Leah on the offbeat

Leah on the Offbeat is a young adult novel written by Becky Albertalli. Although it is the third installment in the Creekwood Series, and a direct sequel to Simon vs Homo Sapien Agenda the second book The Upside of Unrequited is more of a spin-off.

The story follows Leah Burke and her struggle to come out as bisexual to her friends during her senior year of high school.

Blurb
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.

Plot

 * To be added

Characters

 * Leah Burke – The young protagonist of the novel who is the drummer in the band Emoji. She has a deadpan, sarcastic sense of humor and is known to bottle up her feelings. She is very insecure and struggling to deal with her bisexuality.
 * Simon Spier – Leah's best friend with whom she was secretly in love when they were younger. He is supportive, enjoys Oreos, musical theatre, Elliott Smith and Bram Greenfeld.
 * Nick Eisner – A talented singer, guitarist and soccer player and one of Leah's best friends. Towards the end of Simon, Nick began a relationship with Abby, much to Leah's annoyance.
 * Abigail Suso – Nick's girlfriend and one of Simon's closest friends. Leah is head over heels in love with Abby.
 * Bram Greenfeld – Simon's boyfriend, a quiet, polite and cute soccer player.
 * Garrett Laughlin – Bram's best friend and a member of the soccer team with Bram and Nick. Garrett has a crush on Leah and is a part of her larger circle of friends.
 * Morgan – One of Leah's friends and the keyboardist in Emoji. She is Jewish and the events that occurred at her bat mitzvah are frequently mentioned by the other characters. In the novel, Morgan says something that causes Leah's group to fracture.
 * Anna – One of Leah's friends and the bassist in Emoji. She is Chinese-American, wears black eyeliner and reads manga.
 * Nora Spier – Simon's younger sister and the guitarist in Emoji. Nora is not very assertive but described by Simon as "under the radar cool".
 * Taylor Metternich – Leah's self-obsessed, pretentious classmate and lead singer of Emoji.
 * Cal Price – One of Leah's classmates and the stage manager of the school's theatre production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.
 * Martin Addison – One of Leah's classmates who is universally disliked by the majority of the characters because he blackmailed and later outed Simon.
 * Jessica Keane – Leah's mother. A lawyer to whom Leah is very close. Leah tells her everything, including the fact that she is bisexual.
 * Wells – Jessica's new boyfriend. Leah dislikes him because he is older and says things like "oh fudge".
 * Caitlin – Abby's cousin's girlfriend's friend's sister who lets Abby and Leah stay in her apartment.

Trivia

 * To be added