My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This book weaves the whirlpool of new conflicts and emotions the teenager goes through and his journey of coming out to the world as gay. From a straightforward perspective, the story is mainly about how Simon, the protagonist, grows his love for a boy with whom he interacts through emails. They start building a deep relationship where they know a lot about each other, but also not quite as they don't even know each other's name.
However, I think the truly important spot to focus on while reading is how the author aimed at exploring the whole societal concept where we make certain frames of definitions for people to fit in. Whenever we try to reshape our "frames" by revealing parts of our identities that others didn't know before, people tend to make it a big deal, which puts pressure on us to be the way we are expected.
Simon in this book also struggles with this issue. This is frequently portrayed in the plot such as when he felt more comfortable revealing his true identity (being gay) to Abby, whom he met six months ago, rather than Leah, whom he has known for six years. It's not exactly about how deep your relationship is or how close you are to that person. It's truly about how afraid you are of breaking the molds that people have built for you and fears that you would become unrecognizable as a result.
This is also the reason why Simon and the "boy" were able to be deeply attached and share their secrets without even knowing to whom they were talking. They simply didn't have any identity expectations to make things difficult. The story depicts Simon's journey of accepting the changes that he has to go through and realizing how his "frames" imprinted in others' minds sometimes have to be reshaped and morphed with his revelations.
Overall, it was a decent book with a happy ending, and it's an easy read! Def enjoyed it. This would especially be a good read for teenagers exploring their identities and having difficulties coming out... Also, gave me some butterflies in my stomach while reading too! Just wait to find out who that "email boy" is because his true identity is not revealed until the very end of the book. Not trying to spoil anything!😽
Comments