Geek Girl (#2) Model Misfit - Holly Smale
Published: 26/09/13
Publisher: Harper Collins (Children's)
Pages: 400
After reading Geek Girl at the beginning of last year, I was looking forward to catching up with Harriet and Nick. This book starts at the end of the school year and Harriet and her friends are breaking up for the summer holidays. Harriet has made a comprehensive spreadsheet of all the different activities Nat, Toby and her can take part in over the summer. However, when Nat declares she has to go to France as punishment over the holidays, Harriet feels disappointed. She needs to find a way to keep herself busy that doesn’t include hanging out with her embarrassing dad and her pregnant step mum. Cue the modelling job of a lifetime: Tokyo.
Harriet flies out to Tokyo and begins her modelling job but as always, things don’t quite go to plan and with an irresponsible grandmother, two new flat mates, Wilbur the camp as anything agent and Nick all in the mix, something is bound to go terribly wrong.
Holly’s writing style is absolutely spot on. For a younger reader it is littered with comical slapstick moments but then for an older reader it is also laced with wit and irony which adds a whole new layer to the plot. The idea of Toby being Harriet’s ‘stalker’ is just brilliant and Wilbur as a character is, what I imagine to be, a cross between Alan Carr and Gok Wan. I also love the addition of Harriet’s father and step-mum; they are the typical, cringe inducing, embarrassment of parents that we are all used to.
Harriet is a really great character to go on a journey with, there is always some kind of drama waiting for her around the next corner but it’s always exciting and quite reassuring to see her deal with all of the problems and come out of the other side as a much more experienced and well-rounded character. Nick is also a character I love and if it wasn’t inappropriate to fancy a fictional young boy, then I would fancy him; he’s just the kind of fictional boy you want to read about when you’re a young teenage girl. The plot was very clever and I didn’t pick up on what was happening straight away, it took me a while to predict where the story would go and even then, it was a bit of a surprise: a fantastic achievement in children’s books!
The pacing of Geek Girl: Model Misfit was near perfect, there was a reason for me to keep turning the pages and even though I didn’t ‘race’ through the pages to reach the conclusion, I certainly found myself reluctant to put it down.
I believe we will be treated to yet another book in the Geek Girl series this year which fills me with great happiness! Long may Harriet Manners continue to have comical adventures so we can read all about them!
Publisher: Harper Collins (Children's)
Pages: 400
After reading Geek Girl at the beginning of last year, I was looking forward to catching up with Harriet and Nick. This book starts at the end of the school year and Harriet and her friends are breaking up for the summer holidays. Harriet has made a comprehensive spreadsheet of all the different activities Nat, Toby and her can take part in over the summer. However, when Nat declares she has to go to France as punishment over the holidays, Harriet feels disappointed. She needs to find a way to keep herself busy that doesn’t include hanging out with her embarrassing dad and her pregnant step mum. Cue the modelling job of a lifetime: Tokyo.
Harriet flies out to Tokyo and begins her modelling job but as always, things don’t quite go to plan and with an irresponsible grandmother, two new flat mates, Wilbur the camp as anything agent and Nick all in the mix, something is bound to go terribly wrong.
Holly’s writing style is absolutely spot on. For a younger reader it is littered with comical slapstick moments but then for an older reader it is also laced with wit and irony which adds a whole new layer to the plot. The idea of Toby being Harriet’s ‘stalker’ is just brilliant and Wilbur as a character is, what I imagine to be, a cross between Alan Carr and Gok Wan. I also love the addition of Harriet’s father and step-mum; they are the typical, cringe inducing, embarrassment of parents that we are all used to.
Harriet is a really great character to go on a journey with, there is always some kind of drama waiting for her around the next corner but it’s always exciting and quite reassuring to see her deal with all of the problems and come out of the other side as a much more experienced and well-rounded character. Nick is also a character I love and if it wasn’t inappropriate to fancy a fictional young boy, then I would fancy him; he’s just the kind of fictional boy you want to read about when you’re a young teenage girl. The plot was very clever and I didn’t pick up on what was happening straight away, it took me a while to predict where the story would go and even then, it was a bit of a surprise: a fantastic achievement in children’s books!
The pacing of Geek Girl: Model Misfit was near perfect, there was a reason for me to keep turning the pages and even though I didn’t ‘race’ through the pages to reach the conclusion, I certainly found myself reluctant to put it down.
I believe we will be treated to yet another book in the Geek Girl series this year which fills me with great happiness! Long may Harriet Manners continue to have comical adventures so we can read all about them!
Laura