YA LGBT Books discussion

We had a vote tie, and since one book has a gay boy MC, and one a bi girl, I figured we can do both.

This Dec-Jan Book of the month was the winner of the Goodreads Young Adult Fiction award this year : Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Leah Burke—girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier’s best friend from the award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.

Warnings: not seeing any in reviews, let me know if there should be something


This thread is for discussion of this book - there is no specific reading schedule and you may post at any time. There may be spoilers in the comments, so be aware if you have not yet finished. Especially if you are posting early in the two months, please try to put real plot spoilers into a spoiler-hiding tag - write <*spoiler> before the text and <*/spoiler> at the end of it - with both * removed to make it work, and it will be hidden, revealed only (view spoiler)[ to those who choose to read it. (hide spoiler)]

I look forward to seeing what the group thinks of this one.

I really enjoyed this book

Avid Reader and Geek Girl wrote: "I really enjoyed this book"

Good to hear. It's sitting in my to-read stack still. So many books, so little time... my friends really varied on this story, some loved it, some not so much.

Sorry to be negative, but this was an awful read to end my year on.
All I'll say here is that Leah is the most horrendous MC I've been subjected to in a long while and her HEA left me cold.
If you want a bit more of my reasoning, here's my review

El wrote: "Sorry to be negative, but this was an awful read to end my year on.
All I'll say here is that Leah is the most horrendous MC I've been subjected to in a long while and her HEA left me cold.
If you ..."

I agree with you. I had a lot of problems with this book and the characters tbh. I can't still wrap my head around the fact that the author who wrote Why is straight the default? wrote this book, especially chapter 28 -.-.

Lau wrote: "El wrote: "Sorry to be negative, but this was an awful read to end my year on.
All I'll say here is that Leah is the most horrendous MC I've been subjected to in a long while and her HEA left me co..."

I am so, so angry!
The two of them deserve each other but, like, not a single care was given to those they hurt and left behind!

El wrote: "Sorry to be negative, but this was an awful read to end my year on.
All I'll say here is that Leah is the most horrendous MC I've been subjected to in a long while and her HEA left me cold.
If you ..."

It read like bad slash fanfic to me. I couldn't stand Leah - and I related to her the most in the first book.

Linda ~ chock full of hoot, just a little bit of nanny ~ wrote: "El wrote: "Sorry to be negative, but this was an awful read to end my year on.
All I'll say here is that Leah is the most horrendous MC I've been subjected to in a long while and her HEA left me co..."

Honestly, I didn't even like her in the first book. There's a lot I should have been able to relate to with her, but I just totally didn't. She was so resentful of everything and I cannot get my head around why!

El wrote: "Linda ~ chock full of hoot, just a little bit of nanny ~ wrote: "El wrote: "Sorry to be negative, but this was an awful read to end my year on.
All I'll say here is that Leah is the most horrendous..."

I think Leah's behaviour all comes from her family situation, her father left her and they're not doing too well economically, and the comparison between what she has and what others have.
The thing is, in order to protect herself and to hide her insecurities, she puts on the 'tough girl' front and snaps at everyone whenever things don't go her way. And the cause of all of this is probably the idea of being abandoned by her father for not being good enough. Idk but it seemed that way.
I'm not trying to justify her behaviour, I think it could have been handled better if the author took the book in another direction instead of making it a big drama.

El wrote: "Lau wrote: "El wrote: "Sorry to be negative, but this was an awful read to end my year on.
All I'll say here is that Leah is the most horrendous MC I've been subjected to in a long while and her HE..."

Exactly!! I mean, what about Garrett? He's being led on for the whole book and Leah never tries to have a grown up conversation with him to clarify where she stands. It was frustrating as hell.

Out of the three Albertalli books I've read, this was probably my least favourite, but not so bad that I hated it. I think she was sort of aiming for something and didn't quite get there as well as she did in Simon or Upside. I'll still keep buying her future books in this 'verse, though.