Review: The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Molly is well-known for her 26 crushes among her friends and family. She is a professional crusher and now she is really wanting to move past the crush status and maybe get into the kiss status.

But the problem about that is the boy she is crushing on has to have a crush on her as well. Because...well duh... can't really kiss a boy if they don't think the same way of you.

It's been really hard, lately, too because her moms are all lovey dovey getting ready for the wedding, her twin sister, Cassie, has just started dating Mina - her first official girlfriend, and Molly's two friends Ally and Olivia both have boyfriends. So Molly is all by her lonesome and the odd man out when it comes to conversations about boys and sex and kissing.

When Cassie starts dating Mina, that meant that Mina's two close friends Max and Will started hanging out when them as well. And boy, is Will extremely good-looking. Except Molly knows that popular, good-looking boys don't look twice at her because she's on the chubbier side of the scale. Molly is totes okay with her figure, but she knows the majority of guys are looking for skinny, pretty girls that she doesn't fall into so much.

But Mina and Cassie are trying to hook Will and Molly up together, which is a lot of pressure for Molly, to be honest. She gets a bit of relief from their badgering when she starts her summer job and is working with Reid, another fellow senior in high school and he's working for his parents. Reid is a bigger guy, and so, so dorky - always wearing Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones t-shirts and Reid is very easy to talk to.

If fact, it's like Molly is a completely different person when it comes to Reid and Will, to be honest.

But things are slowly changing in Molly's world when it comes to her friends and family, but also with herself as well. And the longer Molly knows both boys, the more she realizes just where her real feelings lie. But can she handle rejection if she tells the boy how she really feels?

This was a great book! I've read many high star reviews from publishing companies and when it came to my library, I just had to get it and see what all the hype was about.

And honestly this book is so real. This is what all teenage girls go through during crushes and first loves and first boyfriends/girlfriends. And to be able to read about Molly's feelings and the bipolarness that she has is just like seeing a girl at school act when she's so confused and upset about what is happening.

I love Molly and Reid's scenes. They are so silly and goofy and just normal around each other. And I love Molly and Will's scenes because being able to watch their reactions to one another is so real and had a high tension of what was going to happen next.

The situation that happened between Molly and Cassie after Cassie started dating Mina was on par. Both sisters were in the wrong, but neither one was going to fess up to their mistakes because they were also both in the right and were adamant that the other one shouldn't have done/said what they did.

I am so glad that I picked up this book and gave it a chance. I am debating about picking up Becky Albertalli's other book since apparently there was reference to the characters in this novel of those characters! And after I thought about it, I did see Simon's name, but I haven't read his story so I didn't see the big significance and didn't connect with them.

I think tons of readers will enjoy this novel and I will definitely be recommending it!

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