REVIEW: Leah On The Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

TITLE: Leah on the Offbeat

AUTHOR: Becky Albertalli

RATING:☆☆☆

REVIEW:

This book started out really weird for me. Actually, the whole book was. I don’t think I have ever felt so confused about how I feel about a book. In the end, I do like it. But I also have a plethora of issues. I will try to mark what is semi spoilery.

First, I want to talk about what I enjoyed. I enjoyed reading about these characters again, because I truly missed them. I enjoyed Leah’s honest, raw emotions. When she overthought something and created problems out of what would seem like nothing to an outsider, it was really relatable. A lot of people don’t realize how easy it is to feel like the world is crashing down on you even though one tiny thing went wrong. People will see someone spiraling and think “ugh they’re over reacting” but to that person, it really can feel like the end of the world. Leah was very relatable to me in that way. I also enjoyed how Leah was never afraid to call things out, whether it be fatphobia, racism, stereotypes about queer women, etc. Leah was strong and solid in her beliefs and always called out bullshit.

Another thing I enjoyed was getting to know more about Leah’s mom, though I wish it could have been a little bit more developed. We did get a lot of scenes with her, but I still think her mom and her mom’s relationship with her boyfriend could have been more fleshed out and meaningful to the story.

Lastly, I loved, loved how heart wrenchingly accurate this book was as a high school senior. Enjoying prom and then suddenly getting punched in the gut that literally everything is about to drastically change, that your friend group that you thought would never change is also likely going to change, it was all so real and hit close to home, as I graduate in 13 days as of the time I am writing this.

Now to the negatives. ( 😦 )

(Low key spoiler below, but I’m not mentioning names.)

Okay, so. That Scene. The Leah-Completely-Invalidating-(Name Redacted’s)-Sexuality-Scene. I’m going to be frank, I hated it. Even though I knew it was coming, the scene made me so mad. Like, yes, Leah has a harsh personality, but the way she reacted to (Name redacted) coming out, saying “a little bit bi isn’t real” (which, yes it is? ever heard of a spectrum???), was too far and frankly, out of character. Especially because it wasn’t addressed later on. I would feel different if later on Leah had said she was sorry and that she realizes she shouldn’t have treated (Name redacted) that way. But they both just acted like it never happened, and that isn’t okay. I truly, wholeheartedly believe that Becky had only good intentions, but that scene really missed the mark, and managed to put a big damper on the rest of the story.

My second negative is, nearly the entire book was about two character’s break up drama, and only a smidgen was actually about Leah’s blossoming romance. I get it, break ups cause drama, but it was too much.

Lastly, I just wish the characters would have been developed more. All of them. I was satisfied with Simon and Bram, but Leah, Nick, Abby, Leah’s mom, and Wells all could have been developed so much more and made a bigger impact on the story.

To sum up, I absolutely did not hate Leah on the Offbeat. I liked it, but I did not love it. That Scene definitely left a bad taste in my mouth, and I feel a lot of the potential this book had was lost. Albertalli remains a favorite author because I adore Simon and Upside, but Leah just wasn’t totally for me, and that’s okay.

That’s all for this review!

Until Next Time,

Jessi