I loved the main characters. Imogen is adorable, funny, and sweet and I just love her. She is a layered, well-crafted character, that has a brave voice you want to hear. Lili is just such a relatable freshman in college and Tessa is, quite simply, the best. She’s funny and charming, and she likes Imogen SO much. She is so supportive and funny and I love her chemistry and banter with Imogen. The progress of her relationship with Tessa was a great way to portray her coming out story. Their ease of talking and their sarcasm is amazing! I love reading their texts so much. Edie and Immy are the ideal sisters, their love and support of each other is beautiful and I really appreciate their bond. Imogen’s journey is just really heartwarming. She is surrounded by queer people and supportive people but still has compulsory heterosexuality drilled in her head so has never really questioned that she is the straight friend. But spending time pretending to bi allows her to question who she really is or what being queer really looks and feels like. It was immediately obvious from the beginning that this was a deeply personal book for Becky Albertalli, and a large part of Imogen's identity and anxiety was also hers. I think it is going to greatly impact a lot of other readers. I think that's why it is so relatable and will resonate with so many readers. I will definitely be recommending this book to patrons at my library. I thought this was well written, well explored, and handled everything with sensitivity and heart. Many thanks to Becky Albertalli, Netgalley and HarperCollins for allowing me to read an e-arc in exchange for my thoughts.

Becky Albertalli is an auto-buy and auto-read author for me, as someone who writes deeply heartfelt YA with Jewish, queer characters exploring their identities and developing supportive and caring friendships. Imogen, Obviously is a great addition to the Becky-verse.

The author's note and my own knowledge from following Albertalli on social media for several years explain how deeply personal this book is, which follows Imogen as she calls into question her own identity which people have assumed for her, rather than letting her determine for herself. I love following Imogen as she visits her friend at her future college campus and quickly becomes adopted into a group of queer friends -- and starts to have *feelings* for one of them (but straight-friend feelings, or FEELINGS feelings???). I don't feel like I read a lot of YA that falls into that early college period, and it was nostalgic for me to read about pranks and parties and general mess-arounds in the dorm setting, which was very reminiscent of my own experience at college.

Imogen spends a lot of time ruminating on her feelings and denying what she feels -- which also reflected some of my own experience (much like Albertali, at a much older age than Imogen). The book shows that we can all be kinder in the process of exploring our identities and that there is no time frame for when someone needs to come out. I loved the cast of characters that surround Imogen -- Albertalli's strength lies in creating freind groups that I would love to be a part of, and that emphasize the importance of found family -- pick this one up if that's what you're looking for too!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early review copy, all opinions are my own.

Not Becky Albertalli making my heart burst with another one of her books! I absolutely loved Imogen, Obviously, with its super relatable protagonist, chaotic college antics, and adorable romance. I want all the good things for Imogen and Tessa, especially puppies and goats.

I cannot wait for this book to be released. I loved Imogen so much! The stress, the tension, and the life-altering decisions you make senior year are all perfectly captured in one book!

Imogen has always considered herself the world’s best ally. She goes to all of the Pride Alliance meetings, and is constantly supporting her friends and sister. Now, she has the chance to support her newly out best friend, Lili, at college among all of her new, queer friends.

Excited to support Lili in every way she can, Imogen brings her A game when she visits her on campus. Even if Lili has told them a small lie: that Imogen and Lili dated in high school. None of them know that Imogen is actually heterosexual, not even Lili’s new best friend Tessa. But the more Imogen spends time with Tessa, the more she realizes she might not actually be straight.

Thanks to NetGalley and Balzer + Bray for an advanced copy of Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli to review! Becky Albertalli is an autobuy author for me, and I knew I was going to love this one. Albertalli put so much of herself, her own struggles in this book, and it’s just one that I want to hold near and dear to my heart.

From the beginning, you’re going to fall in love with Imogen. She’s a fierce friend, ready to support anyone that she loves. She’s a little bit quirky, a little bit nerdy, and always down for an adventure. There are so many layers to her character, and I think everyone who reads this book is going to fall in love with her instantly.

Outside of Imogen, the side characters are just as fully developed. As we have come to expect from Albertalli. Honestly, the little college friend group made me miss some of my college days a bit. Just that always being up for anything, let’s go on this random adventure. Not to say you can’t do that outside of college, it just distinctly feels like a college thing. But I digress.

There are a lot of discussions throughout the book about identity, specifically queer identity. Imogen is constantly trying to figure out if she’s actually queer or just taking on the identity of those around her. Albertalli handles a lot of these conversations with finesse, and they’ll definitely leave you thinking. This book is a love letter to those who don’t just know their identity and take time to figure it out. Especially for those who always thought they were just an ally, but actually ended up being something more.

All in all, I am in love with Imogen and can’t wait to revisit this book again. Because you know it’s going to make it into my re-read cycle for sure.

Albertelli has done it again with yet another book chock full of wonderfully written and relatable queer characters!

Thank you so much, NetGalley, HarperCollins Children's Books, Balzer + Bray, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Imogen Scott is absolutely straight, but she got the World's Greatest Ally title, surrounded by queer sister and queer best friends. There's Gretchen, who keeps her bias in check and advises her if she's queer appriopriating and Lili, now in college surrounded by her own group of queer people. When she decides to visit Lili on campus, she's right away swept away by the beauty and confidence of Lili's group. Even though Lili told them a little lie, telling them she and Imogen used to date in the past. Now, Imogen is bisexual in their eyes and none of them seem to question her sexuality and identity. None seems to see that Imogen is straight, not even Lili's best friend, Tessa. When Imogen and Tessa start to text, video chat and engage more and more, Imogen starts to question herself and her own feelings. Is she queer appropriating? Is she faking the butterlies in ther stomach every time she sees Tessa? What is happening? Could really a weekend uphend her whole perception of herself? Unless she wasn't exactly straight as she's ever thought...But how couldn't she not have knew her own identity?

Imogen, obviously is a brilliant, funny and smart story about identity, the nuances of sexuality, love and friendship, told with love and humor by the amazing Becky Albertalli. It's a sweet, cute and quirky read, following Imogen questioning herself, flirting and slowly embracing her own sexuality, slowly connecting the dots and opening her eyes. With funny and sweet moments, cute dogs (Daisy!!!), costume parties (Dark Academia, yes!), group chats, new friends, Imogen starts to realize things about herself, her tastes and feelings, choosing to follow her heart, what she wants and the girl she loves.

I absolutely loved Imogen, obviously. I related a lot to Imogen's thoughts and fears, her feeling a bit inadeguated and "intruding" as a straight in a queer group. She's a people pleaser, struggling to assert herself, a bit "crushed" by her best friend Gretchen's presence and I totally loved her journey, her relationship with family and friends, old and new and how she becomes someone more confident in her choices, feelings and thoughts. From the group chatting, the setting, the campus, the joy in friendship, food, jokes and funny moments, flirting and chatting, Imogen's journey is amazing and so good.

Imogen's relationship with her family and friends is beautifully rendered. Her supportive and funny parents are awesome. With her sister Edith and Lili is sweet and loving, while with Gretchen there's a more complex dynamic, because Gretechen's personality is stronger than Imogen's and her ideas and thoughts are seen, by her, as the only one, the only way to be queer, to feel queer, to experience being queer. Many of Imogen's struggles derives by her thinking of being straight and Gretchen's ideas of what means to be queer. While slowly realizing another realities, embracing herself, connecting her own feelings and thoughts from the past to the present, Imogen is more able to detatch her own ideas from Gretchen and to stop being influenced by her.

It's interesting seeing how different people came to realize their own sexuality, from Edith to Lili to Imogen herself, because, of course, the journeys are not the same. From a single weekend, everything changes for Imogen, putting everything she thought she knew about herself in discussion and slowly understanding herself, with Lili and Edith's help.
Mostly, I loved how it's underlined there's not one way to be queer, how you can't tell if someone is straight or queer from what they wear or what they like and how they talk, how sexuality is fluid, complex and entirely one's business.
Truly a brilliant and eye opening book!

I've loved Albertalli since Simon first came into my life, love the continuation of her Bisexual/Queer representation.

With a queer little sister and multiple queer best friends, Imogen is an Ally with a capital-A. After spending the weekend visiting a friend at college, she befriends Tessa and starts to question whether or not she is actually as straight as she thought—and as straight as some people keep telling her that she is. This is sort of inspired by Becky Albertalli’s own journey of self-discovery and realization.

Imogen is so focused on “what queerness looks like” that it takes her some time to realize that she might also be. On top of her own confusion and guilt for possibly “appropriating queerness”, she faces criticism from someone in the queer community who doesn’t believe her when she tries to vocalize how she has been feeling. All of this perpetuates her constant feelings of self-doubt and guilt which she has to work through.

I really liked this and, as someone who only in recent years has come to understand that she is asexual, I very much appreciate this book and where it is coming from. I think it is such a great story for anyone who doesn’t feel like they look or present or even immediately understood that they were queer.

We’re only in March, but I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite reads of this year.

In this novel that is both adorable and thought provoking, we follow Imogen, a high school senior and dedicated ally to the LGBT community. Imogen may be straight but she’s extremely supportive of her queer friends and sister. She loves queer media and is active in her school’s pride club.

But is she straight? A visit to her best friend’s college leaves her questioning everything.

The romance in this was adorable. I don’t usually find myself too invested in YA romances, but here I found the characters to have great chemistry and hilarious banter. They were so stinking cute.

What really set this novel apart for me was the discourse. Imogen finds herself wondering if she’s really bi or if she’s simply “appropriating queerness.” Her inner monologue and the conversations between her and her friends lead to really interesting discussions on what it means to be queer and who gets to decide who you are. A lot of the discussions focus on biphobia. I found these conversations to be insightful and relevant to a lot of discourse we see these days.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in LGBT literature, even if you don’t normally read YA. It’s an extremely important book and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves when it’s published.

Thank you so much to HarperCollins and NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for my honest review.

Albertalli, you did it again. I LOVED this book, just as much as I loved Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda. Maybe even a teeeeeeny bit more because Imogen just resonated so much with me with her people pleasing and overthinking and being afraid to offend or take up space. I thought this book was so wonderfully done and brought up a lot of great conversations and questions about the queer community and identity. I thought Imogen’s journey to herself felt really genuine and authentic. Also I loved Albertalli’s note at the beginning about her own experience with finding her sexual identity. I absolutely adored Lilli and her friends. It was such a cute found family. Gretchen absolutely infuriated me, but she was written so well and I found her really interesting because I haven’t read a character like her before. And TESSA. Ugh Tessa was amazing. I would honestly LOVE a follow up to this book set when Imogen is in college with the group and maybe some closure/a big conversation with Gretchen. I don’t want to be done with these characters or this story yet. Honestly, just a top notch book that I can’t wait to own in physical form.


Thank you to NetGalley, Harperteen and Balzar + Bray for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book. In particular, I love all the queer joy and how this shows the side of erasure even within the LGBTQ community. As a queer woman with a very similar experience to Imogen (though I was much older!) I appreciate her story's gripping honesty as an ally trying to find her space, experiencing imposture syndrome and first love.

My only complaint is that the love interest (whose name I can't even remember, and I read this last week) is one-dimensional. I would have loved to know more about her struggles, challenges, and how she grows throughout the novel.

All in all, I will recommend it. Thank you, Albertalli!

4.5 stars, rounded up
Becky Albertalli has done it again!
This is an incredibly personal book to her, and you can tell from the very first page how much she cares about the characters and the story they are a part of. I truly think that this is a story that every queer person can see some of themselves in. From the exploration of sexuality to the found family of queer students to the toxic discourse within the queer community, I found a lot of my self-acceptance journey within these pages.
Imogen is an incredibly likable character, and the story Albertalli has crafted surrounding her self-discovery is one that I'm sure is going to stick in the library of queer YA literature of the decade. The way she approaches allyship and queerness is endearing, and the way that she has to deal with constant judgment as she tries to understand herself makes her impossible to root for. The side characters, who are there to support her, are also very fleshed-out. I enjoyed them and their antics a lot, and they added much-needed bursts of lightness to what could have easily become an overly heavy story. The only critique I have for this book is the fact that it ends quickly with little closing for Imogen's romantic arc. I would have loved to feel a little more satisfied once I finished reading.
In the vein of heaviness, though, it is impossible to talk about this book without talking about Gretchen, biphobia, and real-person queerbaiting. A lot of the harder things to read in this book revolve around Imogen's toxic friendship with Gretchen, who is biphobic and at times cruel under the guise of being gay and traumatized. There are very valid reasons for Gretchen's actions, but she is very much the embodiment of toxic queer Twitter -- going around forcing people out of the closet so they are actually authentic, because, otherwise, they're lying to the people who follow them online. She has an arc that is all too common in today's society that has forced too many people to come out before they are ready to do so, including Albertalli herself. She is young, and I do think she could change in the future, but she is deeply unhelpful and harmful to Imogen.
I think reading a book where the sort of person like Gretchen is not in the right (because, let's be real, she's not -- real people can't queerbait even if they are in the public eye) is going to be lifechanging for young people questioning their identity. Becky Albertalli has long been a staple in queer YA fiction, and she has cemented herself with this book as someone who has and will change lives and make the world just a little brighter and more accepting.

Out May 2, 2023 [Thank you so much the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!]

Rating: 5/5 stars

Imogen Scott is straight, and an ally to the queer community. But then her best friend Lili admits that she told everyone she and Imogen used to date, and Imogen gets introduced to a friendship group (and one specific girl) that just might have her questioning everything she thought she knew about herself.

Becky Albertalli is one of my original auto-buy authors and I truly think I would read her grocery list if she published it. Fortunately, she keeps publishing amazing books so I don’t have to resort to such levels.

IMOGEN, OBVIOUSLY is a delight of a book—a real, raw, touching coming-of-age story about a young woman figuring out who she is in multiple senses, including the sexuality she never realized was in question. Each of the characters was perfectly crafted and added a layer to the story (we love a good ensemble cast!) and I’m absolutely obsessed with the way the central tension in this book was written—for anyone who has ever struggled with a friendship that just isn’t good for you (even if the other person might genuinely mean well), this one’s for you.

I could go on, but really all I can say is that I can’t wait for this book to be out in the world. I’m so excited for everyone who sees a bit of themselves in Imogen (whatever that might mean on a personal level) to be able to hold her story in their hands.

Recommended to anyone, but especially if you like: YA romance; coming-of-age stories; LGBTQ stories

CW: Biphobia (and mentions of queerphobia/homophobia more generally)

Becky Albertalli CONTINUES to be one of the most amazing writers. She pulls you into a story immediately and her writing manages to make you laugh and tear up on the same page. Her sense of humor and ability to create characters that a reader cares about so quickly is uncanny.

As a librarian, this book is proof of why all kids should be able to find books about people like them in their school library. Representation MATTERS, and a book like this could change a kid’s life. Relating to a character like Imogen could truly help them understand who they are and let them know that they’re not alone.

The author's note at the beginning of the book had me in tears - hearing how Albertalli's own experiences (that so closely match my own) inspired the novel had me itching to read every word!

Thanks to Balzer + Bray and NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

Becky Albertalli is one of my go-to YA authors, and so I was instantly intrigued by Imogen, Obviously. Told in a compelling first-person narrative, the language is so relatable, authentic and vulnerable. While Imogen, Obviously does read quite quickly (aka I could hardly put it down), the story line is so intriguing, interesting and honest. While Imogen, Obviously does feature a serious story about coming out, it does so in a fun, sweet and adorable package. Another well-done read for Albertalli, that's for sure.

I absolutely love this book. It’s not only whip smart and literally laugh out loud hilarious, it’s beautiful and thoughtfully written. Imogene’s slow, careful exploration of her sexuality is completely relatable and important for kids still figuring it all out. I loved this book and so wished it was around when I was a kid.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. As a 52 yo allocishet "ally" who has always consumed all sorts of media and pop culture (gay, straight and in-between), I was a little nervous about this book. Was it going to make me question calling myself an "ally"? Was it going to make me question how I consume and approach queer media? This book is about Imogen's journey, one of discovery and awakening. I'm an overthinker, so I can appreciate and understand how much Imogen is in her head. It's so eye-opening to be in Imogen's head as she navigates her internal discourse, and the outside influences as she figures out her identity. I love that she really thinks about the way people present as they move through the world; but she does it with an awkward grace and humor that is utterly charming. The further I got into the narrative, the less I worried about ally awareness and the more I just loved Imogen. I can't relate to her story on a personal level; nor can I understand the complexities of questioning ones identity or what it is like to "come out". I can continue to consume and love queer literature as it helps me change, grow, and hopefully continue to evolve as an ally.

Oh my god. Sweet baby Imogen!
I loved this book!!
My heart was clenching for Imogen the whole time. She tries to hard and she is so relatable with her anxiety and trying to not hurt anyone ever.
The discourse and dialogue that comes up about safe spaces and identity was important.
You could definitely feel the authors heart in this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an EARC of this book.

I’m feeling all the warm and mushy feelings, Becky really tucks you in tight, snug as a bug in a rug, and plants a sweet kiss on your forehead before wishing you sweet dreams and turning on your rainbow nightlight & white noise machine.

Imogen was a fresh voice, equal parts quirky and cringe and relatable and I loved reading along through her tentative exploration of attraction and feelings. There was something so distinctly YA about this novel, with it’s goofy & chaotic premise and deeply relatable introspection.

While you can expect to have an absolute blast, there are also profound discussions and insights artfully woven throughout the story. The conversations surrounding queerbaiting and biphobia are so important and are handled and explored with such tenderness and care. Becky’s author’s note had me choking back sobs, demonstrating just how significant these conversations are, and many moments during Imogen’s journey tugged painfully at my heartstrings.

A truly, beautifully raw and validating narrative of self discovery & queerness.

5⭐️

**big big thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Children’s Publishing for this eARC**