Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

by

Becky Albertalli

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Leah Character Analysis

Leah is one of Simon's best friends. She joined the friend group with Nick and Simon in sixth grade, and she spends many afternoons hanging out with Nick in his basement, playing video games. She's very into manga and even introduced Simon to yaoi, a genre of manga drawings that depict homoerotic relationships between different TV or book characters. She's also responsible for introducing Simon to the world of gay Harry Potter fanfiction. Leah is generally prickly in nature and is often self-conscious and snappy. Simon attributes this to Leah's very obvious but unrequited crush on Nick. Because of this Leah also doesn't like Abby very much, given that Nick clearly has a crush on Abby. It's implied that Leah doesn't dress in a particularly feminine way, given that her interpretation of gender-bender day during Spirit Week is to dress in an extra feminine way. Despite Leah's difficult nature, she's extremely caring and loves celebrating her friends—she started the tradition of bringing in birthday sheet cakes for people who sit at her lunch table. When Leah finds out that Simon came out to Abby before he came out to her, she's extremely hurt though she tries to pretend otherwise. When Simon is finally able to talk to her about it, he discovers that Leah sees Abby as an upgraded version of his female best friend and believes that Simon is pushing her away in favor of other female friends. She does eventually forgive him. At the school talent show, Simon and Nick discover that Leah is the drummer in a band called Emoji along with Taylor, Nora, and two other girls. Leah admits that she spent two years teaching herself to play the drums.

Leah Quotes in Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

The Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda quotes below are all either spoken by Leah or refer to Leah. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Agency and Control Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

Leah once said that she'd rather have people call her fat directly than have to sit there and listen to them talking shit about some other girl's weight. I actually think I agree with that. Nothing is worse than the secret humiliation of being insulted by proxy.

Related Characters: Simon Spier (speaker), Leah, Alice Spier, Nora Spier, Mom, Dad
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

I hate feeling so distant from Nick and Leah. It's not like keeping a normal crush a secret, because we never talk about our crushes anyway, and it works out fine. Even Leah's crush on Nick. I see it, and I'm sure Nick sees it, but there's this unspoken agreement that we never talk about it.

Related Characters: Simon Spier (speaker), Leah, Nick
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

The problem is, I'm beginning to realize I hardly know anything about anyone. I mean I generally know who's a virgin. But I don't have a clue whether most people's parents are divorced, or what their parents do for a living […] And these are my best friends. I've always thought of myself as nosy, but I guess I'm just nosy about stupid stuff.

Related Characters: Simon Spier (speaker), Blue / Bram, Abby Suso, Leah, Nick
Page Number: 211
Explanation and Analysis:
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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda PDF

Leah Quotes in Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

The Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda quotes below are all either spoken by Leah or refer to Leah. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Agency and Control Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

Leah once said that she'd rather have people call her fat directly than have to sit there and listen to them talking shit about some other girl's weight. I actually think I agree with that. Nothing is worse than the secret humiliation of being insulted by proxy.

Related Characters: Simon Spier (speaker), Leah, Alice Spier, Nora Spier, Mom, Dad
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

I hate feeling so distant from Nick and Leah. It's not like keeping a normal crush a secret, because we never talk about our crushes anyway, and it works out fine. Even Leah's crush on Nick. I see it, and I'm sure Nick sees it, but there's this unspoken agreement that we never talk about it.

Related Characters: Simon Spier (speaker), Leah, Nick
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

The problem is, I'm beginning to realize I hardly know anything about anyone. I mean I generally know who's a virgin. But I don't have a clue whether most people's parents are divorced, or what their parents do for a living […] And these are my best friends. I've always thought of myself as nosy, but I guess I'm just nosy about stupid stuff.

Related Characters: Simon Spier (speaker), Blue / Bram, Abby Suso, Leah, Nick
Page Number: 211
Explanation and Analysis: