REVIEW: Geek Girl - Holly Smale

GENRE: Contemporary/Humour/YA
PAGES: 356

PUBLISHER: Harpercollins Children's

FORMAT: PB

BUY IT: Waterstones

RATING: 4 Stars

SUMMARY

"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?

REVIEW

I received Geek Girl after being invited as a bookseller to HarperCollin's 'Big Book Parade' - which was an absolute dream come true. Not only did we get to see all the awesome new books due out at the end of this year, but we also got to fill bags with whatever books took our fancy. For free. Reviewing doesn't seem like enough for the goodies publishers give us but hopefully being able to recommend a book like this goes some way to show how appreciative I am.

Geek Girl follows Harriet Manners on her way to stardom. After accidentally getting 'spotted' by a modelling agency at the Clothes Show she is whisked away, destined to become the World's Next Top Model. Unfortunately, Harriet was only at the show to help her best friend get spotted and now Harriet has to make the choice: follow a new path and opportunities that have opened up for her life, or stay true to her friend and turn it down? How do you follow you dreams when it means changing the lives of those around you?

Yes, the premise of this book is pretty farfetched, it might not exactly be every girl's dream, but the idea of being swept away to a bigger and better life but also getting to stay as who you are is pretty close. Geek Girl is nowhere near the type of book I would normally pick up. The cover and title make it sound like a chick-lit book about a girl who thinks she's such a geek because she does her homework but then the hottest guy in school falls for her. Blah blah blah. Yes, this is how I judge books when I look at them. Luckily I also listen to my colleagues recommendations - and this is importance of talking about books.

Harriet Manner's is actually the exact type of character that I love. She is almost a proper geek. It's quite slapstick in its comedy; she's uber clumsy and awkward but really sweet, kind and funny. And her supporting cast - her dad, best friend, and even her stalker - are all hilarious. They are pretty much caricatures of the types of weird people we all know. Her family are not exactly normal but they are pretty adorable. Its sugary-sweet in places but you don't really care, because it's so awesome. They also give the story their more serious and totally heartwarming parts. Oh, and don't worry girls, there's a guy - it wouldn't be a YA book with out one would it? - who is a fellow model. He's not an airhead though. In fact the whole part of the modelling world that he and Harriet are in is so quirky its almost a comment on the ridiculousness of the modelling industry as a whole...

Harriet has a very dry sarcastic sense of humour and even though everything bad that can happen does happen to Harriet I couldn't help but find it hilarious. It made me snort on the train and even though that is fairly embarrassing, and even though I live in Birmingham, at least you've never found me hiding under a table a the Clothes Show. And I've been to the NEC - it could have happened. I also loved that it was a British geek book - so many run on American geek vs. prep stereotypes.

Geek Girl is a Bridget Jones for a new age and a testament to anyone who ever feels socially uncomfortable. She's awkward, oblivious and just plain fab.

- Bex.

REVIEW: Torn - Car Clarke

GENRE: YA/Contemporary/Issues
PAGES: 384

PUBLISHER: Quercus

FORMAT: PB

BUY IT: Waterstones

RATING: 4 Stars

SUMMARY

Four girls. One dead body. A whole lot of guilt. Alice King isn't expecting the holiday of a lifetime when she sets off with her classmates on a trip to the Scottish wilderness, but she's not exactly prepared for an experience beyond her darkest nightmares...Alice and her best friend Cass are stuck in a cabin with Polly, the social outcast, and Rae, the moody emo-girl. Then there's Tara - queen of mean. Powerful, beautiful and cruel, she likes nothing better than putting people down. Cass decides it's time to teach Tara a lesson she'll never forget. And so begins a series of events that will change the lives of these girls forever...A compelling story of guilty secrets, troubled friendship and burgeoning love.

REVIEW

Torn is told from the perspective of Alice, a sweet level-headed girl with a kind heart. She tells us the story of what happens on a school trip, when she and her friends decide to take revenge on Tara, the school bully. Unfortunately it all goes horribly wrong.

Alice is in the middle of the school social scale - she's not one of the most popular kids but she's also not constantly bullied, like Polly is by Tara. When they're on a school trip and Tara is separated from her 'entourage' Cass, Alice's best friend, decides that it's time that Tara is taught a lesson for all the times she's put them all down. None of them thought their plan would go so horribly wrong. When Tara accidentally dies Alice must live with the guilt and fear of being discovered.

Cat Clarke is always completely spot-on in her portrayal of what it feels like to be in a British High School. I personally hated school, and can remember exactly what it's like to not be in the in-crowd. There's a survival instinct that kicks in that makes you just want to get through the day. Not only do you have to deal with the school work, but also the way you look and the things you say. And just hope that you can make the right friends.

The tension in this book is inescapable. You can completely understand and empathise with Alice's situation. The guilt so claustrophobic and so strong it penetrates the narrative to the point where I was almost screaming at her to tell someone. Her mental state manifests in her hallucinations of Tara, which I thought was a brilliant tool in helping Alice deal with the situation. It was really creepy in places and although you question why she does some of the things she does, at the same time you understand how easy it is to lose a grip.

Another thing I love about Clarke's books is the way she manages to weave the narrative into a tangled ball that is impossible to unravel. Everything happens because of everything else and people affect each other in ways you can't imagine. One event sets off a chain reaction that you could argue starts from when Alice was a much younger girl. When she meets Jack, Tara's brother, Alice falls for him. Obviously after what the girls allowed to happen to Tara this is less than ideal. They make such a sweet couple that I desperately wanted them to be together but there is always this penetrating guilt. You want to be able to erase it for her, and it makes you realise that from an outsider's perspective, and when you look at the hard facts, Alice doesn't deserve to have happiness with Jack. And yet I wanted her to.

I've loved every one of Cat Clarke's books. The narratives aren't challenging but they're so interesting and compelling that I always recommend her. I can actually associate with all of her characters and although you do get a certain amount of resolution there are so many possibilities that run through my head of what could happen after the books are finished, and I loved that. They seem so simply written but there is an incredible amount of depth.

- Bex.