It takes an interaction of seventy-two different muscles to produce human speech, and right now not a single one of them is working.

The last place Harriet wants to be is at Clothes Show Live. She hates fashion and is much more comfortable with her nose in a book or reciting facts that no one else is interested in. But her best friend Nat believes this is her moment to be discovered. A series of unfortunate events leaves awkward Harriet in a position to steal Nat’s dream when she is discovered by a fashion scout. Is this something she even wants?

OK, I’m a little late to this book, and I went in knowing that everyone loves it to pieces. That can sometimes be problematic but I really enjoyed Geek Girl, the tone is friendly and engaging, with several laugh out loud moments. It was just what I needed at a point where my brain was distracted.

I liked the silliness of the fashion world, and Holly’s short career in modelling clearly hasn’t blinkered her. There’s a bit of a romance but it’s very much in the background, and it’s always nice to have a story about finding your place in the world where a boy isn’t the central focus. It’s also not an ugly duckling story, not really. Harriet doesn’t have one of those geek to swan make-overs, she’s picked because she’s awkward looking. She doesn’t magically fall in love with fashion or radically change herself.

Being transformed is incredibly dull. It’s like watching somebody you don’t know paint by numbers.

I did however think the lying aspect went a bit too far for me not to get annoyed with it. Everyone has little white lies, but why on earth would a teenager and her father lie to family, friends and school for such a big thing. It was so obvious they’d get caught out. It didn’t really seem logical. Your best friend is going to be so much more annoyed by lying than you getting to do something amazing, even if she’s a little bit jealous. I’m sure all of us have been jealous of our friends at some point in our lives. We get over it.

I did get a sense that being a geek was a bad thing in Harriet’s world. Are schools really still like that, considering geek jobs are now the cream of the crop? Maybe I can understand nerdiness still being out and Nerd Girl doesn’t have the same ring to it, but the whole we don’t like you because you’re a geek and only one of two in our class thing didn’t ring true.

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Also reviewed @ prettybooks | Vicky Thinks

Book Source: Purchased