Geek Girl - Holly Smale

Geek Girl by Holly Smale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“My name is Harriet Manners, and I am a geek.”

Harriet Manners 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. She knows that bats always turn left when exiting a cave and that peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

But she doesn’t know why nobody at school seems to like her.

So when Harriet is spotted by a top model agent, she 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 impossibly handsome model Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves.

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

As her old life starts to fall apart, will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?



I picked this book up as I have heard so much about it on twitter and how everyone enjoyed it.

The cover of the book is quirky and the theme of the glasses continues through the book at the bottom of the pages to identify the page number, this is something I thought was really unique.

I think that the topic covered in the book is perfect for the age group the book is intended for. Many teenagers find it very hard to fit in at school and during their teenage years, this book helps them to identify that they don't need to be the same as everyone else. That it is o.k to be different.

I liked the way this story was written, it was very easy to follow and flowed well. The characters, Harriet has humor and this comes across well in the book. I enjoyed reading Nat's character as I felt she was a true friend and someone that Harriet really needed. I was a little bemused with Toby's character and he seemed to make things worse for Harriet at times, he had a good personality though and it was clear her also genuinely cared for Harriet, even if he showed it in a strange way some time.

I didn't warm to Harriet's dad at all, I found his character a little silly and this spoilt some of the enjoyment of the book for me. I felt things he said were unbelievable for someone of his age and to have a daughter, at times it felt like he was the child in the relationship.

I loved Willbur's character and he regularly bought humor into the story, I was laughing out loud at times reading the conversations he would be having and this would make me want to continue reading just for the love of his character.

The way the story is written it allows you to get to know Harriet really well, you begin to almost feel you are her, right inside her head. I found this book an extremely quick read, I read it in a matter of hours. This is great for teenagers as the chapters are really short and you can always fit one more in and the writing is quite large.

Although some of the themes covered in this book are heavy issues, the way it has been told is in a more light hearted way, this allows teenagers to help to come to terms with some of the issues perhaps they are facing and can escape in this book.

This is a book that helps you realise individuality is a good thing and something you should be proud of, the book was written well and I can see many teenagers enjoying this book. For me I found although it was good I think I was a little old for it. I would read the sequel and recommend it to a younger audience.

I have given the book 4* down to the way the issues were addressed in this novel and the way it has been written, for my overall enjoyment of the book I would have rated it slightly lower, that however was just down to my pure enjoyment of the book.