"I don't entirely understand how anyone gets a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. It just seems like the most impossible odds. A perfect alignment of feelings and circumstances . . . Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly is always careful. Better to be careful than be hurt.
But when Cassie gets a new girlfriend who comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick, everything changes. Will is funny, flirtatious and basically the perfect first boyfriend.
There's only one problem: Molly's co-worker, Reid, the awkward Tolkien super fan she could never fall for . . . right?"
Set in the progressive Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., THE UPSIDE OF UNREQUITED chronicles the summer story of 17-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso, who has had 26 unrequited crushes. A self-proclaimed "prolific crusher," Molly considers herself the opposite of her fraternal twin sister, Cassie: Whereas Cassie is blond, blue-eyed, and slender, Molly is brown-haired, brown-eyed, and fat. While young lesbian Cassie has hooked up with plenty of girls, Molly has never even kissed any of the 26 guys she's crushed on. Things begin to change when Molly finds herself with two possible suitors: "hipster Will," a handsome ginger who's best friends with Cassie's new girlfriend, and geekily tall "Middle-earth Reid," who works with Molly in his parents' eclectic home goods store. But while Molly realizes Will is objectively "hotter," she finds herself increasingly attracted to geeky and adorkable Reid and his too bright white sneakers.
Through Molly's journey of discovering what falling in love feels like, Albertalli has given voice to a character so often ignored and pushed into the jolly sidekick mode: the chubby girl who's sure she'll die a virgin because adolescent guys, even in progressive Montgomery County, Maryland, are more likely to say "no fatties" or "you're pretty for a big girl" than to see how awesome she really is.
That's not to say that Albertalli made Molly into some romance-novel model of a plus-size perfection. Molly's not rocking any big-and-beautiful or fat-acceptance labels; she's just not constantly trying to diet or obsessed with her weight. The story is about much more than Molly's weight or even her romantic prospects. It's also about how sisterhood and best friendship can change when one or the other person is in love; how loyalties and priorities shift when romance blooms and how your inner circle grows; and how sisters sometimes have to grow apart, ever so slightly, to grow up. But, there is romance. For those worried that this is another intolerable romance, never fear. There's only one real and true viable option for Molly, and he's wonderful. He and Molly talk with an ease that should be a lesson for all young readers. Love is about attraction, yes, but that attraction can start with friendship and a sense of being seen and known -- not simply desired, although there's that, too.
Like Albertalli's previous book, The Upside of Unrequited is extremely diverse, featuring LGBTQ characters and various racial, ethnic, and religious characters. Teens and adults curse (sometimes rather colorfully) in a believable way (some characters much more than others).
Age rating 14 +. As I said discusses some weightier topics that younger readers might not understand or really identify with yet. Language is mild-ish but there and there is the occasional sex reference.
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