Because I'd seen Love, Simon before reading the book, I thought I'd easily fall in love with this... but was surprised by how much I really didn't. I quickly learned to not judge a book by the movie, but also that a movie can be better than the book. The most important credit I can give is that it's a charming and endearing relationship between two teenage boys who navigate coming out and falling in love. But when I pull back the layers from their relationship, the writing and story structure feels like a traditional hetero young adult romance applied to gay characters. The first person perspective is so casual, it doesn't build the story or supporting characters at all. Essentially, everything falls flat - he's blackmailed by Martin, but nothing really develops between them except Martin ends up getting pissed / reveals he's gay and their falling out almost resolves on its own; Leah disappears for more than half of the story and is mostly there to be jealous over another female character; the parents had more dimension in the movie. As an overall account of Simon's day to day life, I didn't quite feel a lot of interest or sympathy towards him except towards the end. Quite a few quips don't capture awkward teenage humor, but are just straight-up offensive (lesbians are for straight guys to objectify on tumblr, Simon referring to Blue's Jewish culture/heritage as 'your people' YIKES) or random revelations of Simon's identity that aren't explored (Simon describing Gender Bender days at school 'being straight isn't proof of masculinity' to talking about liking to dress in women's clothing as a kid but also finds it mortifying to do so). Simon's perspective is really just written in a wave-away gesture, and comments or thoughts like the ones I mentioned might not be anything deeper, but they were certainly a missed moment of him coming to terms with his sexuality or internalized homophobia within the LGBTQ community. For a book with so many characters, their arcs or personalities are not well-defined - (in one chapter Simon hates Martin one second and then a few lines later starts considering him to be a good friend) or massive contradiction (Simon being rightfully pissed that Martin steals his coming out moment but then tries to make Blue come out when he's not ready). Overall, this book is quite weak in a lot of ways, to the point I could tell it wasn't written in an #ownvoice, and I'm surprised by how popular it is and is so well-regarded. Because they certainly weren't regarded as anything meaningful having to do with coming to terms with his sexuality or internalized homophobia within the LGBTQ community. By far in contrast, I felt like the movie gave this book a personality exploring moments that were almost non-existent or actually non-existent in the book such as Ethan as the other openly gay character and Simon coming out to his parents. Sometimes adaptations are lost in translation from what the book offers, and I think this time it's the other way around - the movie is far superior.