Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda is a 2015 young adult novel and the debut book of American author Becky Albertalli. The coming-of-age story centres on Simon Spier, a closeted gay high school student who is forced to come out after a blackmailer discovers his emails to another closeted classmate he has fallen in love with.

Albertalli received the William C. Morris Award from the American Library Association, an annual honour for young adult literature, and the German Youth Literature Prize internationally. The novel was also placed on the National Book Award longlist and named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best young adult novels of 2015. Its title is a parody of the phrase homosexual agenda, and the book refers to a conversation between Simon and his correspondent about how they think the world sees them.

The plot holds two pressures together. One is the blackmail, which gives Simon a deadline and a task that contradicts his own interests, and the other is the email correspondence with Blue, which grows more flirtatious as the book proceeds without either of them knowing the other's identity. The supporting material concerns Simon's friendships, which the secret strains, so the novel's resolution requires him to manage more than one relationship at once.