Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli
This is a warm and funny romance about discovering your sexuality, coming out, and navigating queer spaces. Imogen's story is touching, heartfelt, and absolutely validating! Albertalli poured her heart and soul into this one and it really shows!
A bit more about the book...
With humor and insight, #1 New York Times bestseller Becky Albertalli explores the nuances of sexuality, identity, and friendship in this timely new novel.
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. . .
Find it here....
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My thoughts...
Imogen, Obviously.... Oh my gosh... This book! Toward the end of it, I was highlighting paragraph after paragraph. Originally, I wasn’t sure I was even going to like this book but it kept popping up on my feed and in my recommended titles so I thought I'd give it a go... and I ended up loving it!
Baby me needed to read this book. It provided such a validating portrayal of bisexual experience, questioning, and awakening and it also makes some valid points about biphobia from both inside and outside queer circles. This kind of thing didn't exist when I was growing up and if it did, I may have felt more comfortable to come out to my friends and family and embrace my true self. I saw so much of myself in Imogen and I guess that’s the point. That’s why this book is so important. It points out the damaging ways in which compulsory heterosexuality (also known as comphet) affects folks coming out, as well as how it can create toxicity even within queer communities. There can be a lot of biphobia and gatekeeping in the queer community, but there can also be so much love and understanding too. That's why stories like this are so important and need to be read more widely – so that we can examine our own prejudices and unconscious biases.
I noticed so many subtle queer references throughout this book: to author Jennifer Dugan, Heartstopper (and the Kit Connor thing specifically), and even Life is Strange but also some obvious ones too. And theres probably some I missed! If you’ve read this book PLEASE message me over on Instagram! I wanna swap notes and chat about some of these references without giving away any spoilers in public spaces!
Favourite quotes...
"Who gets let in? Who gets shoved out? And what do you do with the fact that no two people seem to do queerness in quite the same way? Maybe shared experiences shouldn't be the foundation at all. Maybe it should be a promise to hold space for variation."
"It's like there's this idea that you have to earn your label through suffering. And then you have to prove it with who you date, how you dress, how other people perceive you."
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