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

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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. Imogen consumes queer media like I do, and I consume a LOT of queer media. Imogen, bb, let’s be friends, please!

But my favorite picture of us is the one from last summer’s Pride, a week after Lili came out. She’s wrapped in a pink, yellow, and turquoise flag, and I’m leaning against her, elbow propped on her shoulder. Edith took the picture, and she must have said something funny right beforehand, because we’re clearly both howling with laughter. I feel terribly sorry for her, being outed is horrifying and scary and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Lili presses both hands to her cheeks. “We got together on New Year’s, broke up in July, but that’s it. You’re you, we’re best friends, we grew up together, all of it. Everything else is true. Oh—but you’re queer. They think you’re bi.” She winces a little. “Sorry.” Tessa’s eyes catch mine, and her lips tug up at the corners, just barely. And the noise in my brain falls away.Imogen, Obviously is such a heartfelt story. It's instantly clear to see how much passion and purpose Albertalli has put into it. She shares very personal emotions through Imogen, she pushes people to reflect on their actions and beliefs, she fills every line with her heart and soul. And she does this incredibly well, this is such a perfect queer coming-of-age story.

This is a YA contemporary, with a strong romance side-plot, and it's beautiful. Imogen (h) is our fmc, who feels like she can't be queer because she feels like the epitome of straight girl, but also because her friends and the people have put her in the straight girl box, to the point where Imogen isn't given space to explore or question anything. Then Tessa (h) comes along, the most wonderful woman alive, just being her adorable, glorious, soft-butch lesbian self, and butterflies start fluttering in both their stomachs. This actually wasn’t supposed to be my next book! Imogen slipped into my brain when I was in the early stages of working on a different project, and I couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was all I wanted to work on. I’d just gone through my own complicated, excruciatingly public coming out experience, and the discourse left me feeling dehumanized and exposed. Writing this story felt like my chance to reclaim a bit of that narrative. It’s hard to know precisely how it will land with listeners, but maybe it can be a reminder that there’s no single queer experience. We have to make space for our differences. bi. bisexual. lili, i’m bi. it feels bigger than i want it to be. do i really have to announce this? can’t i just feel something and live inside it while it’s happening and not analyze it to death?”

Up Next

The weekend goes better than she could have hoped for and she walks away with something she never expected – a crush on one of Lili’s super cute friends, Tessa. Can one girl really shake up her entire sexuality? Imogen, Obviously is going about to find out the answer to that, even if it leads to a lot of hard questions and harder answers. 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.

Imogen, Obviously is about a high school senior who goes to visit her friend Lili at the college she will attend next year. There, she finds out Lili lied to her friend group and said she and Imogen used to date. Except Imogen is straight, but is she? After meeting Lili's friend Tessa, Imogen begins to question everything.

Featured Reviews

i spent most of college being quietly out. entering a new environment away from home gave me the space to explore my identity, to figure out & be who i needed to be. i did it slowly, casually slipped into conversations & texts, chewing on my nails wondering if people Got It. We better go save him.” Tessa bumps her own fisted hands together. “Imogen, are you ready to experience culinary perfection?” I mean, my friends don’t.” Lili covers her face with both hands. “I don’t know, I was being a dumbass, and—okay.” She gives a short, muffled moan before pulling her hands away. “I have to tell you something.”