let your geek flag fly

BOOK REPORT for geek magnet by kieran scott

bff charm: yay!
swoonworthy scale: 5
talky talk: almost right on
bonus factor: grease
relationship status: high school sweethearts

the deal: kj miller is a geek magnet. everywhere she turns, they’re falling over her with their pocket protectors and lame jokes and braces and bad skin. unfortunately for her, kj is too nice to tell them no — and they’re getting in the way of her being noticed by the cool kids. including (and especially) cameron. but things are starting to turn around for kj (at school, anyway), now that she’s been made stage manager of the spring musical and popular girl tama has taken her under her wing.

bff charm: yay!

dude, i would SO be bffs with kj. except it probably means i’m a major geek (um … like i hadn’t figured that out). i actually really felt like i was back in high school with this girl, squealing on the phone at night over-analyzing convos with the hot guy of the minute and juggling 3 or 4 different IMs at the same time. plus, kj needs a good bff. i mean, her real bffs in the book are fantastic, and i love them too, but she falls prey to the classic popular girl frenemy trick too often. and her home life SUCKS. major alcoholic father, mom who can’t deal, little brother who needs protecting — kj needs all the bffs she can get. although she ends the book even more awesome than she begins the book, i actually really love her from the beginning. she’s witty and observant (the whole “i’m like the drum major of the geek parade” line is one example), and i could def. identify with her (although she totally needed someone to give it to her straight at times).

swoonworthy scale: 5

kj has a major crush on the hot, popular jock boy cameron, of course. but there’s also robbie, the way magnetic indie drama boy who wants tips on how to get a date with tama the popular girl frenemy, and it’s their relationship that’s full of the angsty, confusing tingliness i lurv so much about YA books. you know, when you start liking a different boy than the one you’ve been in love with since kindergarten. there’re a couple of great scenes — one involving a ginger rogers-esque movie — that up the swoon and sigh factor, but a lot of the book is just about true friendship and dealing with major dramz, and there’s not a lot of swooniness in that. but a totally solid, respectable 5.

talky talk: almost right on

ok, the dialogue (inner and external) is def. right on. i love kieran scott (author of the way awesome bring-it-on-ish non-blonde cheerleader series) kj and her friends are smart and funny, and they talk like real people. there are a few extraneous “likes” thrown in, but, like, isn’t that how people talk? the oooonly thing were the (admittedly very few) pop culture references. i mean, this book came out in 2008, but there’s a reference to hillary duff. AND it made me feel super old when kj goes cd shopping with robbie (do kids buy cds?) and has an inner monologue about never having heard an r.e.m. song. i almost cried. also apparently a cinematic reference to an officer and a gentleman is “like, way really old” and none of the kids had seen it. totally adds realism to the book, but y’all. i guess this is why i’m an A in YA. oh, and the frenemy’s name? TAMA. wtf? totally not a real name, and my brain kept changing it to “tana.”

bonus factor: grease

you guys! the plot revolves around the spring musical, and it’s GREASE! robbie’s danny, tama’s sandy, and there are tons of side characters in the book straight out of my high school’s drama club. the drama twins, the diva who’s done some professional company work, the exhausted teacher, the creepy A/V guy. and it’s grease! my high school couldn’t afford the public performance rights for grease, so they put on oklahoma! instead. and it’s too bad, because lindsay can’t-remember-her-last-name was BORN to play rizzo.

casting call:

this book was actually soooo easy for me to cast, for once. maybe because all the characters reminded me of my high school?

bonnie wright as kj

bonnie wright (aka ginny weasley) def. has the sweet, freckle-faced charm needed for kj. can you imagine ginny being a bitch to the geek patrol? didn’t think so. plus, i think she totally has the chops to handle the major emotional scenes with kj’s messed up family life.

chad michael murray as cameron

chad michael murray is getting old, but he plays entitled and hot-but-sleazy soooo well.

henry cavill as robbie

mmm. henry cavill… he’s like a million years too old now, but damn. look at him in i capture the castle! just the right sweetness and strength for robbie.

telisha shaw as tama

this girl has the looks and attitude to be the perfect tama. doesn’t she just scream “diva”?

relationship status: high school sweethearts

y’all, this book is so sweet. it’s funny and smart and kind and innocent, just like you’d want your high school sweetheart to be. it’s not a book you can be embarrassed about 10 years later when your grownup partner sees a photo of you two before prom at your parents’ house. it’s a book you’ll look at fondly, and enjoy keeping in touch with later on. it’ll make you remember high school with nostalgia when you’re in your hometown and go to the grocery store with your mom and run into this book with it’s wife and baby.

Related posts:

1. Fly, Icharus

Tagged as: drama club, geeks, grease