Title: The Upside of Unrequited

Author: Becky Albertalli

Pages: 336 Pages

Publisher: Penguin Random House UK Children’s

The Blurb

I don’t entirely understand how anyone gets a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. It just seems like the most impossible odds. A perfect alignment of feelings and circumstances . . . 

Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly is always careful. Better to be careful than be hurt. 

But when Cassie gets a new girlfriend who comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick, everything changes. Will is funny, flirtatious and basically the perfect first boyfriend. 

There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker, Reid, the awkward Tolkien superfan she could never fall for . . . right?

A heartwarming and hilarious story about growing up and learning to be comfortable in your own skin.

The Review

No one does awkward teenage moments as good as Becky Albertalli. She makes me want to live in her novels and be one of her characters. The Upside to Unrequited is one of her earlier novels that I have left far too long on my bookshelf. It is a gorgeous story about finding your place and knowing that growing up isn’t a race.

Our protagonist, Molly, struggles with the burgeoning changes going on around her – mainly the relationship that her twin sister Cassie has found herself in. Molly feels like she can’t keep up and with the added pressure of Cassie trying to set her up with a boy just for the sake of it Molly is rightly feeling discombobulated. However, when she meets Reid she may have just found the ying to her yang. But will her socially awkward self be able to follow this through?

Albertalli deals with so many conscientious issues such as LGBTQIA+ rights, mental health, relationships in such a beautiful way. She curates the stories which both seamlessly weave these issues into the plot and makes them seem completely unremarkable which highlights how remarkable and important they are. I, for one, am here for that kind of story telling.

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli is available now.

For more information regarding Becky Albertalli (@beckyalbertalli) please visit www.beckyalbertalli.com

For more information regarding Penguin Random House UK Children’s (@penguinrandom) please visit www.penguinrandomhouse.com.