Imogen, Obviously: New for 2023, from the bestselling author of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Product Information

I think I'm landing on 4-stars with Imogen, Obviously, mostly because I had a very hard time putting it down and read it in pretty much one day, which is impressive since I've been struggling with reading attention lately. However, despite that dreamy cover and a lovely romance plotline, it's not without it's flaws. There will be spoilers below this point, but I'll mark them as I see fit. Still, read at your own risk since our definitions of spoiler may not match up. Senior year has arrived for Effie Galanos, but her mind has been firmly on college for a long time. After all, she has to not only consider what school might fit — her major, where she wants to be located, campus culture — but also make sure the campus is accessible enough for her to maneuver in her wheelchair. And when it seems like her longtime crush is also applying to her dream school, she begins to imagine a whole new world of possibilities. Where You See Yourself is an absolutely necessary and affirming addition to YA shelves. A spring break visit leads to surprising revelations for people-pleasing Imogen Scott, a passionate straight ally. I wouldn’t call it a gut punch—more like a tiny, sharp poke beneath my rib cage. Other people’s inside jokes always hit me like that, but I can never quite pin down the feeling. A variation on loneliness, maybe.

It's like there's this idea that you have to earn your label through suffering. And then you have to prove it with who you date, how you dress, how other people perceive you.

Up Next

There’s a lot in this book to love. I loved the explorations of relationships. I loved how the issues of gatekeeping was brought up and handled. And I loved Imogen. Sweet Imogen who second guesses every little thing and is so, so careful to be as good of a person as she possibly can be. She treats everyone fairly, gives them the benefit of the doubt, even if I, personally, would very much rather hurt them exactly where they’d feel it, perhaps with the skillet the world’s largest pancake was made on (iykyk). I really wanted to like this one, and there were moments and characters to really like. But in the end, the writing was all over the place. Good god, the yearning, the nervous yet hopeful anticipation of seeing Tessa again. I could feel it myself.

I wish this book had a been a little less pointed. But I think it comes from a place where it was hard not to be. But it was equally hard at times to get through this; maybe because of the authenticity. There were a lot of feelings. Not all of them good. Which is fine, it's real. It just made me glad there were silly heart-eyes moments of sweetness with the texts. But being in Imogen's head, being suffocated by certain forces around her, yeah, it's a lot. She's so busy being the perfect ally, the straight friend, that she's never given the opportunity, or the space, to explore anything more. Until college changes everything. But even then, it's not smooth sailing. In a social media graphic for the book, the author describes Imogen as having "queer discourse brainworms", which is a good way to put it. She tries to educate herself about queer issues, but just ends up thinking that there’s only one right way to be queer. She doesn’t feel the same way about girls as she does in her crushes on guys, so she concludes that means she doesn’t like girls at all. Even when faced with obvious evidence to the contrary, she convinces herself that she’s just trying to be bisexual for clout and that she’s a bad person for appropriating queerness. Lili and I used to joke about that a lot. We were the Forever Alone Club. No boyfriends. No random hookups. Just a pair of perpetually single besties who spent way more time hanging around animals than boys.But the fact that she thinks I’m wondering that? Like I’m that special kind of straight person who assumes all queer people can barely keep their pants on around her? Tessa’s so close, but I press in closer, and she lets out the softest-edged sigh. Her hands trail the hem of my waterlogged shirt, and I swear it feels like taking off sunglasses. Clarity and brightness. Are you kidding?" She springs out of the driver's seat and around the front of her car, closing the distance between us with one last bounce of a step. "Underlined, bold, giant-font yes."

This book is basically what it's like to exist online these days. All the discourse, the critiques, the questioning (in mostly negative ways), it's all in here. But thankfully there's also the other side, too. The found family, the acceptance, the reassurance, and the joy. I hope readers, of all ages, find some comfort in those bits. Because they were lovely.

Imogen's thrilled for Lili. Any ally would be. And now that she's finally visiting Lili on campus, she's bringing her ally A game. Any support Lili needs, Imogen's all in. I hug Puppy the unicorn close to my chest. “So it’s just...I’m bisexual? And we used to date, but we’re friends now. And other than that—” Rachel Strolle is a teen librarian and a books contributor for Buzzfeed. She loves books, dogs, and Florence Pugh Unfortunately, pieces of Imogen's story being so relatable and the concept of the book being fun and cute are about where my enjoyment of the book ended and unfortunately, there was more of the book that I didn't like than what I did. So, while I went into this book totally expecting to love it, it just didn't hit right for me. But, like I said, unlike someone in this book, I don't speak for all queer people, all readers, all anything and am aware that the things in this book that bothered me and were annoying, boring, tedious, or all of the above for me might not have been for other people. So, if you loved this book or you were planning to read it, don't let my opinions sway you.

Although not everyone wants to read those stories, there are people out there going through that every day and books about how confusing and weird that can be are relatable to them (and hey, even me, who went through that several years ago could reminisce on some of Imogen's confused feelings and that-wasn't-a-crush-we're-just-friends-right?-ness). I feel like the fact that Imogen was surrounded by so many LGBTQ people in her life and constantly just believed herself to be straight -- and was told by all those people that she was -- but was a proud ally to them and trying her best to learn about their unique issues added something to her journey of self-discovery. Everyone in the friend’s group was a gem and I could honestly read more about them all. Imogen was precious and I just wanted her protected at all costs. And Tessa! Oh my. What a sweetheart. If only everyone could have their first crush/significant other be like Tessa. There were a few things I struggled with in the story, however. For one, I think the big baddie gatekeeper did have a few valid points. There is no right or wrong way to be queer, and you should NEVER invalidate someone's sexuality, but there is something to be said for queer people getting to tell their stories or have their opinions heard in queer spaces. I think it's very true that you shouldn't make assumptions about people or their sexuality/gender identity, but I think that to frame the gatekeeper character (I won't say names to avoid spoilers, but it's pretty obvious) as sort of the villain isn't fully okay either.I wish this book had been even longer! I didn't want it to end. It was so cosy and comforting and important, it has claimed such a special place in my heart. And god — the romance?? ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. I loved how real everything felt, from the jokes to the texts to the little details and discoveries they made about each other.