Review: The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love-she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because 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. Will is funny, flirtatious, and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And 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 an awkward Tolkien superfan, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?

Source: Goodreads

My Opinion:

“Girlfriends? Tolkien superfan? Sign me the hell up for this!” That was basically me reading the blurb. And wow, I was not disappointed.
The story was fun and very realistic. The reader follows protagonist Molly in her search for a boyfriend, while everyone around her seems to be in a happy relationship and she starts feeling a bit left out. So many things are addressed in this book: being gay, gay marriage, being fat, anxiety. But everything is just so positive and described with strong, meaningful and wonderful words.

Now, Molly herself is wonderful. Daughter to a Jewish lesbian/bi couple, she grows up in Maryland with a lesbian twin sister (Cassie) and a baby brother. She doesn’t feel good in her body because she is fat, but during the story she comes to accept and even like it. She is shy, full of life and doesn’t know how to talk to boys. And she is absolutely great! She is probably one of the most realistic characters I’ve ever read about. But then, all of the characters are. Molly is the counterpart to Cassie, who is very outgoing and knows her way around flirting. The two of them aren’t very much alike but they are best friends, even though we see how things might look for them in the future while the story evolves. Their relationship is written so wonderfully and believably, they could be the two girls living next door.

Then there are the parents: a lesbian and a bisexual. And damn, they are amazing. Not only are they great at parenting, but also at life in general. They are so helpful towards their children and have an awesome relationship.
And the love interests. There isn’t really much about talk about Mina, except that she’s pretty cool and American Korean. She becomes Cassie’s girlfriend.
Molly is part of a love triangle. Well, I can’t really call it that to be honest. But I don’t know what else to call her relationshipf with the hipster boy Will and her co-worker Reid. I wasn’t a fan of Will, if I’m to be honest. He just annoyed me at some parts but I love how the outcome of his and Molly’s relationship with each other is. I was always rooting for Reid. I mean, Tolkien superfan. Hello, there is no reason not to like him. He has these little quirks; he likes food shopping and white sneakers and is just an overall nice human being, also from a Jewish family.

Not only did I love the characters and the story, I also really liked the writing style which was fitting the setting and atmosphere of the book. Young and fresh and with a lot of fun, painting realistic people in colourful words. It was such a joy to read this book. It’s definitely one of my favourite reads in 2017!

Rating:

★★★★★/5