6 YA Books to Read After You’ve Seen Love, Simon

The Upside of Unrequited, by Becky Albertalli
Albertalli’s sophomore novel, set in the Simon universe (and including glimpses of a few familiar characters) introduces Molly Peskin-Suso, the queen of unrequited crushes. Her twin, Cassie, has always been her partner in crime through all twenty-seven of these crushes, but when Cassie gets a serious girlfriend, Molly finds herself trying to navigate her lack of romance alone. Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute male friend who’s thrown into Molly’s orbit, who just might be crush twenty-eight. But then there’s her new coworker, Reid. Shy, awkward, nerdy Reid, whom Molly finds herself drawn to. But there’s no way she could like him. Right?

Everything Leads to You, by Nina LaCour
If you’re looking for more sweet, heartfelt queer romance, look no further than LaCour’s beautiful LA-set love story. Emi Price is a budding set designer looking for her big break, and she might have just found it: while scouring a dead movie icon’s estate sale for the perfect set pieces, she comes across a letter he wrote, alluding to his unknown granddaughter. Caught up in the mystery, Emi is determined to track down the granddaughter—but she doesn’t expect to fall in love with her.

Tash Hearts Tolstoy, by Kathryn Ormsbee
Tash and her friends never expected their webseries Unhappy Families (based on Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina) to take off the way it did. Nor did they expect it to be nominated for a Golden Tuba, the web series’ world’s Oscar equivalent. Thrown into sudden stardom, Tash finds herself navigating fame and friendship on top of a burgeoning crush on a fellow vlogger—not to mention how to figure out how to tell said crush she’s asexual. Tash’s narrative voice is as strong and unique as Simon’s, and will definitely make you wish Unhappy Families was a real web series.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
A wonderfully written YA about a tender romance between two boys, Aristotle and Dante is the perfect book to preorder while you’re standing in line for tickets to Simon. (And the audiobook is narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda!) Aristotle and Dante seem to have nothing in common besides their archaic names. When the two boys meet at a swimming pool, they’re reluctant to begin a friendship. But as Dante teaches Ari to swim and Ari is drawn into Dante’s family, the boys realize they have more to talk about than they thought. Over the course of the summer, their feelings towards each other develop from friendship into a tender romance that remains one of my favorites in YA.

Gena/Finn, by Hannah Moskowitz and Kat Helgeson
Gena and Finn would never meet in real life, but on the internet, they’re best friends through their shared fandom for the TV show Up Below. But as their online friendship deepens, their lives unravel—Finn’s relationship with her longtime boyfriend falls apart, and Gena’s depression returns. The girls grapple with their feelings for one another when a crisis throws them together and they’re left to navigate the aftermath. Told entirely through texts, emails, and fanfiction chapters, Blue and Simon would surely devour this book—and you will, too.

Anything Could Happen, by Will Walton
Like Simon, Tretch lives in a small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business. Worse, he’s in love with his straight best friend, Matt, who has no clue how Tretch really feels about him. And even though Matt has two dads himself, Tretch has no clue how Matt will react if he comes out. To make matters more complicated, the girl who works at the bookstore is utterly in love with Tretch, and the boy at school teasing Tretch for his friendship with Matt is starting to hit a little too close to home. As Tretch navigates coming out, he also begins to realize that sometimes life is better if you don’t spend it hiding in your bedroom all the time.