The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

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?

Meet Molly Peskin-Suso. She’s seventeen, loves Pinterest, and crushes hard on boys. 26 of them to be exact. Molly is hopeless in love, or so she thinks. It isn’t until a snarky comment from her twin sister Cassie, that Molly starts to realize: maybe she isn’t hopeless, she’s just never even tried. That’s because Molly has resigned herself to being “The Fat One” – a sidekick in her own life.

When Cassie gets her first serious girlfriend, Mina, Molly feels alone without her other half and she’s left to stew on her singledom. Enter cuties Hipster Will and Reid of the Sneakers – Molly’s contenders for crush #27. But Molly wants these ones to be different. She decides she is going to stop being so damn careful with her life, and she resolves to at least try.

“So, maybe I should let my heart break, just to prove that my heart can take it.”

Wow, first actual review. I feel nervous and nauseous and excited. I feel like Molly. I think I’ve felt like Molly since I was 13. Becky Albertalli so brilliantly describes what it is like to be young and in love, while also being a completely insecure teenager.Molly’s struggle to figure out who she is, who she loves, coupled with Molly literally not fitting the mold, is inescapably relatable. I found myself stopping and sighing at the end of every chapter. This story was so reminiscent of my own first love – right down to the boy with the geeky shirts and the wire-framed glasses. Cue Mandy Moore’s Crush and another sigh.

This is my second Albertalli…in a week. What can I say? I’ve got a crush on this book. I can also say with all certainty, I’ll be reading Leah and the Offbeat the instant it’s out, because Albertalli has a knack for beautifully highlighting the modern human condition, and I can’t get enough of it.

XOXO