{Review} Geek Girl (Geek Girl #1) by Holly Smale

Posted by Donna
Release Date: February 28th, 2013
Finished Date: November 20th, 2015

Publishers: HarperCollins Children's Books
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Source: For Review
Format: Paperback 

Pages: 378
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / Book Depo 

 

Harriet Manners knows a lot of things. 

She knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a "jiffy" lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. What she isn't quite so sure about is why nobody at school seems to like her very much. So when she's spotted by a top model agent, Harriet grabs the chance to reinvent herself. Even if it means stealing her Best Friend's dream, incurring the wrath of her arch enemy Alexa, and repeatedly humiliating herself in front of the impossibly handsome supermodel Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves. 

As Harriet veers from one couture disaster to the next with the help of her overly enthusiastic father and her uber-geeky stalker, Toby, she begins to realise that the world of fashion doesn't seem to like her any more than the real world did. 

And as her old life starts to fall apart, the question is: will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?

The Review: Geek Girl is a highly popular book in the YA book community so the question I ask myself is why didn't I read it sooner? I have no clue but once I started this book it was one of them reads that was just hard to put down. 

Harriett Manners is such a lovable and relatable character and it was a pleasure reading her story. In Geek Girl we see her try to reinvent herself from her geek girl status. She’s sick of being seen as a geek, so when the opportunity arises for her to be a model, Harriett decides to take it because she hopes she can become someone. But will this really make Harriett happy?

As I said I really loved Harriett as a character. She was quirky and fun and I loved the random facts that she through-out into the story and I actually found myself wanting to hear more of them. I could totally understand why Harriett wanted to be someone different – don’t we all go through that at some stage in our lives? There’s definitely a lot of pressure on teenagers to be better but I’m glad the end message was the right one – BE WHO YOU WANT TO BE! If you’re a geek, then so be it, there’s nothing wrong with it.

I love the relationships in this book! Harriett’s family were so entertaining – especially her father. He’s such a good guy. He had me laughing-out-loud at some of the things he said. Her step-mother was a little harder to handle because I felt she was always so hard on Harriett and her Dad. But when her step-mum was being nice, I liked her. Things are definitely going to get interesting for the three of them now and I’m excited to see what plays out next. Then we have her best friend Nat who I also liked. We do see their friendship go up and down during this book but you could still see great friendship they have.

Now as for a romance in the story, there isn't much. There are two boys who are present in the story and I liked one more than the one, however, I have a feeling as this series progresses things will change. I do really like Nick though. 

In all, Geek Girl is an entertaining YA story that is so easy to read that you'll easily fly through the pages. And I for one can't wait to read more!

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.