Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.

Imogen is a senior in high school. She is an ally, a member of her school's Queer Club, and surrounded by queer friends, but Imogen's straight, obviously. During spring break, Imogen visits her best friend Lily in college. Imogen has to pretend to be bi because Lily told her friends she and Imogen used to date. People pleaser Imogen is game until she meets Tess and thinks she might not be pretending to be bi after all.

This is Becky Albertalli's story of coming out as an adult. It's a great take on those who thought one thing for so long but find that might not be true. How do you come to terms with your feelings? Are they real or are you just appropriating queer culture to be more appealing and like your friends? The story and central romance are cute, but I thought it was a little too long. For a book that takes place over a week, some of the days really dragged on and conversations repeated that didn't need to happen. I also thought we were introduced to too many characters too quickly, causing me to have trouble remembering who everyone was at first. Many weren't even that important, so it didn't matter anyway. And no epilogue...are we getting a sequel?

Great coming-out story for those questioning or undecided or just afraid to admit they aren't straight after all.

If you follow Becky Albertalli on Instagram or other socials then you fully understand what this story is about. It’s a statement. A clear statement. Before I started reading, I already assumed this would be a very personal story, and the author’s note and the book are prove of that. Becky just pours her heart out, let’s us feel her struggles, and gives her middle finger to all those people who bullied her and still bully her.

I’m not going to say a lot more. If you’re a Becky Albertally fan, you’ll definitely love this story. If you’re one of these bullies, I’d suggest to read Imogen’s story. It might surprise you. It’s easily readable, captivating, full of banter, and very vivid. Just dive into it and I hope that you’ve learned something after you finish it.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Becky Albertalli really knows how to write a great YA romance! I loved this book so much. Imogen is a great character and this book was so well written and so real. So real that I am still seething at Gretchen! Such a fantastic read and so very relatable.
(Chef's kiss)

This was a really cute book! As a bisexual person, I really resonated with a lot of Imogen's thoughts and struggles, especially in the trying to figure out if she was queer. I did find a lot of the friend interactions incredibly grating, though and I almost DNF'd around the middle. I'm glad I powered through to the end though, it was very cute!

A well written romcom that will have you smiling ear to ear. After reading this book, you will recommend it to friends, to friends of friends, and to friends of your friends’ friends.

Imogen, Obviously was such a quick read! I loved Imogen as a character because I understood the way her overthinking mind worked. I think this novel is important for people who are questioning their identity or even people who don’t understand what that might be like. Will definitely recommend to those I feel would appreciate the importance of this story.

I really enjoyed this book and the cover is so beautiful. In support of the HC movement I’ll hold off on my full review.

Imogen is such an endearing character. She is shy, reserved, an ally to all, and yet, doesn't know who she is or wants to be. I enjoyed getting to know her and her friends in Imogen Obviously. This book would be a great read for a younger audience, and those in the LGBTQ+ community.

Becky Albertalli is an auto-buy for me! She captures the angst of first love and figuring out who you are SO WELL. This book is no exception. When Imogen visits her best friend at college, things get complicated when she discovers she might have feelings for a girl there... and Imogen is pretty sure she is straight. I love that this book explores identity, figuring out yourself, and the value in friends accepting you for who you are and letting you figure things out. This book was almost painful (in a good way) to read at times as Imogen comes to terms with her feelings and her friendships.

So I want to start out by saying Albertalli has, basically from the beginning, been a must-read author for me. I was borderline obsessed with her books for years. I still love "Simon" and "Upside" in particular. Upside is the book that re-ignited my love of reading after school destroyed it.

I also am similar to the main character here, in that I was that aggressively vocal ally that actually was a baby gay and just didn't know it yet. I look through Facebook memories and Timehop and see me sharing "straight but no hate" and "straight ally for equality" photos and memes and being all "I'm not gay but i'M a DeCeNt PeRsOn so I support everyone!" So do I *GET* Imogen? Yeah. Did I also have that "so THAT'S why But I'm Cheerleader was such an important movie to me!!" moment in my own life? Yeah.

That said, this book was painfully obviously written as a "f*ck you" to everyone who bullied the author into coming out (one character in particular represents those people in the book) and while she admitted in her author's note that this was heavily inspired by what she went through (aka Imogen is self-insert) she truly did not have to because anyone who is a regular reader, anyone who followed her on Twitter when it was still actually her on Twitter, any long time fan of hers ~already knows~. Maybe it's helpful for her new fans, because the book would come off as wildly performative if you don't know the backstory (which basically is, Albertalli was criticized for being touted as an LGBTQIAP author while being straight herself, which forced her, essentially, to come out when she wasn't ready, which then lead to people claiming she was faking it to justify her books. All of what happened to her is shit. But I still wonder if there had to be a book that was so blatantly obviously a response to that - as opposed to something that felt like an "authentic fictional" story in and of itself. There was basically zero nuance here.)

On to the writing itself, one thing that's bugged me about a couple of her recent books is how you can pluck pretty much any character from one of her books, plunk them down in another book, and they'd fit seamlessly with at least some of the characters. Her characters start to have the same voice after a while (constant pop culture references, "handwriting" in text, sexual innuendo, and the same energy, all the time) and I have to wonder if she genuinely doesn't know how to write friend groups any other way or (and I lean toward this, because she is a good writer so the former doesn't seem super likely) she genuinely thinks that this is how teenagers talk when...I've been a teen much more recently than she has, I probably have had more teen coworkers more recently than she has, and I have never encountered a group of teenagers with the kinds of dialogue that are consistent in her books. (At one point in this, they refer to a birth as 'extremely vaginal' and that's just one of many super weird comments that these characters make in what I assume is an attempt by Albertalli to make them relatable and it just doesn't work - and on THAT note, the seemingly positive reference to Rachel Hollis was...a choice.)

To sum up, this is a book that I really think only hardcore Albertalli fans will love...and as evidenced by this review, not even all of them will love it.

This book was just amazing!! I have read most of Becky Albertalli’s books and really enjoyed them all, but this one is my absolute favorite. IMOGEN, OBVIOUSLY is a charming, heartwarming story about Imogen (obviously) and her journey to figuring out who she truly is.

Imogen is such a lovable character that so many people can relate to. Her people-pleasing nature, her anxiety and overthinking, her struggles with understanding herself, her identity, and her sexuality amidst others’ expectations of her (and even her expectations of herself), were all beautifully portrayed. I was rooting for her from start to finish! I loved Tessa too, and was so invested in her relationship with Imogen. The banter and their texts!! I was literally smiling at my screen every time they interacted. Imogen’s relationships with her best friend Lili and her sister Edith were also so sweet and well-done. Becky is a pro at creating characters that just feel so complex and real, and this book was no different! I didn’t want it to end. (Maybe one day there’ll be a sequel? Or a movie/TV adaptation?)

I highly recommend IMOGEN, OBVIOUSLY and already can’t wait to re-read it! Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books/Balzer + Bray for the ARC.

I would have loved to read this book as a teen. I keep coming back to YA because it oftentimes has the nuance and specificity around coming-of-age stories that I still can't find in books for adults. Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Children’s Books / Balzer+Bray for sharing this fantastic digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

imogen obviously review
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5/5
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As someone who considered myself an ally instead of queer until my junior year of college, i felt connected to the description of this book. sexuality and acceptance of one’s sexuality is a complicated and individual experience, so i’m excited to see how this book approaches it
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Pros:
+i love thé name imogen
+it’s so fun when authors mention other authors!
+the term himbo is one of my favs
+i love to see gay panic. very relatable.
+compulsive heteronormativity is explored.
+GAY FLIRTING
+Tessa<3<3<3
+looking up “am i gay?” is the epitome of queer culture. heartstopper agrees.
+I LOVE EDITH
+the hearts while texting i can’t
+this feels so achingly like a real first sapphic love. the hesitation, the doubt, the intensity, the gay panic, it’s all there.
+CALL OUT BIPHOBIA!!!! BI PEOPLE CAN BE BIPHOBIC TOO!!!
+I also love lili. great best friend behavior here!! she’s so good to immy
+ the quote “maybe shared experiences shouldn’t be the foundation at all. maybe it should be a promise to hold space for variation” is exactly what i learned in my queer studies class. audre lord said it best.
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Cons:
-there is no timeline for queerness. everyone is on their own individual journey.
-also nobody owes anybody confirmation of their queerness or lack of queerness. making people feel not queer enough or questioning their queerness is shitty.
-i also wouldn’t be gretchen’s friend. everyone should strive to be a little less like her.
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what a cute and important read! I loved the couple in this a lot. they were so cute and gentle and made me smile. i also think it explores really important themes surrounding comp het, biphobia, and queer discourse. comp het is a bitch and as someone who believed i was straight until college, i think this story will resonate with a lot of people. it’s also just so adorable and immy is gay panic intensified.

Imogen isn't sure of much, but a few things are certain: the idea of moving away to college is terrifying. Her friend Gretchen, who is a walking definition of outspoken and queer and informed, has it all figured out. Her friend Lili has found her place in college in a way that Imogen is sure won't be possible for herself. And Imogen is straight—textbook straight, in fact. Until, of course, she finds herself in a situation in which everyone is primed to think that Imogen is bisexual...and suddenly she's no longer sure what is fact and what is false.

I admit to some uncertainty at the beginning of the book. I've read so many coming-out stories and am always looking for the elusive YA novels in which the characters are queer, they know they're queer, and it's just...not really a big deal, and they can get on with the rest of the story. (So...Edith's story? Ooh, can we have Edith's story as a sequel? Okay, wait, I'm focusing, I swear.) It's also very apparent very early on which friend Imogen will eventually clash with, who the love interest is, et cetera. No surprises there.

But...then it registered that there's something much more complex going on here than a straightforward coming-out story. Imogen lives in a time and place where she's always known it's okay to come out—Penn Yan might not be a hotbed of queer culture, sure, but she has queer friends and queer family, and nobody's blinked. What she hasn't ever had is the space to question: there are few things of which she's certain, and one of them is that if she were queer, she would just...know. She'd slot neatly into a box, and that would be that.

There's a character—I'll keep it vague—who is really insistent on this narrative, that there's not really room to question, and it struck me that I knew that character once, or a version of her. The one and only time I set foot in the LGBTQ center at my college, another student, who I knew vaguely, all but interrogated me—to see, as far as I could tell, if I was intruding on her safe space. If I was "gay enough" to be there. (All this did, of course, was make it a patently *unsafe* space for me.) I went to one or two events that the primary LGBTQ org (...who dominated that LGBTQ center...) put on, and the first question was always "What are you, anyway?"—the assumption being that you'd figured it out and were ready to label yourself publicly and posthaste. And then I stopped going to those events, because it was very clear that I needed to be far more certain (of everything) than I actually was to feel comfortable there. Once Imogen starts consciously questioning, she figures it out at warp speed (the book spans nine days), but it took me years (starting, let's be clear, well and truly before little miss this-is-my-safe-space-so-I-get-to-decide-if-it-can-be-yours-too), I think in part because it was clear that I was going to have to keep my questioning internal in order not to raise lots of questions and doubt with others.

That part of Imogen's story, then, resonates in a very specific way that—for all that I still want more books about people who are out already, and it's fine, and here's a story where coming out isn't the point—I don't often see and didn't realize how valuable it is *to* see. It clicks faster for her, but she has that same odd gray area of needing to slot neatly into a box to be fully accepted. The romance here is adorable, and as (yay) drama-free as it can be under the circumstances, but I'm here for the gray area.

Now. Back to Edith. There's room for a sequel, right? One in which Imogen has gone to college and Edith (who already knows who she is in many ways) is figuring out who she is without her big sister around and maybe just maybe she'll be able to have an offline girlfriend...?

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free review copy through NetGalley.

THIS BOOK WAS SO FANTASTIC! I’ve read so many of Becky Albertalli’s books, and I love her writing so, so much. This book was obviously no exception! The pine, the angst, the drama, the texts, the banter, just everything was a 10 out of 10. It felt so real and honest and sad and happy and everything in between. I loved this book and these characters so much, and I want more! Also, the book cover: are you kidding me?! So gorgeous.

I cannot tell how much I loved this book and I was absolutely invested in Imogen! She is layered, well crafted character, a brave voice you want to hear!

• 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 •

𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Imogen, Obviously
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Becky Albertalli
𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: ☆☆☆☆☆ 5/5

Can we talk about this stunning cover? Omg!!

Thank you Netgallery for this ARC.

This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2023.

Imogen is the straight ally in her mostly queer friend group until she goes to visit one of her best friends Lilli at college and meets all of her friends but one sticks out, Tessa(heart eyes) and Imogen grow closer and she begins to question her identity and feelings. When she goes home after the visit, she begins texting Tessa and questioning everything. It doesn’t help that her feelings her feelings are complicated by her friend Gretchen's perceptions of the "queer experience". Gretchen's thoughts throughout definitely sheds light on the discrimination that happens within the queer community, especially against people who are bisexual.. it broke my heart and I can’t stand Gretchen but it’s real, everyday stuff the LGBTQIA community has to go through.

I loved the characters so much and Imogen’s character development. Her journey of finding herself in this book is something I wish I had when I was younger. Between her being so brave and trying figuring out her friends, herself, and her sexuality. This made me cry because I can understand her battles internally.

Imogen and Tessa’s relationship has my heart. I loved the interactions from the start. The way the conversations flow, the way I would blush, cry and laugh i felt like I was right there with the characters.

The LGBTQIA representation in this books is done so well and it’s so important to have it for Teens/YA readers. This is one of the best books I’ve read in awhile. I finished it in only a few hours and couldn’t get enough. As someone who enjoyed this so much I can’t recommend it enough and can’t wait to see what everyone thinks.

I’d recommend this novel to any and a it is wholesome, important, lovely and beautifully written.

Book publishing date is 05/02/2023

Will give feedback and my review when the HCP union gets a fair contract. Thank you so much for the book and can't wait to leave a review in the future.

Imogen's ideas brought to light a facet of our culture that I don't believe is frequently explored. Nowadays, it's difficult to maintain PC behavior, but it's critical to consider our actions.
Given that it was a little overstated, but many of her ideas were exactly what I had been debating with myself.
Her developing relationship with Tessa was an excellent vehicle for telling her coming-out narrative. I feel that, as opposed to the entire "the closet was glass" concept, I have adequately articulated how realizing your sexuality functions for many people.
Gretchen's inclusion in the narrative was intriguing. Until the conclusion, she didn't really give anything in the book. Her (poison) comments demonstrated the diversity of viewpoints among the LGBT community regarding what constitutes membership. It becomes difficult to distinguish between right and wrong since there are so many opposing perspectives. (Gretchen was obviously wrong in her case; but, the whole Kara situation really threw me for a loop.)

Books should be both windows, a glance into another’s experience, and mirrors, a way to see yourself on the page. As a straight woman it is impossible for me to have the experience of being queer, dealing with people’s understanding or feelings towards my sexuality, or the nuances of the queer community. For that reason I think books like this are so important, to see that experience on the page, to read words and experiences that I can never have but that will make me a better ally and more understanding human. Imogene has always been the straight member of her mainly queer friend group, but what is she wasn’t? Is there space for her to find out who she really is and examine parts of herself that’s he had previously used aside! A great read that will become part of my classroom library for sure.