Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Leah on the Offbeat
by Becky Albertalli
My Rating: 💙💙💙💙
Check it out: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N

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 couldn’t give it more than three stars because I couldn’t connect with Leah. At times I thought I understood her with her but other times I didn’t get her or her random rude outburst. She had this bit of her that kept her in the unlikeable slot.

“God. I’m such an asshole. I know I am.”

She knew things would be easier if she just stopped lashing out all the time but refused to do it. There was a reason why people would be shocked when she says something nice or actually agree with them. It’s like she wanted to stay in this mood of self-doubt and pettiness. I say that because all of the people around her loved her and thought she was awesome but she shut down their praises every time. She was negative and rude and hardly ever apologized. Seriously, her friends should have called her ass out a long time ago.

The romance again was fine, just seemed a bit rushed.

“Imagine going about your day knowing someone’s carrying you in their mind. That has to be the best part of being in love—the feeling of having a home in someone else’s brain.”

I won’t say with who because of spoilers but it was cute. I just hate that we didn’t get to see more of it. We also got more scenes with Simon and Blue. You know I’m a sucker for romance.

The drama was a bit much, then I had to take a step back and remember that these are high school kids. Of course, the drama is supposed to be over the top! 

All in all, I liked it more than the first book and I live and breathed for all the Simon and Blue scenes.

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