, like, completely lose your shit like this." It's like there's this idea that you have to earn your label through suffering. And then you have to prove it with who you date, how you dress, how other people perceive you. But above both beds, it’s just photos—rows of prints, sloping subtly downward because Lili’s never met a straight line in her life. The ones above my bed are mostly from this year— group selfies and sunny snapshots of her friends in various combinations. But the ones above Lili’s bed are from home.

Simon Vs. was one of the first queer books that I ever read and it will always be so special to me. Albertalli writes that if Simon was her attempt to throw a ball into the air, Imogen is her attempt to catch it. I adored this sentiment and I definitely think Albertalli's writing and storytelling has come full-circle with this book. Alongside her growth as a writer, I believe that some of her personal beliefs have also changed and I loved the social commentary within this book.The premise of this book is that Imogen goes to visit her childhood friend, Lili, at Lili's college. When she gets there, Lili pulls her aside and says she lied to her friends about something: she said that Imogen and Lili dated when they were younger. Awkward, since Imogen is straight and the two of them definitely didn't date, but Imogen is totally cool with it... Which, for some reason, Lili tries to convince her that she's not?

In a social media graphic for the book, the author describes Imogen as having "queer discourse brainworms", which is a good way to put it. She tries to educate herself about queer issues, but just ends up thinking that there’s only one right way to be queer. She doesn’t feel the same way about girls as she does in her crushes on guys, so she concludes that means she doesn’t like girls at all. Even when faced with obvious evidence to the contrary, she convinces herself that she’s just trying to be bisexual for clout and that she’s a bad person for appropriating queerness. Imogen's self discovery felt really personal to me, as someone who didn't realize they were queer until they were older. It felt so painful that she thought she was so late to figure it all out, even at only 18, and that she felt like she was even being harmful not knowing. I was in my mid-twenties when I even started questioning, and I resent the idea that it was somehow my responsibility to know these things about myself when I didn't even have the language to describe myself, as if others have any claim on our identities. Every single character only ever listens to queer music watches queer shows and reads queer books. Being queer is also the main part of their personality for them, we're literally introduced to the characters as "this is Lili and those are her queer friends" like? Is there anything else that's interesting about them? i spent most of college being quietly out. entering a new environment away from home gave me the space to explore my identity, to figure out & be who i needed to be. i did it slowly, casually slipped into conversations & texts, chewing on my nails wondering if people Got It. I feel terribly sorry for her, being outed is horrifying and scary and I wouldn't wish that on anyone.tessa is downright funny, supportive, and kind. her adhd mind spirals a lot and boats out random things, making reading the text messages very entertaining. she’s a joyous person, trying her best to lighten the mood. we don’t get her pov, but i didn’t think it was missing it either. we learn a lot about her from imogen, and the necessary information is given. i loved her character from the beginning. she’s mature, intelligent, and always finding a solution for problems. along with that, the other side characters (who are her friends too), were a fantastic addiction to this. we don’t learn almost anything about them besides the very basics, but again, considering this is a coming of age story of imogen and finding her new love, it didn’t feel necessary, or like something was missing. i will admit, sometimes the group did fit a tad bit too young, as if they weren’t the college students they were, and i’m not sure if that comes from not knowing who they really are, or if that’s just how they really are. How do you know—how do you really know if someone likes you? Especially with girls. It gets so blurry sometimes. Two girls will hug each other right in front of you, and you’ll have no idea if they’re girlfriends or besties or what. Unless they’re actively making out, you need floating heart emojis and a movie score to interpret it. it's about growing into yourself, the one that’s ever-evolving. about love and doubt and fear, about fluidity and uncertainty and allowing yourself the space to simply exist. that there’s no right way to be. Like when Lili drops a tiny queer bombshell: she's told all her college friends that Imogen and Lili used to date. And none of them know that Imogen is a raging hetero--not even Lili's best friend, Tessa. When her best friend Lili told her friends they’ve dated before, her pretending bisexualism turns into a real search about her own sexual choices. She even finds out she likes Lili’s friend Tessa a little more than she can admit.

Unfortunately, pieces of Imogen's story being so relatable and the concept of the book being fun and cute are about where my enjoyment of the book ended and unfortunately, there was more of the book that I didn't like than what I did. So, while I went into this book totally expecting to love it, it just didn't hit right for me. But, like I said, unlike someone in this book, I don't speak for all queer people, all readers, all anything and am aware that the things in this book that bothered me and were annoying, boring, tedious, or all of the above for me might not have been for other people. So, if you loved this book or you were planning to read it, don't let my opinions sway you. It feels bigger than I want it to be. Do I really have to announce this? Can’t I just feel something and live inside it while it’s happening and not analyze it to death? The weekend goes better than she could have hoped for and she walks away with something she never expected – a crush on one of Lili’s super cute friends, Tessa. Can one girl really shake up her entire sexuality? Imogen, Obviously is going about to find out the answer to that, even if it leads to a lot of hard questions and harder answers. So that’s Kayla,” says Lili. “Tessa and Mika both had girlfriends in high school. Actually, middle school too, for Mika—they were with their ex for, like, five years. And Dec’s from Manhattan, so who even knows? He’s on a whole other level. It’s hard not to feel inadequate, you know?”But the fact that she thinks I’m wondering that? Like I’m that special kind of straight person who assumes all queer people can barely keep their pants on around her? Her invalidation of Imogen’s sexuality, and literally anyone else who didn’t fit her rigid structure is harmful. And I know that Gretchen is the epitome of every single person – queer or not – out there who says and does these things to queer people to invalidate them and their feelings, but gosh did it make me want to just shake her shoulders and tell her to chill out. overall, imogen, obviously was obviously an incredible read, espeically for the end of pride month! it was perfect for a summer afternoon, and it is so encouraging to see such good queer/bi representation in YA nowadays! Unfortunately, the self-policing from Imogen never felt particularly natural, even though she was written to be an overthinker and deeply insecure about this journey she was on. Even after a romantic dream she had that she could've just forgotten about and never told anyone about, Imogen lays awake and accuses herself of being an entitled straight woman who was appropriating the queer experience in her sleep. Like Kayla?” she adds. “She came out in middle school. She took a girl to the eighth-grade dance and kissed her on the dance floor. Right in the school gym.”

Strangely, though, her reaction to that was to make her "haters" a personified, obnoxious, pink haired character with terrible takes on being queer. I think this book veered a bit into being preachy about acceptance, mostly because the author personally feels so strongly about it, but I aside from that, I think it was a really well done story. I don't read enough sapphic romances, so when I read a story with a couple that really makes my heart sing, I latch on. I wish we got more of Tessa and Imogen's story from after they got together, or maybe this author could write more lesfic romances, because I thought she slayed that part of the story. Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, Children's for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. We better go save him.” Tessa bumps her own fisted hands together. “Imogen, are you ready to experience culinary perfection?”And again, while it's obvious that this is coming from a personal place with Gretchen, there's just something so grating and irritating about the way she does this that it makes it hard to see her side in any way and she comes across as bitter that Imogen is getting close to the girl that Gretchen has had an incredibly random crush on throughout the book. Reprinted by permission of Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers . All Rights Reserved. sometimes i put off reading a book if i feel it’ll hit too close to home. this wasn’t the case. i knew it would hurt and it did. very much so. but i dived in anyway. more than anything it eased something in my soul, the way every single albertalli book has. Because this book is about Imogen trying to figure out her own sexual identity, it also touches on how confusing that can be for girls because of the way girl friendships can be. I'm sure any queer girl will be able to relate to the confusion of not being able to tell whether or not a girl is flirting with you and Albertalli really nailed it when she was having Imogen express that confusion.

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