Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love—she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.
Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny and flirtatious and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back. There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker Reid. He’s an awkward Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?
The Upside of Unrequited is your typical contemporary romance – the only major difference? The hugely diverse cast of characters. From our fat Jewish main character who suffers from anxiety to lesbian side characters (two of which are our main character’s mothers), a bisexual side character, Jewish side characters, a pansexual Korean-American side character and so much more. To be honest, I felt like Becky was just trying to check off a checklist of diverse characters; but the more I read – the more natural it felt.
While the diversity felt natural and the writing style was unique, I couldn’t connect to any of the characters. I couldn’t stand Molly for the majority of the book – or Cassie for that matter. The only characters I really found myself liking were Olivia, Will and Reid and we barely even saw them. I will also say that I liked Patty as well as Nadine and how adorable they were together.
The romance in this book was adorable and I did really enjoy it. Molly and Reid were totally cute and squeal worthy. They were awkward and cute and just so real and relatable. Though the lack of communication annoyed the piss out of me – it’s one of my most hated tropes; but it’s constantly used and I wished it would just stop already.
Another thing I did enjoy about this book was how retable it was. Molly feeling like she’s falling behind because she’s the only one of her friends who hasn’t had a relationship or even kissed boy was so real. It’s not a race and she mentions that but also she can’t help how she feels.
I was also laughing at the fact that the asking siri what zero divide by zero thing was mentioned in this book. Pure gold, to be honest.
Overall, this was a quick and somewhat enjoyable read but it was not the book for me.
Rating: 2/5 stars
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