September 28, 2018 – The Bibliophagist

Thanks to Bibi for tagging me in this one! In the interest of full disclosure, it’s been eleven years since I picked up a Harry Potter book. I tried my best, though.

RULES:

Write 30 character names on pieces of paper. (You can use the character list from the bottom of the post or choose your own.)
Put them in a jar/mug/cup.
Randomly choose two pieces of paper for every question. In each of the 15 questions, you have to decide which of the two characters fits the question and which one is not good enough.

Instead of writing down all the names, I followed Bibi’s lead and put them into a randomizer! Then I just went in the order they showed up in, so the first two for the first question followed by the next two for the second question, and so on.

1. YOU ONLY HAVE ONE MORE SPOT ON YOUR SPELLING BEE TEAM. WHO DO YOU PICK TO COMPLETE YOUR TEAM?

Cedric Diggory vs. Hagrid

I have a feeling that Cedric would be a more appropriate addition to my team. After all, Hagrid tried, but he didn’t even spell “Happy Birthday” right.

2. BOTH CHARACTERS WANT TO KILL YOU. WHICH ONE WOULD YOU KILL FIRST SO YOU HAVE A BETTER CHANCE OF SURVIVING?

Madam Hooch vs. Hedwig

I mean… I’m not going to kill Hedwig, so I guess I have to go with Madam Hooch.

3. YOU’RE ON THE BACHELOR/BACHELORETTE AND YOU’RE DOWN TO THESE TWO CHARACTERS. WHICH ONE ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE YOUR ROSE TO?

Luna Lovegood vs. Ron Weasley

Luna gets my rose, hands down. I love her.

4. YOU’VE BEEN CHOSEN FOR THE HUNGER GAMES. WHO WOULD MOST LIKELY VOLUNTEER IN YOUR PLACE?

Remus Lupin vs. George Weasley

I feel like Lupin is more likely to volunteer than George.

5. YOU’RE STRANDED ON AN ISLAND WITH AN ACTIVE VOLCANO. WHICH CHARACTER WOULD YOU THROW INTO A VOLCANO AS A SACRIFICE?

Hermione vs. Goyle

I didn’t even have to think about this one for half a second. Goyle.

6. YOU’RE THE NEXT DC/MARVEL SUPERHERO (WITH YOUR OWN T.V. SHOW, OF COURSE). WHO IS YOUR SIDEKICK?

Moaning Myrtle vs. Snape

Oh jeez. I don’t really want either one of these characters as my sidekick. I guess, for the sake of the prompt… I’ll go with Snape? He’s kind of terrible, but he’s less terrible than Moaning Myrtle.

7. YOU’RE A MANAGER OF AN AVOCADO ADMIRING COMPANY. WHO WOULD YOU FIRE FOR LACK OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS?

Malfoy vs. Sirius Black

I feel like Malfoy would be too busy sneering and rolling his eyes to get much communication done. And who could fire Sirius? Not me.

8. YOU’VE JUST FINISHED A BOOK IN WHICH YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER DIES. WHICH CHARACTER IS MOST LIKELY TO COMFORT YOU?

Filch vs. Umbridge

Neither of them?

9. UGH, IT’S HIGH SCHOOL. WHO WOULD MOST LIKELY BE PART OF THE POPULAR CLIQUE?

Dudley vs. Cho Chang

I’m going to say Cho Chang. I just don’t see Dudley being remotely popular.

10. THE DAY HAS ARRIVED – YOU’RE FINALLY A YEAR OLDER! WHO WOULD HAVE THE NERVE TO FORGET YOUR BIRTHDAY?

Dumbledore vs. Bellatrix Lestrange

Bellatrix is definitely forgetting my birthday.

11. YOU’VE JUST FOUND AN UPCOMING BOOKTUBE STAR! WHO WOULD IT MOST LIKELY BE?

McGonagall vs. Fred Weasley

McGonagall is definitely a booktube star. No question in my mind.

12. SLEEPOVER TIME! UNFORTUNATELY, YOU CAN ONLY INVITE ONE PERSON. WHO WOULD YOU INVITE?

Viktor vs. Molly Weasley

I would much rather have a sleepover with Molly Weasley. Plus, I’m sure she could use some time away from all those boys.

13. BAM, YOU’RE PREGNANT. WHO IS THE FATHER/MOTHER?

Voldemort vs. Percy Weasley

Oh GOD, I hope it’s not Voldemort. Not that I particularly want to have a child with Percy, but he’s infinitely better than Voldemort.

14. YOU’VE JUST WRITTEN A SUPER IMPORTANT TEXT. WHO WOULD SEE IT, BUT NOT REPLY?

Ginny vs. Neville Longbottom

Hmm, I don’t think that either one of them would intentionally not reply, but I can see Neville being scatterbrained enough to forget.

15. YOU’VE JUST WOKEN UP AND IT’S TIME FOR BREAKFAST. YOUR MUM’S BEEN REPLACED BY… WHO?!

Parvati Patil vs. Fleur Delacour

Oh, I don’t know. Fleur, I guess.

I’m tagging:

Hamad | Gerry | Leslie | Erin

You know the drill, no pressure if you’ve already done this or if you don’t feel like it. If I didn’t tag you, please feel free to do it and link back to this post so that I can see your answers! Also let me know if you like tags since I would love to tag you in things. ❤

The list of characters:

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Series: Creekwood #2
Rating: ★★★★☆
Links: Amazon • Goodreads • TBD
Publication Date: April 24, 2018
Source: Purchased

Leah Burke—girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier’s best friend from the award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.

This isn’t the book I was planning to read for my final #killingthetbr selection this month. I was going to do yet another borderline erotic novel, but then I thought… I have been hating those books lately. I’d much rather read a fluffy YA contemporary. I searched through my shelves for something that I’d purchased more than three months ago that seemed like it would fit and came up with Leah on the Offbeat. I actually bought this book way more than five months ago because of a preorder incentive, but it’s been on my physical shelf since April.

I don’t know why I waited so long to read this.

I was a little nervous that I would dislike Leah. After all, I’ve read countless reviews that talked about how awful she is. And is she awful? I mean, sometimes. But what high school senior isn’t awful sometimes? Isn’t that kind of a trademark of being a teenager? It’s not like I’m going to be breaking down any doors to be Leah’s best friend, but I understood her.

The characters from Simon are all present and accounted for in Leah. I still love Simon and wish that I could have been best friends with him when I was in high school. I was so happy to see that his relationship is still as adorable as ever. Aside from Leah and Simon, we see a lot of Abby (who I liked more in Leah than I did in Simon), Nick (who is actually awful??), and Nora (who is the best). The thing that disappointed me was that Simon has to be the cutest, fluffiest, most adorable YA novel I’ve ever read that still manages to tackle some tough subjects and that’s what I was expecting from Leah. Unfortunately, that’s not what I got.

Leah is a good book in its own way. I liked that Leah’s mom was a fairly big part of the book, because absent parents in YA drive me crazy. I really related to Leah’s struggles with her mom starting to date someone new since that’s something I went through when I was in high school. I’m a little freaked out by the fact that Leah’s mom is only seven years older than me, but I suppose there are people I went to school with who have ten-year-olds, so it’s not actually unbelievable.

Aside from the single parent aspect, Leah also tackles bisexuality and racism. Now, I can’t really tell you if the bisexual representation is accurate or not, but I did appreciate Leah’s rant about someone who referred to themselves as “lowkey bi.” I also appreciated Leah not backing down when one of her friends made a horribly racist comment. That was such a great message to send and I don’t think I’ve actually seen a review that addressed it yet.

But despite all of those positives, I just felt like something that made Simon amazing was missing from Leah. What specifically that was, I have no idea. I still think this was a great book and I would absolutely recommend it if you’re in a YA contemporary mood.

You can really never go wrong with Becky Albertalli.

#killingthetbr: 5 months on shelf

Have you read Leah on the Offbeat? What did you think?
Let’s talk in the comments!

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The Bibliophagist

Reviewing young adult, new adult, and romance since 2013.

Day: September 28, 2018

Tag: You’re Not Good Enough! (Harry Potter Edition)