Imogen Obviously by Becky Albertalli

Summary from Goodreads:

With humor and insight, #1 New York Times bestseller Becky Albertalli explores the nuances of sexuality, identity, and friendship.

Imogen Scott may be hopelessly heterosexual, but she’s got the World’s Greatest Ally title locked down.

She's never missed a Pride Alliance meeting. She knows more about queer media discourse than her very queer little sister. She even has two queer best friends. There's Gretchen, a fellow high school senior, who helps keep Imogen's biases in check. And then there's Lili—newly out and newly thriving with a cool new squad of queer college friends.

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.

Even if that means bending the truth, just a little.

Like when Lili drops a tiny queer bombshell: she's told all her college friends that Imogen and Lili used to date. And none of them know that Imogen is a raging hetero—not even Lili’s best friend, Tessa.

Of course, the more time Imogen spends with chaotic, freckle-faced Tessa, the more she starts to wonder if her truth was ever all that straight to begin with. . .

Review:

I appear to have taken a hiatus in June…The a/c has been broken and it’s just been too hot and humid to sit for very long at my computer. However, I still have been reading a little. I tend to love books by Becky Albertalli. This one was not my favorite of her novels. However, I read it rather quickly and it helped me get through some awful days so I’m happy to have read it.

As usual with this author, I love the cast of characters. They are all so relatable and authentic. I also loved that the setting was a college campus/visit. This was new for the author. And it lent for more exploration, more finding oneself for the main character, and more opportunities for independence in general. Why don’t more books for YA audiences take place on college campuses?

I also loved the romance. I was doing some serious shipping. When things finally happened,  I might have actually yelled out loud, “woohoo!” and those are my favorite kind of romances.

All this being said, the book had one of my biggest red flags too. I hate repetition, and it was full of it. I get that the main character is a doubter and she needs to go over everything a million times in her head; it’s part of who she is. But, it got a little old for me super quickly.  By the half way point, I kind of hated Imogen. Like the point would have been made, and she would have been the same questioning character with the same doubts if she had maybe half the amount of repetition….She was so worried about coming off queer enough or offending the queer community, she often wasn’t just living or doing anything fun. And again, I get that this was sort of the point. It just was too much. I would have cut that anxiety in half and filled the book with a few more adventures/outings or something new to think about.

All in all a little less self doubt would have made this book so much more enjoyable for me, and just a tiny bit more plot…..But all in all, I still really enjoyed it. I still give it an 8/10.