Leah On The Offbeat - Review
The reason why I picked up this book is because the main character is a bisexual fat girl. And I am a bisexual fat girl. I was really hyped to read this and couldn’t wait for it! I mean, I really felt I would be able to really identify with a character for the first time… and I was not wrong!
Even without identifying with Leah on a more personal level her story really spoke to me, I could relate to the whole ‘being an anomaly’ in life in general. I really liked the story and how it progressed especially seeing Leah king of growing but at the same time she was able to overcome difficulties by being her and not feeling that she has to be ‘someone else’ to do that.
The characters were just amazing and it was really nice seeing them all again after reading Simon’s story last year! But I have to say that this new ‘cute and flirty’ side of Garrett left me with a HUGE crush on him! I mean how cute and awkward and funny is he?! He actually made it hard for me to ship Leah and Abby all the way…! I mean the whole ‘prom reservation’ thing was the best!
That’s exactly one of the most awesome things in this book is that I actually wasn’t expecting it to be this fun! Like the best scene ever is when Simon and Bram walk in on Leah and Abby kissing and Simon is just completely dumbfounded…! I mean I laughed so hard!
On the contrary we also have this side which is more grounded and real of the book when they address certain issues… for example the ‘bi talk’ between Leah and Abby was an accurate depiction of these kinds of talks that are most times really hard to have. And when Leah calls out Abby for being a straight girl ‘teasing’ a not straight girl it really hit it because this is a real problem that people often dismiss…
Also, the whole Morgan\racism storyline was a big eye-opener I believe because most people are Morgan in the sense that they call themselves ‘allies’ and then they do these comments or the ones like ‘oh my best friend is black so I love black people’ which is really racist and people need to get that.
On another note, I think it is pointless to say that all ships in this book are just incredible because there is one reason for Albertalli’s popularity and all the love fans have for these stories but I must say that my favorite ship is and forever will be Simon and Bram. Knowing what I already know from the previous book it’s just impossible not to love them and cherish them.
However in this book the story focuses on Leah and Abby. Abby his Leah’s best friend’s girlfriend… like Nick is Leah’s best friend and Abby’s ex-boyfriend, which is a delicate issue. I really liked their dynamic and how their relationship evolved like they started as friends but Leah kind of drifted away when she started feeling ‘weird’ around Abby (read: CRUSHING REALLY HARD ON ABBY) and then slowly coming back to friends and eventually more… And Leah’s down to earth thoughts and objective seeing of things really made it for me because she was not romanticizing Abby or their relationship but was seeing it for what it really was and how it could be or could have been.
Leah herself, her character, was the strongest aspect of the book. She is a really realistic teen girl who deals with body image, sexuality, a single mom and life in a down to earth way. She doesn’t dream that her father will come back, or that she’ll be skinny one day or anything else that is just not going to happen… Actually I really love the way Leah deals with her body like she knows that it is not society’s standard of beauty but she is unapologetic about it and she deals with it her own way… One of my favorite quotes is when Leah says ‘Though the idea of objective hotness fucks me up a little. The idea that certain arrangements of facial features are automatically superior. It’s like someone woke up one day with a boner for big-eyes, soft-lipped, tight-bodied cheekbone people, and we all just decided to go along with that.’ Because it really spoke to me on a personal level and connected with my own opinions on this.
Overall I gave this book a 5 star rating and I think it’s well deserved because there was not a single flaw with this book for me (I would even call it perfect if that existed). It’s not the best book I’ve read or anything like that but I really connected with it and for the first time I felt I could be reading about me, my life. It was refreshing and I loved it.
If you are a bisexual fat girl who loves her friends too much and have enormous social anxiety this is the book to read! And if you’re not you should read it anyway because it’s really fun and light-hearted and you might learn a thing or two with it.
