Title: Leah on the Offbeat
Author: Becky Albertalli
Performer: Shannon Purser
Length: 7 hr, 11 min, 21 sec
Series: Creekwood, Book 2
Publishing Date/Publisher: 2018 by Harper Audio
Format: eAudiobook
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, so I was thrilled when I found out the author was publishing a book highlighting another character introduced in the first of the Creekwood series.
Leah was a character I enjoyed very much in Simon’s book, and I was excited to get to know her better. Leah’s character is self-assured and opinionated, and she loves her appearance, despite the fact that her body type does not adhere to traditional standards of beauty. She is confident in just about every aspect of herself, except her sexuality and her art. Leah is a very talented artist, but she is reluctant to show her deeply personal work to the people in her life. Perhaps she is worried that it will be revealing of the secret she has been harboring from her friends…her bisexuality.
Based on the description above, I should love Leah, but once inside her head, I actually found her to be a bit obnoxious. To make matters worse, many situations in the book made me cringe, because Leah was outright rude or inconsiderate to the people around her. By the end of the book, I was not her biggest fan.
The romance between Leah and another character was also very problematic. Her love interest came off extremely flat and the chemistry just wasn’t there. The story also does not address any blowback that would have undoubtedly occurred if the romance progressed the way it did in the book. It was extremely unrealistic and disappointing when the author jumped over any inevitable falling out and just included a “happy ending” epilogue to gloss it all over.
Despite my disdain for this book, the performer did a great job with her narration. I would give her a higher star rating than the book itself if I could.
Reader: Bekah
Rating:
You want to read this... 