*I received a free copy of The Upside of Unrequited from via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *
The Upside of Unrequited on 11 April 2017 Pages: 352
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.
Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly's totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie's new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. If Molly can win him over, she'll get her first kiss and she'll get her twin back.
There's only one problem: Molly's coworker, Reid. He's a chubby Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there's absolutely no way Molly could fall for him.
The Upside of Unrequited is pretty much a perfect book. I have not a single complaint, I loved everything from the writing to the characters to the story to the beautiful and extremely strong feels!
I was practically enchanted by The Upside of Unrequited – and I think one of the reasons was because I just understood Molly so very well. How she was a serial crusher, but never dared to completely put herself out there and try to see if the guy liked her back. From the safety of distance, she could crush and feel the butterflies, but make sure she’d never get hurt. And while I didn’t think of it that way when I was her age, now, I think that may very well have been what I was doing, too. I was crushing on guys for various reasons, but I never went any further than finding out what their name was.
All the different relationships were so realistically depicted, and The Upside of Unrequited showed that a good YA can have parents present, and that two moms can be more awesome than a more traditional family. That twins can be similar in some ways and extremely different in others. There were strong friendships, strong family relationships, and new and old friends who got to meet as well. The vibe of getting to know oneself is one that Molly, especially, shared throughout the story, and I really loved to be with her for that self discovery.
Questioning change, understanding the necessity of it, while also seeing how tragic it can be is another very strong theme of The Upside of Unrequited. When we’re on the cusp of adulthood, there are many changes, and some of them are really good while others are really scary. Both Molly and Cassie felt and tasted those changes, and they reacted to them differently. But they also reacted to them in quite similar ways. They both saw their own point of view first, then, with some help, they managed to take a step back an see things from the other’s perspective as well.
The story is from Molly’s point of view, and it’s written mostly in first person perspective, past tense. There are a lot of dialogues, and text messages with emojis, too, to make everything more realistic. All the characters are well fleshed out, and I just feel both so happy and a bit nostalgic and sad at the same time now. The Upside of Unrequited is definitely a must-read, an amazing YA novel that can truly appeal to all ages. Open your mind, and let this fabulous family take you on a small journey of self-discovery, which might also be a trip down memory-lane.
I’m on the toilet at the 9:30 Club, and I’m wondering how mermaids pee. This isn’t random. There’s a mermaid Barbie attached to the door of the bathroom here. Which is a pretty odd choice for a bathroom mascot. If that’s even a thing. Bathroom mascots.
“Perfect! You guys are the same age. I bet you have a lot in common.”
Classic adult logic. Reid and I are vaguely the same age, so of course we’re basically soul mates. It’s like horoscopes. Somehow I’m supposed to believe that I’m similar in some meaningful way to every single person born on my birthday. Or every single Sagittarius. I mean, I barely have anything in common with Cassie, and we were born six minutes apart.
I can’t seem to shake this perpetual awareness of being Molly.
Here’s what I would never, ever admit out loud: a part of me always thought it was some kind of secret compliment when someone got called a slut. It meant you were having sex. Which meant people wanted to have sex with you. Being a slut just meant you were normal. But I think maybe I’m wrong about that.
The Upside of Unrequited is Lexxie's newest favorite this year! Five stars. Share on XReading this book contributed to these challenges:
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
Twitter: ailynk
it sounds a bit complicated YA kind of way, I bet you know what I mean
I know exactly what you mean, Ailyn, and you’re absolutely right 😀
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEXXIE X X X
Thank you, Dale 🙂 xoxo
I am super excited to get to this one soon. It sounds like I will love everything about it. Great review!!
It was so very well done, Grace! And I think it will stay with me for a very long time!
5 stars!!! I can’t wait to read this book. Thank you for sharing, Lexxie. Awesome review! 😀
I hope you’ll love it as much as I did, Geybie! It was SO good!
I have had the arc of this book for ages but for some reason I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. But I’m pretty sure I’ll love it as well. 😀
Oh my gosh, Stephanie, pick it up!!! It’s SO good!
I think that this one that I am going to have to read. It sounds amazingly good, Lexxie! I am so glad that you enjoyed it.
I think it’s one you’re going to have to read, too, Carole, It’s really well done, and I found those teenage feelings coming right back to me.
This sounds cute! I love plenty of good dialogue and the use of text messages.
It was both cute and so very realistic, Christy. A lovely story for me to enjoy, and I am sure I’m gong to do a re-read one day 🙂
Oh that’s nice, it looks good! I didn’t know about this one
It was awesome, Melliane!
I have this book and I haven’t read it yet, but you’ve now made me really excited to pick it up!!
I can’t wait to see what you’ll think of it, Nicole. I am pretty sure you’ll enjoy it, too!
Twitter: kimbacaffeinate
Awe, this sounds so cute and I bet a lot of us can connect with Molly.
Lex, this sounds like a very well done YA! I love the parallels you draw between yourself at this age and Molly…we always connect on a deeper level with a book when we identify with a MC. Your comments on the changes we all go through when we’re this age and how they’re handled here have me even more eager to check out this book. 🙂 I’ll add it to my library wishlist, darling.
I’m sorry I’ve been MIA…I’m working at catching up. I’ll finish comment bombing you tomorrow. 😉 I hope you’re having a great week! I miss you and love you dearly! About 4 weeks til we meet again, right?!? {{{BIG HUGS}}}
Twitter: RavenclawReadIt
What a great review! This book was pretty amazeballs wasn’t it?! ? (I keep trying to put a dancing bee lady emoji but it’s not letting me submit it!)
It was totally amazeballs, it was, Melanie! It’s become one of my 2017 fave reads 🙂 Sorry your dancing bee lady emoji wouldn’t post 🙁