DNF Review: Simon vs the homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

DNF 
1/5 stars 

Well, this is the book that made me realize just how much I dislike ya contemporaries. I mean I knew that before, I can count on one finger how many ya contemporaries I enjoyed (Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe), but this one was the last straw. No more for me. And no more jumping on the hype train (I say it a lot but I mean it this time).

Speaking of Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe - I would recommend that book over this one a million times over. Ari and Dante was beautiful - it was poetic, it had substance and soul. Simon VS Homo reads like a fanfic. 

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Despite being a book about a gay teen who hasn't come out yet, this book had a very judgmental and prejudiced feel to it, which was quite baffling. 

I still don't know if the jokes about one character's skin color and heritage were supposed to be funny or racist, because they definitely weren't funny. 
I don't know why the book that is supposed to be very diverse would promote gay boys but dismiss lesbians (because for girls coming out is apparently easier - words that came out of a main character's mouth), which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. 
I don't know why the book would ever say that boys fetishizing lesbians and girls fetishizing gay boys is okay.
And I don't know why a book would think it's okay to uplift one group of people while making fun of the other. 

The writing was pretty awful, the side characters were one dimensional and served only as an addition to otherwise very linear story line. The high school scenery wasn't interesting (at least to me) and the jokes weren't funny at all (I think I'm too old for the humor that this book portrays).

Also, all of the social media (the word "Tumblr" was used at least every other page), video games, movies and manga references were a definite overkill. 

And I just thought of something. If this was a book about a straight boy fantasizing and masturbating about girls he never met in real life, only online - he would be considered a pervert and a jerk. But somehow if it's a gay boy doing that it's considered normal? Nobody would read the book if this was a straight boy saying and doing the things that Simon did, so what are the standards here? 

​I know many people love this book, but I couldn't find anything to like. The writing and the one dimensional everything were definitely the biggest factors that made me give up on this book.