Mundie Moms

Saturday, August 12, 2017

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli / Audiobook Review #theupsideofunrequited


Written by: Becky Albertalli
Narrated by: Arielle DeLisle
Published by: Balzer + Bray
Audiobook by: Harper Audio
Released on: April 11, 2017
Purchase from: Harper Collins | amazon | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository
Add it to:goodreads
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

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 and 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 with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?


You guys, I adored Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.  You can read my 5-star review here. I was looking forward to The Upside of Unrequited because I was definitely that girl who had a few crushes (maybe not as many crushes as Molly had)  in high school. The idea that a character finds her first love after a long string of crushes is a plot that I should've loved from page one. But, somehow, something felt off from the very beginning.

The right formula was there -- caring, concerned and yet, hip parents. A sister who is discovering her own first love. And not one, but two potential first boyfriends. I guess that was the part that annoyed me at the beginning. Don't get me wrong, I love a well written love triangle. But, this one seemed so forced. Like is a girl like Molly every going to fall for a guy like Will? I guess. He came off completely two-dimensional and therefore, not believable as a potential love interest. Then there is Reid, who comes off as the only true, logical choice -- a kind, sweet, ren-faire obsessed geek. What's not to love?

But, there was never that pull to make me turn pages. Man, did I ever feel that in Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda. I just wanted to know who Blue was. If you read it, I know you felt the same. As a result, it took me seemingly forever (to be fair, I did pause to do BookTube-A-Thon for a week) to finish the audiobook. I found myself loving the side characters more than I liked Molly. Molly was so shallow wondering every day if she will a) find love and b) which boy is better for her.

Yes, I do remember daydreaming about my crushes, but somehow, Molly was so fixated on this that the subplots (which were much more interesting) faded away and I ended up truly not caring about what happens next. As I eye-rolled through the last chapters, I had a feeling I knew who she would choose and what would happen. Without a twist, sure enough, my predictions came true.

If you hear a slow sigh of frustration from me, you're right. It could've been a better story. It could've held my interest. But, it didn't. I bumped it an extra 1.5 stars purely for the side characters and the appearance of Simon (how I loved that).

Because this was an audiobook, I have to say that the narrator, Arielle DeLisle, delivered a solid performance. I did speed up the narration to 1.25 speed, but I tend to do that with 95% of audiobooks.

I will admit that this will not prevent me from reading more of Becky's stories, because of Simon, the twin sister and the moms. She can write characters I love, just not in this case.


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