Like many others, my journey with Becky Albertalli’s books started with Simon Vs. the Homosapiens Agenda back in early 2017. If you come to think about this, that’s already been a long time. I was a totally different reader than I am now. I was just starting out as a bookblogger and changed my reading habits from reading occassionally to frequently. I was completely new to the world of YA and I missed out on a lot of books it seems. I listened to the Dutch audiobook for this particular book and enjoyed it. Fast forward to 2024. I hardly read YA these days, have had different reading experiences with books by this author and Imogen, Obviously has been sitting on my TBR for nearly a year. Was I still able to resonate with this book and had an enjoyful reading experience?

About the book

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli
Published by Balzer + Bray on May 2, 2023
Pages: 432
ISBN: 9780063045873
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young adult

With humor and insight, #1 New York Times bestseller Becky Albertalli explores the nuances of sexuality, identity, and friendship.

Imogen Scott may be hopelessly heterosexual, but she’s got the World’s Greatest Ally title locked down.

She’s never missed a Pride Alliance meeting. She knows more about queer media discourse than her very queer little sister. She even has two queer best friends. There’s Gretchen, a fellow high school senior, who helps keep Imogen’s biases in check. And then there’s Lili—newly out and newly thriving with a cool new squad of queer college friends.

Imogen’s thrilled for Lili. Any ally would be. And now that she’s finally visiting Lili on campus, she’s bringing her ally A game. Any support Lili needs, Imogen’s all in.

Even if that means bending the truth, just a little.

Like when Lili drops a tiny queer bombshell: she’s told all her college friends that Imogen and Lili used to date. And none of them know that Imogen is a raging hetero—not even Lili’s best friend, Tessa.

Of course, the more time Imogen spends with chaotic, freckle-faced Tessa, the more she starts to wonder if her truth was ever all that straight to begin with. . .

My review

As stated in my introduction, I have had different reading experiences with books by this author. They all have in common that they start out to be slow and me not enjoying the book, only to pick up at the second half and me ending up actually having a good time. Unfortunately, some of Albertalli’s books were a miss for me. I was therefore quite uncertain about this one since A) I hardly read YA anymore and B) this book is so personal to the author. Many people seem to have enjoyed it, so I expecte to do the same, allbeit a little cautiously.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this novel as much as I’d hoped – and thought – I should. It’s super queer, which makes this book the perfect read for pride month. Let me be clear that I didn’t read it right now with this in mind, it was just a random pick. I liked the queer aspect though and also liked the approach of the main character questioning their identity and discovering themselves by this. This was actually the best aspect of the book. Unfortunately, some other big important part of this novel was a bit of a problem.

When reading a coming of age story, you’d expect to get to know the characters and therefore be able to witness their growth and them literally coming of age and finding themselves and their identity. With Imogen, it’s hard. Why? Simply because she hasn’t been written well. This story is so personal to the author that character building seems to be forgotten. After finishing this entire novel, I still know nothing about Imogen, except for her identity. The story focuses on this and barely leaves room for anything else. Being queer is mentioned on every single page, sometimes even multiple times. When looking into other reviews, I saw other readers having this same struggle. This doesn’t only apply to Imogen, all characters fell flat to me. One of them managed to annoy me deeply though, because Gretchen… Please don’t. She’s just a hypocrite and makes her queerness her entire personality which nobody is allowed to touch if you get what I mean.

The diversity in this book is really good though, allbeit a little bit forced sometimes. I understand queer people connect to each other a lot, but sometimes this can feel forced. This is a bit of the case here for me personally, but the bunch of characters all being queer fits perfectly here. However, i didn’t like the banter. It felt so annoying and juvenile to me. This also might have to do with the fact that English isn’t my first language so I don’t get the tone of the banter et cetera. Plotwise, there is not much to say as this is a coming of age story and therefore should be character driven to make sense. The writing in itsself was fine, the chapters weren’t too long or too short. This makes it the perfect light read for when you want to escape from a more complex book or whatsoever.

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli is a bit of a two-faced book for me. I was intrigued by the approach and by Imogen questioning her identity. However, all characters fell flat for me, which is very unfortunate for a coming of age story. The writing is okay. I had a few enjoyable hours listening to this book, but I just expected more. Was it just me or am I just outgrowing YA more and more? Who knows.