Becky Albertalli

Leah Burke girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier s best friend takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.

Leah on the offbeat

In this sequel to the acclaimed Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—now a major motion picture, Love, Simon—we follow Simon’s BFF Leah as she grapples with changing friendships, 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. She’s an anomaly in her friend group: 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.

Leah on the Offbeat

Julia Rutgers

It's the kind of silence that has its own gravity. Black hole silence.

Wes Michaud

loved catching up with Simon and friends and loved that I got to get to know Leah better she's duce a fun charter

Anjorin Molayo 

I honestly didn’t like Leah in the first book. she was a little bit annoying and awkward, and i didn’t even pay any attention to her. but i loved her in this book! she literally stole Simon’s place in my heart 

the wittiness, sarcasm, pessimism and subtle humor?? i loved it. Leah is a very relatable character and it was really nice to hear from her. 

4.25/5 ⭐️.

Megan

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli is the bisexual story I have always wanted to read. Not that I knew it existed until a few weeks ago, or even know that I needed it in my life before then. But now that I’ve read it, it’s like it was something I’ve been missing. If you liked the first book in this series, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, or it’s movie counterpart, Love, Simon, you will love this book. It focuses on Simon’s best friend, Leah Burke, who is confident in her sexuality. She’s bisexual; and from the very beginning we know this to be true. She has only told one person, her mother. Leah spends her senior year struggling with college applications, prom dates, and crushes. Leah has never been kissed, so when a friend of hers asks her to prom, she finds herself feeling obligated to go with him. It’s clear that this isn’t really what she wants. She has her heart set on someone else, even if she doesn’t know it yet.

READ MY FULL REVIEW AT ABOUT MAGAZINE: http://about-online.com/books/book-re...

Sarah Sammis

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli is the sequel / companion piece to Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda. This one is told from Leah's point of view and takes place during senior year.

Leah is a refreshing protagonist for two reasons. The first is that's fat but her size isn't a major (or minor) plot point. The second is that she's bi and not confused about this realization.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2020/comm...

Ally

i think i have finally come to the conclusion that audiobooks are not nearly as good as physically reading. there's something about hearing someone read in a different voice than what you would expect the character to sound like. 

aside from that, this was really cute. leah was sometimes super annoying, but it was fun to catch up with all the simon characters. i still love bram, simon and kind of everyone seemed flat, butttt twas fun

debre

I SWEAR TO GOD i feel like Becky Albertalli is reading my mind and writing books I've always needed & wanted. This is so fucking awesome i have no words to express how grateful I am for being able to read this fucking amazing book.

Victoria

3.5

----

It was good in the beginning. But I don't know, I'm just not 100% satisfied with how things went down.

Alexa M

Ugh! Ok! I’m in between like 3.5-4 stars. I wanted to love this and I thought it had so much potential but I feel like everything was wishy washy and uneventful and then at the very end everything just rushed all together. It just felt a little forced? Idk ugh I love Leah and I missed the Creekwood kids but yeah idk just felt a little strange to me. I wish this had been a little more in the future (like college) rather than rushing everything right after Simon left off. But def love Becky’s writing forever

menna

I didn't realize how much i missed these characters until i started this book!

I just finished this and i’m sat here smiling like an idiot omg I adored this! 

This is one of the most relatable books I’ve read in a while. I feel like it was just what I needed right now! 

I’m not much of a contemporary reader but I really loved Simon Vs. so i had to read this one too! I really was not disappointed by this, I loved every moment of the book, the rep, everything, it was just pretty relatable to me (the references and all omg!!) and it was such an easy read, i love Albertali’s writing style. I really liked seeing Simon & Bram again too they’re just too cute. 

Leah is the biggest disaster Bi and she swears so much but she’s so pure and I love her.

<spoiler> Abby and Leah are so cute I really do ship them, disaster Bi’s together!!  Abby trying to impress Leah with Harry Potter references is such a mood, they’re really cute together :’) Ahhh the prom chapter was so cute!! the kiss!! I’m dying!! I need another book!! College girlfriends please!! </spoiler>

I really love Becky Albertali and I’m pretty sure I’ll read all of her books because she just has a way of writing which I reallllllly love!

Jamieson

“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.”


I really, really wanted to love this book. It was one of my most anticipated 2018 releases, and I was so excited to get this story from Becky Albertalli. For me personally, seeing a bisexual girl in a mainstream book I knew people would read really means a lot. Unfortunately this fell very very flat to me, and I’m going to be straight up here and acknowledge this may not be my most unbiased, objective review. I brought a lot of my ideas and hopes of what this book, and what Becky Albertalli would write, into this book and I think that played a part in my disappointment.

I’m going to start with the positives. I LOVED LEAH AS A MAIN CHARACTER SO MUCH. Her voice absolutely shone in this book and it dragged me into the story. Leah is a bit straight up and brash but I totally loved it, and it’s nice to see girls in YA getting more diverse, complex personalities that transcend archetypes. She, and this book in general, was also hilarious which is of course a massive plus. I seriously don't get why everyone's hating on her so much?? Like she's cool as fuck! (TEA. if she was a boy y'all would love her but people just HATE FEMALE CHARACTERS)

As with all Becky Albtertalli books, this was very readable. Once you started with this one, it was very hard to put it down. Albteralli infuses her works with such life and fun that you can’t help fall deep into the story. Her books are un-putdown-able.

But here’s where I get to my first issue. Compared to other Albtertalli books, I found so many parts of this book a slog. A lot of this book revolved around drama and fights and other friendship group messiness I just really could have done without. And here’s the thing: from any other author I probably wouldn’t have minded. But I expected something fluffy and fun and I just feel like instead I kinda got misery and it was annoying. I found the drama really upsetting at times.

On that, I also felt like a lot of Leah on the Offbeat felt clunky and out of character. I often felt like aspects of Leah, including Leah’s and Abby’s backstory and how some of the characters interacted, was super out of line with Simon Vs. I want to put a note here that I saw Love, Simon before reading this and that could have influenced by perceptions. But I still felt like, overall, some of the events and drama felt really, really out of place.


  “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 some else’s brain.”


One big aspect of this book for me was the bisexual rep. I was curious to see what it would be like and how the main f/f ship would be handled.

I’ll say first of all I generally enjoyed the rep, up until about 3/4 through. Leah was bisexual on page, which was nice. Leah spoke about her crushes and ships and the way she mentioned both men and women was really cute. I loved that she shipped both Ninej and also Percabeth. I also liked the discussion around coming out, and how it was uncomfortable, maybe even more so since her friends were out. I also think her being bi made so much sense with Simon Vs (idk how yall missed it but like,,, she literally is the person who introduced simon to queer fanfiction and you all actually thought she was straight??)

The f/f ship was cute, and I liked how it developed. The way that Leah spoke about the girl she was into was so soft and sweet, and it was really nice following how their relationship developed. Plus, the epilogue gave me LIFE. But again, I felt like so much of the potential aww’nesss of the relationship was ruined by the drama. The angst and mess wasn’t balanced enough for me so it was just annoying. I also HATED the first kiss and how it played out. I also think it was disappointing how many interactions with the main couple were fraught with misunderstandings and miscommunication.

And as mentioned earlier, 3/4 through something happened which I really didn’t like. This was the discussion between Leah and her LI about being bi. I’m going to link Marianne’s review, because she goes into it more depth and echoes what I think about this scene.

This scene was very unsettling to me. I understand what it was trying to do – point out that bisexual girls aren’t just in it for LAUGHS but that we’re actually genuinely queer, not straight girls messing around. But this scene really missed the mark. It upset me a bit, and I think it’d definitely hurt questioning people. I also think it’s just kind of wrong. Being “lowkey bi” is valid. The implication is that she’s a bit into girls, and you know what, if you’re a girl who likes girls only a little bit, that is VALID. I think this scene really, really missed the mark. And I’m actually really surprised and shocked it passed so many sensitivity readers.


  “I'm basically your resident fat Slytherin Rory Gilmore.” 


Okay, so yeah I didn't love this book, but I don't think it's bad either. It just isn't what I wanted from this book. I feel like if I reread it I might like it more upon rereading. But for me this had too many elements I didn't want and not enough I did. (OKAY FORGOT TO NOTE BUT, SIMON AND BLUE ARE CUTE)

I don't think people should be deterred from picking this up. Becky Albertalli writes good books, this one just wasn't for me and not everything came together in a satisfying way for me. 

(on a salty side note, some of y'alls reviews for this book are disgraceful and y'all don't deserve gay girls bc you don't treat them right.)

brianna

“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 some else’s brain.” 
 

 4.5 stars

I HAVE TOO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS BOOK AND NOT ENOUGH TIME AT ALL. First of all, this is my most anticipated book for all of 2018 and let me just say, it lived up to my expectations. Second of all, the pitch I read for this book was "fat bisexual nerd who has anger issues and would die for her friends" AND I SCREAMED. I never felt so connected to a character in my entire life. Leah Burke is me if I was white but other than that, reading LOTO felt like Albertalli stalked me for a year then decided to write a book about me. I loved almost every single thing about this book and it felt like a hug. I did have problems with some scenes which I won't get into because spoilers but this was everything I needed right now and more. I hope Leah Burke knows I love her and seeing people hate on her makes me sad because she's fr me exactly. Anyway please give LOTO a chance (plus lots of cute simon/bram content AND f/f)

fizzy

i’m in love with this book. i totally love it. that’s it that’s my review

Jeannette Ordas

Felt like I jumped into the middle of a series, but it was fun and positive and wished I had read something this rebellious and bad ass when I was in high school. 3.5 stars.

Izza

5 stars | YAAAAAAAAAAAAS! I can't believe this book happened, I'm so happy! 🌈🦄

renee badenoch

This book was okay, but I was extremely frustrated by the way it dealt with the conversations around racism, and coming out. Leah's conversation with Abby was uncomfortable and bi-phobic, and felt like the author is really out-of-touch with teens of today and their conversations around sexuality. Which feeds into my irritation at Albertalli's pervasive references to Tumblr, Harry Potter, and 90's shoe-gazing indie rock. Simon felt dated to me when I read it this year, but I chalked it up to being written in 2014, but by the time Leah was published (2018) Harry Potter was somewhere on the spectrum between passé to outright social faux pas for most teens, and especially queer teens. 

I still enjoyed reading this, and Albertalli´s snarky humor shines brightly, especially in the teens dialog. But the book got a big MEH from me on a lot of fronts, and I left it wanting to compose a long e-mail to Albertalli about how queerness is a spectrum, and if someone comes out as bi they don't have to "prove it", and also bi teens are allowed to identify themselves however they want, queerness is a freaking spectrum, thank you very much

a small aside, but Nick SUCKED in this book, and I hope his friends don't forgive him. Just an utterly toxic, whiny asshole, who got way too much sympathy and not enough calling out.

You've seen Leah in the groundbreaking major motion picture Love Simon (based on the amazing Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda). Now it's her turn to take centre stage. -------- When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat- but real life isn't always so rhythmic. The only child of a single mum, her life is less privileged than her friends. Her mum knows she's bisexual, but Leah hasn't mustered the courage to tell her friends. Not even her openly gay BFF, Simon. Prom and college are on the horizon, and tensions are running high. Can Leah still strike the right note, when the people she loves are fighting? And how can she cope knowing that she might love one of her friends more than she ever intended? -------- Praise for Becky Albertalli: 'The love child of John Green and Rainbow Rowell' Teen Vogue 'I love you, Simon. I love you! And I love this fresh, funny, live-out-loud book.' Jennifer Niven, New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places 'A remarkable gift of a novel.' Andrew Smith, author of Grasshopper Jungle 'Both hilarious and heartbreaking . . . Readers will fall madly in love with Simon' Publishers Weekly (starred review) 'A brilliant beacon of optimism and cuteness for LGBTQA+ youth in a genre often bogged down with tragedy and heartbreak. Books like SIMON do change people's lives' Waterstones Darlington Bookseller 'A wonderfully charismatic story about coming-of-age and coming out'. Bookseller 'Funny, moving and emotionally wise' Kirkus Reviews (starred) 'It made me laugh, cry and all the fifty shades of emotions I can think of right now. There is literally no adjectives that would be suffice to describe how brilliant this book is' Goodreads (5 star review) 'I think I just felt my heart explode in my chest' Goodreads (5 star review) 'One of the most electric, authentic characters I've ever read. . . I LOVE this book. LOVE it. Five freaking stars.' Goodreads (5 Stars)

Rachel Evans

(3/5) Audiobook - 4 hours 42 minutes - This book was *okay*. That's all I can really say about it. I liked how the author chose to focus on a different character in an existing book, but the plot just felt a bit lacking. Nothing really happened. The titular character just raised the same issues about bisexuality, race, and college over and over again, which was fine at first but became boring. It was interesting enough to read about these characters, but it definitely wasn't anything special.

Alice Myles

I told myself I wasn't going to read this until I finished COBAB but here we are anyway, I brought this to read in Portugal with me because it was lighter and I regret nothing. This is such a lovely companion to Simon vs and it was so great getting to return to the characters that I love so much and most importantly for them all to be happy and in love. This doesn't hold as dear a place as Simon does in my heart but I still very much enjoyed it and if you loved Simon Vs you'll also love this but if you didn't love Simon vs then you probably won't! One final note: I would still die for my beautiful children Simon Spier and Bram Greenfeld.

Emelie

I wished it would've been more focus on Leah and her life!

Claudia Ganea

SO MANY FEELINGS

I wish I could make all this text bi flag-coloured because let me tell you, the fact that we have an Actual Bisexual Main Character is just. Crazy. And amazing. And crazy amazing. I don't even know where to begin. LEAH IS ME AND I ADORE HER

I know I said that 'Simon' was the book that made me smile most this year, but this is a very close second. I was so excited to see things from Leah's perspective and get into her head, and I honestly did not come into this with super-high expectations (probably because I knew I was going to love it no matter what just because, come on, she's bi, she drums, she draws, and she's a Slytherin. Again, She Is Me!!!). Safe to say that I was kinda blown away a little. I don't know how many times I can say that I loved Leah to pieces but I loved Leah so damn much??

Like, yes, I expected cutesy and contemporary and heartwarming but maybe this kind of stories are exactly what we need right now. Cutesy, heartwarming stories that feature LGBT+ couples. I was also a really huge fan of how Abby was portrayed this time around, just a little bit clueless, very questioning and just having a ton of feelings that she didn't know what to do with (this sounds like Leah as well, and you know who else? YOU GUESSED IT, ME!!!)

I related to so many aspects of this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A very strong sequel.

Nicole Dykeman

I finished this a few days ago, but I needed to gather my thoughts before writing a review. I still don't have anything particularly eloquent to say, but here goes. This book is going to get a very special spot on my “favorites” shelf - right next to The Book Thief and Fangirl, two other novels that mean a lot to me. 

This one did too. Because I have never related to a character quite like I related to Leah. Every time I turned a page, I felt like crying, and all I could think was - “It’s me. I see me.” A girl who feels like she’s always on the outside looking in, trying to figure out who she is and where she belongs. A fat girl whose story arc is unrelated to her weight. This book is so important. Because every fat queer girl who reads it is going to find themselves on the page. So thank you, Becky Albertalli, for giving me the gift of Leah.

Amanda

I didn't like this as much as Simon Vs the Homosapien Agenda but i still loved it. hovering between a 4 and 5.. So maybe 4.5

Dee B. 

Wrecked. Beautifully and wonderfully wrecked 💞💞

Charlotte 

A book written by a (fictional) musician ✔

Leah on the offbeat

Reviews

Highlights