The audacity of this book to know what it was like in my brain in high school!

Ok, so I didn't love the plethora of people introduced at the start (and I'm still not sure who Mel is?). Otherwise, this was a very cute story about fake exes, questioning sexuality, and a taste of college life. There's anxiety, nonbinary, lesbian, bi and ADHD rep.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review!

Thanks Balzer & Bray and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. I enjoyed Imogen’s journey to discovering her identity and queerness! Imogen is finally visiting her friend Lili at college, she’s nervous because all Lili’s friends are queer and as a straight girl she doesn’t want to encroach on their space. Imogen is the worlds greatest ally but as a result she becomes hyper aware of what she’s doing and second guessing herself! But she’s having a great time with Lili’s friends, especially Tessa. When the two grow close Imogen starts to wonder who she is? She’ll wonder if she’s missed something about herself. Is she queerbaiting or culturally appropriating? Imogen is charming, sweet, and so earnest! I love that Becky Albertalli discuss relevant topics to today like queerbaiting, who decides what is and isn’t queer, and first loves! I also love that Becky wrote a book that was relevant to her life, how she felt, and things that people felt and told her about herself! I think knowing all that helped me, as a reader, to feel Imogen’s struggles that much more! I highly recommend reading this especially if your queer, we could all use a reminder that there is no one right way to be queer, that it doesn’t have to be stagnant, and that you don’t have to have it all figured out from an early age! Can’t wait to read it again!

My experience of queer self-discovery was essentially the opposite of Imogen's. I never really thought I was straight, as soon as I learned that was a possibility, and I didn't face much pushback from anyone I knew when I told them. But somehow, I related more to Imogen than I have to any other main character of a Becky Albertalli book. I felt for her so hard as she tried to figure herself out; I laughed, I cried, and I thought long and hard about the reason why this book exists in the first place, and now I am angry. More than anything, I hope this book reaches the kids who need it most.

Imogens story was great! I really like Albertallis writing and just find it so easy to read. My only critique is that there is too much of her internal monologue. Some of it definitely could be cut down.

Albertalli can do no wrong and Imogen's story is no different. It was funny and it was important. Highlighting the turbulence that can affect anyone and marking the importance of having a good support system. Great characters who make you believe they people you know for real.

Imogen Obviously is an adorable young adult coming-of-age novel. As a queer person, Imogen was extremely relatable and it warmed my heart to read as she came into herself. This is a beautiful representation of questioning teens or just the fluidity of sexuality in general. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and if you are queer or the loved one of a queer person, you will enjoy it too!

Overall, I had a great time reading this book! Imogen is a sweet and caring main character, her inner turmoil and questioning of her sexuality and identity are all relatable and relevant. I loved how it’s emphasized throughout the book (either it manifesting through characters, or the main character stating explicitly) there is no one queer experience, that each is unique to each individual, and I appreciate this book even more for it (that there is no box queerness fits into, that there is no one queer “aesthetic”, that each experience is varied and that the journey to self-discovery is often not one straight line, but can rather trail in circles for some.)
Imogen and her inner turmoil, self-doubt, questioning and something akin to imposter syndrome were very familiar. That bit about Imogen thinking she’s an ally and not wanting to take space in queer discussions, and that keeping her from questioning and discovering her own sexuality does break my heart. I’d hope queer spaces are open especially for teenagers, and while we all have incredibly varied experiences and some decisions and reactions are rooted in trauma, I’d hope gatekeeping isn’t the answer.
At times I did find Imogen’s inner dialogue to be repetitive, and the book could have been a lot shorter if some inner debates were left out, but I though most of the texts were cute, Imogen’s interactions with her friends and especially Tessa were a nice little glimpse of her social persona. I definitely wish I had books like this in my late teens and early college years!

Wow! What a wonderful and timely story this was; and I feel this is the most personal work from Albertalli. ‘Imogen, Obviously’ is a story about finding your own truth while navigating the familiar waters of queerness. Imogen is a wonderfully written main character and the internal struggle of holding space in queer ideals, while struggling with her own identity was so relatable and harkened back to my own identity crisis of my younger years. The cast of characters around Imogen felt so real, and very relatable with the storylines within the plot.

If you are picking this book up, please be sure to read Becky’s forward before diving in as it truly sets the groundwork for the story to follow.

Thank you HarperCollins and NetGalley for this eARC!

I have read many books from Albertalli including Simon and have loved all of them. Imogen, Obviously is different though, because this one seems a bit more autobiographical than the others. Becky, like Imogen, had thought they were a great ally to the LGBTQ+ community, but realized that they were actually a part of it. Every member of the community has their own unique way of coming to terms with their identity and I’m glad that Albertalli shared hers with us. And the cover is super cute!
Imogen, Obviously was super fun and fast to read as it only takes place during a week's time. This week is spring break, where Imogen meets her best friend’s college friends and takes her on an adventure that changes everything. There was interesting conversation about the way some queer people treat their own community. I enjoyed most of the characters and I enjoyed the diversity within the college friend group as well as Imogen’s. I look forward to maybe seeing Imogen and Tessa in the future!

Mind-blowingly good. I couldn't put this book down.

It is upbeat with lots of humor, but also very deep... And deeply educational. Albertalli offers readers an intimate look at some real-world issues affecting members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Her characters are well-developed and diverse—with different gender identities, sexual identities and ethnic identities represented. Absolutely socially relevant.

This book is a true celebration of self-affirmation.

I really enjoyed this book. It has a lot to offer to any kind of reader that struggles with their identity and figuring out their needs place in the world.
It’s the kind of book that fits perfectly with young readers, and the characters are all well developed and fun.
The romance is cute, but really what makes this book so special is Imogen’s journey through her own coming out and identity.

Clearly this book is intensely personal for Albertalli. Her author's note gives. sense of how her own experience led her to write this book. And the book is very good! I fully enjoyed it and think it is funny and thought provoking. Imogen and Tessa are super cute and impossible not to root for. Gretchen is the worst. But the entire book feels a lot like Albertalli fighting back against every person on the internet who made her feel bad.
I think it will be helpful to some readers but it oversimplifies many things to make her point and at times it felt like a grievance diary.

Now that the hcp union has come to an end I can finally talk about this incredible book!!! I can see that Becky put a lot of herself in Imogen and I absolutely loved Imogen, Obviously. It got me out of a reading slump.

Being a teen is hard in general… everyone is trying to figure things out and most teens think every decision is life or death!
Being a teen, and trying to figure out if maybe you’d never realized something about yourself before, has got to be so difficult! Imogen Obviously by @beckyalbertalli is an incredible story about Imogen Scott as she wonders if maybe the way she’s seen herself isn’t the way she sees herself now. She works through if her feelings can change or if she’s just being classic Immy and trying to please people…
The story was so enjoyable, and the internal and external conflicts were so realistic. But what I really thought about are the people who might need this book, and how validated they’ll feel once they read it!
I got the chance to read it early from @netgalley. It comes out in May, you need to read it!!!
#ilovetoread #yaliterature #advancedreaderscopy

I'll be honest, the setting of this book seemed very unrealistic to me. More like a fantasy. I appreciate Albertalli's personal journey reflected in the book, however, and though it's not clear how much of Imogen is a representation of her, I liked it all the same.

Imogen is a lovely MC, and i quickly took a liking to her. Her dilemma and emotions felt truly genuine, and I love that the story is from Imogen's perspective because it adds so much. It is pretty sad how Imogen was constantly apologizing, even for feeling a certain way, but that was a sweet part of the character development.

I would actually love for Gretchen's experience to be touched upon, because all the characters seemed to come out very easily with no bad experiences. It makes sense for her personality if she has been through a lot, and sharing that is more realistic.

Plot-wise, the story felt unnecessarily dragged on. The second half is very happening, the first is slow and repetitive in terms of thoughts. I took a while to get used to the characters and settled in maybe 15 chapters in. (There's 60 chapters)

Now for the writing. I liked that the writing flowed easily and made the boring parts easier to read. In fact I read this pretty fast. I did eventually get sick of the chat messages popping up between every two chapters.

Special mention for the cover coz it is gorgeous. You have to zoom in a bit to witness its true detail and beauty, but once you notice, you can't forget it.

I received an ARC of the book from NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books in exchange for an honest review.

I am crying i love this book so much. I relate to Imogen so much. My bi awakening happened in college and I went “oh wait… maybe i am not straight” and I think this book really captures that feeling Man I love the bi questioning and also the getting past the bad queer stereotypes. Like which look is a bi look, or that there is a right way to be queer. I feel like it’s hard enough to deal with being queer and figuring out that identity when the allocishet people are criticizing you, but it’s so much harder when it is coming from within the community as well. This just really hit me in the feels.

On that note I loved the main characters. Imogen is adorable, funny, and sweet and I just love her. Lili is just such a relatable freshman in college. Tessa is… the best. She is so supportive and funny. And Imogen’s journey is just really heart warming. 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.

I wish that the beginning wasn’t so slow, the build up to the actual story was a lot of inner narrative and felt like it dragged on a bit. Once the story really started though, the pacing got a lot better.

This book is perfect for anyone who doesn’t feel like they’re “queer enough” or fit into the community. It’s for people who have been faced with the ugly side of the queer community. It’s for the questioning, those in the closet, and those who are just starting to come out to themselves or others. It’s for people who came out later in life. In essence, it’s for all of us.

Parent’s guide:
Sex & Nudity: mild (mentions of sex, discussion of whether to have sex)
Violence & Gore: mild
Profanity: mild (some swearing)
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking: mild (underage drinking)
Frightening & Intense Scenes: mild (homophobia, toxic queer sediments, getting outed)

I love this with my whole heart. Becky does it again!

Imogen, Obviously follows our mc, the titular Imogen, a senior in high school who identifies as a capital-A Ally to the LGBTQ+ community. Imogen visits her best friend Lili at college for the weekend and meets her entirely queer friend group, all of whom are under the impression that Imogen and Lili are exes. Throughout the weekend, Imogen acts in the role of bisexual, but starts to think maybe it's not an act after all. It's a somewhat chaotic, but kind of plausible introduction that reminds me just how fun YA is. Like, of course these teens are going to pretend to be exes for external validation-- that's some relatable cringe!

This slightly goofy plot lends itself well to introducing the main, serious discussion of the book, a controversial and difficult conversation topic: queerbaiting. Becky Albertalli poses the question, "Can real people queerbait?" through Imogen's navigation of her own sexuality as she battles not only internal doubt ("Am I appropriating queer culture?" or "Am I centering myself in queer spaces?"), but also external questioning (from her close friend Gretchen, an outspoken and opinionated voice on all things queer).

While these questions Imogen is asking herself (and Gretchen theorizes about to Imogen) can be cringe in the sense that they're all buzz words that have been overused to the extent that they are potentially losing their original meaning, it still feels authentic to the age of the characters. These are Gen-Z teens that are trying to navigate life as they come of age in the digital age, where discourse is constantly discoursing, and all the information they could want is at their finger tips.

This narrative is clearly very close to Albertalli, as noted in the author's foreword where she discusses her own experience being called a queerbaiter while closeted. (I love you, Becky. I'm so sorry that happened.) This personal closeness to the subject matter helped to make Imogen, Obviously so successful in my eyes. It is abundantly clear that Albertalli has looked at every angle of queerbaiting and dissected them all to present to the audience a window into the world of a real person being accused of queerbaiting. It's absolutely heartbreaking, but a message that evidently needs to be heard.

I really cannot compliment this book enough. From the characters, to the environments, to the wit, to the discourse...everything felt so real and personal and important. This is a text that will help young teens (and folks of all ages, really) understand what it means to be a queer advocate, both as an ally and as a queer person. I feel so fortunate to have read this, related to it so much, and be impacted by its value. Well done, Becky.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the eARC!

CONTENT WARNING: homophobia, biphobia, pressure to come out

I was really excited for this book. It’s probably the one I was most looking forward to this winter. Especially because the author has a lot of skin in the game—she used this opportunity to share some of her own feelings at the beginning of the book. And I was thrilled to see some of my own experience reflected in the story, as someone who didn’t come to the realization that I was bi until I was in college, and only came out to a select few for the longest time.

We’re quickly thrown right into the action, with Imogen heading to a college visit to see her best friend. She’s traveling with her inner circle, and we get to meet a variety of different personalities that surround her. Basically everyone that Imogen hangs out with is queer, and she’s firmly in the “token straight ally” box.

Imogen is dealing with plenty of anxiety, and at times her inner monologue was repetitive, but it was so easy to fall in love with her overall character. She’s sweet, considerate, thoughtful, creative, and fun. One of my favorite parts of the book was seeing how she interacts with the people around her, whether they’re people she’s known her whole life, or people that she literally just met. She just feels like the kind of person I want to pull out of the pages of the book and hang out with in real life.

As someone who always thinks of how others are feeling, and takes care to hold space for others and respect boundaries, this college visit upsets Imogen’s entire worldview. She’s pulled into a fake role that positions her as the bisexual ex-girlfriend of her best friend. She forms a connection with a queer girl, and her first concern is that she’s harmfully appropriating an identity, or falling into the trap of being a straight girl who is intrigued by a queer girl for the experience of it. Except that now she’s thinking about all of her past experiences through a different lens, and things are starting to look different.

“This is a book about a girl who steps outside that box for one weekend. It’s a book about disrupting your own default.”

I loved watching Imogen start to connect the dots in her own past and realize that maybe she wasn’t as heterosexual as she and everyone else has always been convinced that she is. And while it opens up a whole new world to her, it also comes with some confrontation. I was especially intrigued by how that played out, and seeing Imogen find her voice and stand up for her truth.

This was a fantastic book, and it’s a queer coming-of-age story that I found myself easily identifying with. It brought back amazing memories of college and finding a group of people that you fit right in with, and the incredible people you fit in with in high school and have known for so long it feels like they’re family. Overall, I fell in love with Imogen and the people she surrounds herself with, and how the whole story played out.

Thanks to NetGalley, HarperTeen, and Becky Albertalli for allowing me access to an eARC of this book.

I was an emotional mess throughout this entire book. Everything about it was so beautiful, relatable, and everything I needed as a teen. Imogen was a character I could really see myself in, and I didn't want her story to end. The portrayal of a teen girl trying to figure out her sexuality after years of being so sure it was something else was so realistic, and so similar to my own experiences as a queer woman who came out in her 20s.

This was one of my most anticipated releases for 2023, and now I can officially say it's one of my new favorite books.

Why was this book, specifically, about me? Why at 37 does this young adult book have me absolutely spiraling?

Other than that internal crisis, I loved this book. Imogen is such a lovely character. I loved her friendship with Lili (Gretchen can go to hell) and her relationship with her sister. It was also really funny? And the budding flirty relationship? Adorable.

Also in love with Leni Kauffman's cover art!