Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli


The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli. Unabridged downloadable e-audiobook. ~7 hours. Read by Arielle DeLisle. Balzer + Bray/ HarperAudio, April, 2017. 9780062417886.

Angsty seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso has had twenty-seven crushes and exactly zero kisses. It didn't bother her that much until her gorgeous, fraternal twin sister, Cassie finds an equally gorgeous girlfriend named Mina. Now, Molly is worried that they will grow apart. It also doesn't help that Molly's crush number twenty-eight happens to be on Reid, her unapologetically dorky co-worker. Her sister dismisses Reid and instead insists that Molly try for Mina's best friend, Will. Drama much? 

The Upside of Unrequited is Albertalli's sophomore effort. It stands alone, but is set in the same neighborhood as her debut, Simon vs. the Homo sapiens agenda. I did a double-take when Simon makes a brief appearance. There's a lot to like here. The characters are fun. Molly's a tad angsty leading to an awful lot of repetitive obsessing that my teen self would've eaten up but my old self is so over. 

Newish-to-me narrator, DeLisle sounded appropriately youthful and paced her performance nicely. Mature teens will find the book highly relatable.

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