Look I love Becky Albertalli, I love Simon Speer, Bram Greenwood, Leah Burke and Abby Susso. I love Love, Simon, I love Simon vs the Heterosexual Agenda and Leah on the Offbeat. Maybe one day Hulu will allow me to see Love, Victor, but maybe I’m just a bit too overeager and bitter about that one. There’s a lot to love here too, but it also feels like a gigantic missed opportunity. I can forgive that – I’m getting ridiculously old, and any author who can make me feel the opposite deserves all the love I can give!

They’re all in college, and the world is starting to open up for Simon & co. The boys are adorable, the girls are adorable, but Simon clearly has a problem being so far away from Bram. I remember how difficulty it was being away from home for the first time, from the people who loved me, and it really felt I’d have been just like him if I’d had a high school boyfriend who went to a different uni. I just wouldn’t have been as funny or as cute (although I’ve had an abiding love of Oreos since I was very young). This novella is told entirely by the email correspondence, and it’s an enjoyable way of getting reintroduced, but it leaves out the growing issue of Simon’s neediness and doesn’t really investigate the impact of his emotional illiteracy. The book just ends after he presents his transfer to NYU to Bram as a fait accompli – they might live happily ever after or it may destroy the boys’ relationship. I’m not sure the outcome matters, but it’s the absence of any real conflict that frustrates here. Leah brings it up, Simon dodges, the end and we don’t learn anything much more about any of them than what we already knew. It’s like a nice check in but not much more – the next six months after this would really be interesting.

So it’s nice for Simonverse completists, it’s an enjoyable, quick read and Becky hasn’t lost her touch in comedy or developing likeable young characters. But even a slight detour into actual conflict would have helped give us an edge to understand these established characters a little better.