Name: The upside of unrequited
Rating: 3.9140625 (384 reviews)
ISBN: 9780062348708

Becky Albertalli

Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can t stomach the idea of rejection. So she s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

The upside of unrequited

Jill

Good job on teaching young girls that the only way to a high self-esteem is to be validated by boys. Cool... NOT. I’m probably taking this too seriously (when am I not) but I strongly believe it’s important to be very careful on what you put out there and this is just terrible. The plot was not there and the characters were just appalling. Take for instance our main character, Molly — she rambles on. A lot. And complains. A LOT. Like, I know you’ve had 26 (or was it 27? I honestly don’t remember because that’s how much I gave a flying fuck) crushes and all were unrequited. I know you’ve never had a boyfriend. I know that you don’t know how to speak to boys. I KNOW because those were the first words out of your mouth. You did not have to repeat those in every fucking chapter. OHMYGOD. JUST. STOP. And suddenly you feel beautiful because one guy shows a little interest in you? EEWW. See, this is the kind of person I don’t see myself hanging out with. She would’ve bored me to death. And don’t get me started on the side characters because they were just as awful. <br /><br />I see why a lot of people especially younger ones liked this. They were relatable to most but let me just tell you that you do not need validation from anyone to make you feel better about yourself. You be your own heroine. <br /><br />On the plus side, great representation of the 🏳️‍🌈 community. But that’s it. Those were 2 days of my life I’m never getting back.

chloe rae

Well, this book is just DELIGHTFUL. That was such a fun and sweet read! I've been in a weird reading place lately; nothing is really grabbing my attention. I think that might be a reason this isn't 5 stars. I absolutely ADORED the book, but it was just a tad too slow for me? I knew what the endgame was but it just felt like it took a long time to get there? And I feel like the plot was a little mushy? I don't know if this is just me being in a slight reading slump but that's honestly the only thing I didn't LOVE about this book.
Because, I really freaking LOVED this book. You want to know what I loved about it?
Literally EVERYTHING else.
The friendships, the family relationships, the representation, the romance, the growth we see in the characters, the WRITING. God, Becky is just so damn hilarious.
The main character of this book is fat and I can't tell you how many times I felt like Becky was legit reading my mind. The main character, Molly, was just so relatable and real. I feel like I understood her more on a body-image level than I maybe have with any other characters EVER. Really. Becky just nailed what it's like to be fat; the thoughts that come along with it, how it affects your life. It wasn't even this super huge focus or anything, it was just a part of Molly's life. It was refreshing.
Damn, it was just so good.
And not only is this book important, it's necessary. Highly recommend!

Deepika Ramesh

I approached The Upside of Unrequited with some expectations because I enjoyed Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. (I devour YA, Middle Grade, Picture Books, and Children’s Literature. In a conversation with a friend, it occurred to me that maybe I am making up for all the time I missed as I started reading only from 2015.) I digress. Sorry.

Molly has had 26 crushes. While her twin Cassie is all that Molly can’t be, Molly wonders what does ‘falling in love’ mean, how does one feel while kissing, and worries about other cute ‘existential’ questions. :) Their parents are moms, their brother is 16 years younger than them, Cassie’s girlfriend is pansexual, and there are other endearing things in the set up. Molly is also dragged down by the perception that she is fat. If not for the generous diversity in the book, it could have been our regular, saccharine YA. But diversity is all that matters in The Upside of Unrequited. Becky Albertalli explores body-image issues, homophobia, racism, the usual teenage angst, and offers a story that is meaningful and adorable. 

…when you spend so much time just intensely wanting something, and then you actually get the things? It’s magic.

So cute.

I love reading books with diverse characters. Love how the characters deals with sexuality, body image, society, and life as an awkward cool teenagers. I cant stop comparing it to the author's first book and Simon's was one of my top reads of 2015. This book was okay compared to it but still quite a read.

debre

i cried, i laughed, i felt everything Molly was feeling and this book is so precious and a definitely must read.

The Upside of Unrequited

The journey of a sixteen year old girl dealing with unrequited crushes, with her family and friends, with self acceptance and with truly falling in love for the first time - in a requited way!

—  This book is such a delightful comfort read! 

It's light but still very touching and explores the themes of body image issues and body positivity so beautifully. I'm always looking for fat representation and fat positivity in books, making this read even more perfect.

Familiar and platonic love are also very beautifully portraited!

It's one of my favourite books and one I always recommend. Molly is a wonderful main character, being both lovable and relatable to us fat and hopeless romantic girls everywhere. Also Reid! The loveliest boy!

Nikas

The journey of a sixteen year old girl dealing with unrequited crushes, with her family and friends, with self acceptance and with truly falling in love for the first time - in a requited way!

—  This book is such a delightful comfort read! 

It's light but still very touching and explores the themes of body image issues and body positivity so beautifully. I'm always looking for fat representation and fat positivity in books, making this read even more perfect.

Familiar and platonic love are also very beautifully portraited!

It's one of my favourite books and one I always recommend. Molly is a wonderful main character, being both lovable and relatable to us fat and hopeless romantic girls everywhere. Also Reid! The loveliest boy!

<3


alexandra

"Reading The Upside of Unrequited was like eating a jelly doughnut: sweet, satisfying, and bursting with everything you could ever dream. With its honest plot, I don't think Becky Albertalli could have shared a more accurate representation of our modern age and the everyday teen's struggles." ❤

becky albertalli strikes again with the amazing, amazing novel filled with all the great things. i couldn't stop smiling while reading this because it was just SO HONEST. all the interactions were real and it stopped feeling like a ~book~ with words on pages. this is when i say the words floated off the page and i was watching the events unfold. there was amazing representation for PoC, LGBTQ+, body-image, teenagers as a whole, and just... everything! 

the one minor (minor!) complaint i have is about the pacing. sometimes the book would feel dragged while other times it would be rushed. it might've been because there isn't much going on with the plot and it's more about the characters. i like the main character's development, but she could be – i don't want to say "annoying" but it was kinda annoying – at times. :// but i LOVE the way becky voiced her insecurities and how she grew over and accepted it. the romance was also super cute, as expected! <33

i thoroughly enjoyed this book. although i still like SIMON VS better, UPSIDE was still really amazing. (in UPSIDE's defense, SIMON VS holds a special place in my heart that is very very hard to replace.)

Megan O’Connod

Spoiler free RTC on my blog which I shall leave below

Jamieson

“I don’t entirely understand how anyone gets a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. It just seems like the most impossible odds. You have to have a crush on the exact right person at the exact right moment. And they have to like you back. A perfect alignment of feelings and circumstances. It’s almost unfathomable that it happens as often as it does.”


3.5 stars!

I, like Molly, am a Chronic Crusher. Maybe not 26 crushes, but a few - blonde ben, biker conor, buswalk alex, supermarket kalen, dimples melanie, tutorial girl, tutorial boy Tom (current). probably more from high school I can't remember. 

So straight away this premise held a kind of familiarity to me. There are things Molly talks about and deals with that I think many people can relate to - alienation, ostracisation and a kind of weird sense of shame when you're not as experienced sexually as some of your friends, or you're not in a relationship. There were events and scenes that I have literally experienced myself - not at 17 like Molly but definitely in my earlier years of highschool, that made this book completely relatable to me. 

There was a popular review criticising the book for it's representation of a character who really, really wants a boyfriend and the implication of that desire. 
I don't usually address other reviews, because staying in your lane is a thing but --- I just wanna make one point: 

I think this book does make a point in saying it's insane the amount of societal pressure there is on people to have relationships. Think of all the movies and stories we hear - the "I had my first kiss in year 1" trope, the "highschool sweetheart" - so much media we consume shoves the idea of romance and relationships at us, and alientates those who don't have that relationship story. People who've never dated by adulthood are shamed and ostracised all the time - and I think this book tries to address how ridiculous and crazy that is.

I think the linked review is very, very true though. I think that the point that no one should be shamed for being late to get in a relationship was kind of missed. Which was unfortunate, because I think it would have been a good message to send. 

But this book does make some really important commentary regardless. One theme that literally made my heart sing was the discussion about sex and womanhood. 


  “Yeah, that's pretty fucking problematic... the implication that becoming a woman has anything to do with whether or not you've had sex. And you know what, I'm pretty much done with this construct of 'virginity' " Cassie does airquotes. ... "I mean, I think people have this mentality that sex is only real if it involves a penis.” 
 

I thought lots of the discussions about lgbt+ people and sexuality were soo important and well done. Like, seriously, I think this is the first book that explicitly talks about sex between two girls and how it's just as valid even if it's not "penetrative". I think it's so important these discussions are in YA book, I wish I'd had them when I was 15/16 and really needed them. 

Just in general the diversity was amazing, and the representation of so many different kinds of people was such a big plus of this book. Molly is fat and has diagnosed, medicated anxiety. Cassie is gay, Mina is Korean-American and pansexual. Molly and Cassie are sperm donor babies, with two Mums one of whom is a poc. If you love representation and diversity in books like I do, Upside of Unrequited will definitely have something for you. 

I also really loved how there were discussions about the impact of boyfriends/girlfriends on friendships and other platonic relationships. I think everyone has struggled with losing a friend when they've moved onto a boyfriend/girlfriend and I liked that this book addressed how hard and crippling that can be. 

It was unfortunate there were a few things that let this book down because it could have been great? It was kind of boring, and I think it totally missed the mark when talking about feminism. There is one bit when Molly says it's "not feminist" to want a boyfriend! So totally not true, feminists aren't anti-romance ? It's sad thats that the movement is being equated to. 

Cassie and Molly were so problematic, and even if some things did get resolved, the way Cassie used Molly as a prop was so gross. It was countered by Cassie defending Molly in other areas, such as against her grandmother when Molly's weight came up - but it didn't make up for stuff before. I do think it was a good representation of the complexity of sibling relationships, but I just wish they'd TALKED more about their issues 

Ultimately,  what really put me off this book was that none of it allowed any self-validation. Molly ultimately finder her validation and self-worth not through herself, but through acquiring a boyfriend. I really want books to stop saying a relationship is a perfect fix for every little insecurity we have - I would have LOVED to see Molly assert herself, claim her own agency and body rather then waiting for her boyfriend to "make her feel beautiful". 

I do think this book totally fell down in some areas, but was so on-point and original in others. But honestly,? I really really hope more books like this come out. I really want to see characters talking about how their sexuality is valid, and talking about how their non-traditional family units are valid. I want the subversion of the nuclear family and the positive representation of ALL body types and teenagers dealing with more and more complex issues. 
I've read many, many contemporaries and I think this one dealt with some of the most pervasive issues teenagers and myself deal with - and some of the ones that go the most unnoticed. It is incredibly heartwarming to see two girls relationship written so nicely, and to see so many didn't types of people represented with agency and complexity and not be reduced to overdone tropes.

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vinny<3

Jude Moon

Molly hasn't been as great as i thought she would be bt in general i really enjoyed hearing from her perspective and seeing her growth throughout the book. All of the scenes with Reid had me dropping all of my uwus and I have bsclly adopt them bc they're THE CUTEST. Molly's family were also a great addition to the story, i now want a family like that for me. 8/10

Alice Myles

BECKY ALBERTALLI IS A GENIUS literally I will buy any book she puts out I love her so much, I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as I enjoyed Simon but I don't think I'll ever enjoy anything as much as I enjoyed Simon but that's just life isn't it (the best parts of this book were the parts with Simon just saying) All in all I enjoyed this a lot and I'm in love with Reid (view spoiler)[I'm so glad Molly ended up with him (hide spoiler)] and I found I related to Molly in a lot of different things, unrequited love is my life.

my main criticisms are that it did take me almost 200 pages before I was super invested and I felt that although the representation was strong it was all just added in a little unnecessarily and was used just for the sake of having representation rather than being pivotal to the plot.

Anyway that said I'm SOOOO excited for Leah on the offbeat to come out like I'm so hyped.

Emelie

Second Read; 21-22/8-18: i still Love this book! 

First Read; 22-25/5-17:

4,5owls!

This was so cute! I can't even! Only reason Im not giving it 5 it's because I liked Simon vs the Homo sapiens agenda a little bit more! And it was a little too much fluff with romance in this! 

But even if it was a lot fluff, I LOVED the relationships in the book. Couldn't be more happier with THREE lgbtq+ relationships in the book.. Lovely!

Dee B. 

This book was beautiful, honest and real. It was also not what I was expecting, but in the best way possible. 

As I picked up this book, I told myself that I would be broken into pieces, and I prepared myself for that trip to the abyss. Instead, I fell in love. I fell in love with the author's writing, I fell in love with Molly and I fell in love with each of Molly's crushes. 

Get comfortable, have refreshments nearby and maybe a tissue or two, because you are in for a ride my friends. Molly is going to take you back to that time when crushes left you more flustered than confident. Her relationship with Cassie will leave you smarting, but that in itself is a part of growing up, so it's a hurt you understand. But, most importantly, you will read the last words of this book and feel hopeful.

I'm really glad I picked this one.

The upside of unrequited

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