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Review: Simon Sort of Says

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Simon Sort of Says
By Erin Bow
Los Angeles, CA: Disney-Hyperion, 2023. Fiction. 305 pgs.

12-year-old Simon O'Keefe and his parents just moved to middle-of-nowhere Nebraska. Literally. Grin and Bear It, NE is a National Quiet Zone -- a town without internet, cell phones, or television. This is the perfect place for a fresh start, especially for Simon, who is eager to escape his internet notoriety following a tragic event at his old school. For a while, things are going well in Grin and Bear It. Since no one can google him, Simon is able to disappear into the weirdness of his new small town with relative anonymity. Simon makes friends, helps to birth goats, chases escaped emus and an attack peacock. But, eventually, his secret comes out and spirals to catastrophe. 

It is a rare book that manages to be hysterically funny and heartbreakingly sad in equal measure -- but this is that book. Simon, and his friends Kevin and Agate, are characters that readers will root for -- whether they are engaged in madcap adventures or managing anxiety and trauma. Simon's traumatic secret, he survived a school shooting that took the lives of his friends and classmates, is sensitively handled and is balanced out in the book by madcap adventures of life in a small town. The overall message of healing is well-delivered. 
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