Book Review: Geek Girl by Holly Smale

Title: Geek Girl

Author: Holly Smale
Series: Geek Girl, #1
Pages: 378
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's
Date of Publication: 28th February 2013
Source: Publisher*
Synopsis from Goodreads:
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?

My Thoughts:
First off, I'd like to apologise for the lateness of this review! There's no excuse, really. I'm just lazy... Anyhoo.

I absolutely adored Geek Girl. I wanted to read it because with a title like Geek Girl I couldn't not (right?!), but I was a little bit wary of the whole modelling and fashion side of things. I am just not interested in fashion. Sure, I like clothes, but I couldn't care less about what's 'in' at the moment, and I think that models can really be far too skinny. Anyway, I digress. So I wasn't completely sure I'd enjoy it, but I gave it a go anyway seeing as so many of my blogger friends loved it so much. And I loved every bit of it too.

I really liked Harriet, and I loved that I could relate to her completely. Weirdly, I was in her position just a couple of weeks before I read Geek Girl - I was going on a school trip to The Clothes Show Live at the Birmingham NEC and I really just didn't want to go. The idea of going on a four hour coach trip to look at lots of clothes was not fun especially, as like Harriet, my friend was ill and couldn't go (I think that's what happened?). So, I could empathise with her completely. She was also really great in that she stood up for what she believed in and I guess you could say she took a pretty unconventional approach to modelling? I guess I just liked that she had some guts, and made modelling seem a lot more real and even a little bit appealing to me, and showed that it is not just some super skinny girls not really doing anything, just walking around and pouting, which is all I'd really thought it was before.

The other characters were great too - I'm pretty sure I don't need to say that much about Nick, apart from that he was just super awesomely perfect and I'm looking forward to reading about him more in the next book. I also really liked Toby, Harriet's geeky, just-plain-weird stalker friend. He was really dorky and he made me laugh, but despite this he was there for Harriet when she needed a friend, so there was more to him and I liked that. Lastly, Harriet's relationship with her dad was great too and I loved how Holly really brought it out in the book - family relationships are just as important, if not more so to a teenager, than romantic ones. So super happy to see that in Geek Girl!

Surprisingly for me, the parts of the book in which Harriet was modelling or travelling to a shoot were my favourites, I think. They just seemed so fun! I loved the shoot in Moscow, and imagining Harriet wobbling around in too-high heels made me laugh out loud, as did the catwalk show. It's not often that I will literally laugh out loud at a book - they often make me smile, but an actual laugh is rare... But I laughed more than once at Geek Girl. Sign of a great book, right there!

The plot was super fast and exciting and things just kept on happening. I've heard that a lot of people felt that the speed in which events took place in the book was unbelievable and rushed in comparison with real life, but having listened to Holly talk about her own modelling experience at the launch party, it seems that it's actually pretty accurate (not that I would really know, I know... :P) Anyway. Not once did I think that it was unrealistic - I just got completely engrossed in the story and loved every minute of reading it, so don't worry about that.

I think it's pretty obvious how much I loved this book, and I definitely think that you should go out and get yourself a copy if you've not got one already, and read it! I cannot wait to read the second one, but I think it'd also have worked well as a standalone (though don't get me wrong, I'm really glad there'll be more of Harriet's story!) I'd recommend if you're looking for a light-hearted read that'll make you laugh out loud, has fantastic characters and many gorgeous settings. It's just brilliant!


*Huge thanks to HarperCollins for sending me this in exchange for an honest review, in no way has this affected my opinion of the book. Also, again, I'm so sorry this review is ridiculously late!