We’ve said it many times before, and we’ll say it again: our love for the Simonverse books by Becky Albertalli is never-ending!
The drama around Simon Spier and the rest of the Creekwood High crew always leaves us laughing and crying in equal measure. And since Becky wrote Love, Creekwood, an epilogue novella, we have the perfect excuse (not that we really needed one) to dive back into the series and catch up with our favorite characters! We already recapped everything you need to know about Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, so now it’s time for one of Simon’s best friends to take center stage. That’s right—this is the recap of Leah on the Offbeat! But before we start…
Now here’s everything you need to know about our queen, Leah Burke, and Leah on the Offbeat.
What Happened in Leah on the Offbeat?
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
You can find out more details about the main characters in the Simon vs. recap, so here’s just a quick update on where they stand at the start of Leah on the Offbeat!
• Simon Spier & Bram Greenfeld: Or as you may know them, Simon Spier and Blue. They are officially boyfriends and their relationship is beyond adorable. We will never let anything get in the way of their happiness! 😍
• Nick Eisner & Abby Suso: They got together despite Martin’s interference, and these two are also still dating, but something seems off with them. Is there trouble in paradise?
• Leah Burke: Our rockstar and queen of sarcasm is just trying to hold on—to her bad#&s girl band, her amazing friend group, and a secret about herself she’s just not ready to tell everyone.
• Garrett Laughlin: He’s on the soccer team with Bram and Nick, and definitely crushing on Leah.
• Nora Spier: She may be Simon’s younger sister, but she’s actually cooler than all of us.
• Nora, along with Morgan, Anna, and Taylor Metternich (who, we’ll admit, is A Lot™ in the best way), make up the rest of Leah’s band.
• Martin Addison: Still the worst. Still does not deserve rights.
• Theater Rehearsal and Waffle House: Really, what else would you expect this book to start with? Leah heads from her band practice to watching Simon, Abby, and Nick rehearsing for the school play. And then the whole gang meets up at Waffle House where they start discussing college plans. Nick and Simon are going on a road trip to visit schools in the Northeast and Bram has already been accepted to Columbia. Abby and Leah will both be at the University of Georgia and Leah isn’t sure how she feels about that because it’s hard for her to stand how sweet and pretty and happy Abby is. There are comparisons to Disney princess eyes and “human candy corn” and apparently that’s all it takes for us to start shipping them.
• The Play: Garrett asks Leah if she wants to go watch their friends perform in the school play together and he’s so earnestly adorable about it all, making sure she’s definitely coming and that she sits next to him, which mostly just makes Leah roll her eyes. He also asks her to come watch his soccer game the next day and she agrees. But after an awkward lunch with her mom and the new guy she’s dating, Leah doesn’t have the energy to deal with anything else and bails on the soccer game, but let’s Garrett believe she was actually there.
• Morgan is The Worst™: Leah’s friend Morgan finds out she didn’t get into the University of Georgia and is depressed and avoiding Leah. When they finally talk again, Morgan starts going on about how unfair it is that she didn’t get into UGA while other people did so it must because she’s white. But Leah realizes what Morgan is really saying: that Abby only got in because she’s Black. Leah is outraged and calls Morgan out as a racist in front of their friends, refusing to let Morgan excuse away her comments and basically showing what standing up and being an ally is. Morgan ends up quitting their band after a tense standoff during their next practice. Morgan, along with Martin, does not deserve rights.
• Quick Backstory Before The Best Promposal in History: Leah tells Bram how Simon claims he hates the movie Love, Actually but secretly loves it and once wrote a fanfiction story about it that Leah tried for weeks to find. Bram of course finds the story in about 5 minutes because true love means knowing someone that well. Please enjoy Leah reading the fanfiction summary:
“Original male character based closely on Joanna. Just a fluffy m/m retelling of the school concert scene. Smiley face.” I look up at Bram, grinning. “Oh my God. Simon was such a sweet baby gay, writing the gayest fanfiction. I love it.” SAME, Leah
• The Best Promposal in History: Leah and Nora are in charge of stalling Simon on his way to school because he likes to get there early to do homework with Bram (SO PRECIOUS) and then they come up with an excuse to get him to the music room which is lit up with Christmas lights that Simon somehow doesn’t notice. Leah tells Simon he should try playing the drums and as soon as he does the beautiful opening notes of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” start and Bram bursts out of the storage closet lip-synching into a hairbrush while Garrett, Nick, and Abby act as his back up dancers and Leah records the whole thing. And Simon is just sitting at the drum sit “quietly losing his shit” because BRAM RECREATED HIS FANFICTION STORY. Simon obviously says yes when Bram asks him to prom at the end of the song and then they kiss and our hearts cannot take how adorable it is!! If there is ever a scene in a book that will put a permanent smile on your face IT’S THIS ONE. Seriously, we haven’t stopped smiling just from writing this paragraph.
• The Best Avoidance of a Promposal in History: Leah notices Garrett is acting extra weird around her and gets confirmation from Bram that he is planning a promposal too. The last thing she wants is to be the center of a public scene, so in typical Leah fashion, she pulls Garrett aside and gets straight to the point by just telling him she’ll go to prom with him. Garrett is so happy and even though Leah still isn’t sure exactly how she feels about him she does think Garrett is sweet in a goofy, roll-your-eyes-at-him way.
• The Break Up: Abby breaks up with Nick because she doesn’t want to be in a long distance relationship when they go to college next year. Simon is worried about both of them because they seem like such a perfect couple and he also doesn’t want their friend group to fall apart. He asks Leah if she can talk to Abby to convince her to get back together with Nick but Leah doesn’t really want to meddle.
• Road Trip: Leah and Abby go to visit the UGA campus over spring break. And yes, their flirty banter during the drive is giving us life! They go to a party that someone Abby knows invited them to and after more flirty banter a slightly drunk Abby kisses Leah. Abby tries to laugh it off but Leah is hurt because that was her first kiss. She tells Abby that she’s not straight and the reason they stopped being friends after Abby first moved to town was because Leah really liked her and couldn’t deal with the mixed signals Abby kept giving her. Abby admits that she liked Leah too but was intimidated by her and unsure about how she identifies. Neither of them really know how to process all this and the drive back home is just a little tense.
• More College Drama: Simon was certain he wanted to go to NYU, especially since Bram will be at Columbia. But then Simon tells Leah he fell in love with Haverford, a school near Philadelphia, on his college tour because it was full of “nerdy gays.” Now he’s scared to tell Bram he might not want to go to New York with him next year.
• Pre-Prom: While taking pictures, Morgan pulls Leah aside and finally admits how much she f#cked up and that she apologized to Abby. Leah knows she’s being sincere but still isn’t sure if she can completely forgive her. Simon finally told Bram about Haverford and of course he supports Simon’s decision. Garrett was in charge of making a dinner reservation and thought he picked a place called American Grill Bistro but it was actually the American Girl Bistro as in the whole group had to eat dinner inside the American Girl Doll store. Abby, Simon, and Bram obviously all rent dolls to sit with them. Can we all agree this night is off to an amazing start?!
• Prom: Leah realizes she should make the most of this night because it already hurts how much she will miss a lot of people next year. Nick and the rest of the boys soccer team do a surprise choreographed dance routine. And then the theater boys start a dance battle with them. If only we could actually watch this happening!! Then while Leah is dancing with Garrett they see Nick making out with Taylor Metternich so Leah rushes to find Abby, who also saw the whole thing.
• Abby + Leah 4ever: Abby isn’t actually upset about Nick; she’s worried she screwed things up with Leah by not being honest about her feelings and that this whole time “we could have been like Simon and Bram.” But even though Leah is pretty sure she’s in love with Abby, she doesn’t want to hurt Nick because it’s obvious he’s still hung up on Abby, so she says it’s not a good time to start something. Abby tells her to just go back to her date and Leah almost does but then she sees Simon and Bram being cute together and starts crying. She runs back to find Abby because she doesn’t want to wait months to finally be happy. Leah kisses Abby and this moment is PURE. JOY. They decide they’re going to be girlfriends and also roommates at UGA and this brings us EVEN. MORE. JOY. Simon and Bram see them kissing and Leah and Abby both come out as bisexual and Simon and Bram are so happy for them and we might definitely be crying tears of joy at this point.
• The End (but not really): The book ends with Leah at college replying to an email from Simon wishing her a happy birthday. Leah can’t believe how happy she is living with Abby and that they are saving up for a trip to New York to see Simon and Bram.
Did that tiny glimpse into their college life also have you dying to know more about how the whole gang is doing? Then thank goodness Becky Albertalli has gifted us with Love, Creekwood, the novella written entirely in emails between Simon, Bram, Leah, Abby, and a few others during their first year of college!