Reader: David LAge: 16
Title: Geektastic
Author: Edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Pub Date: 08/01/09
Galley: Yes
Nominate for Teen's Top 10: No
Recommend: Yes
Convince us to read the book: Many of the stories, especially the first few, are quite enjoyable and well written. It's tough to relate to the conventioners, but reading about our historical counterparts is fun.
Compelling Aspect of the Book: The part of the book that kept me reading was my hope that I would be able to relate to the characters in the short story. In most cases, I could not. The short stories were fun and interesting reads, though.
Did you finish: Yes
Were you disappointed with the book: I was quite disappointed when I realized how little Geektastic can relate to nerds or geeks who are similar to me and how badly it portrays us. There were a few stories, namely “Everyone But You” and “It's Just a Jump to the Left” that simply didn't even brush upon the ideas of geekdom. Oh, and making up words like that is not something that the geeks of the modern era do, especially when the made up word or phrase sounds cool, but is dumb and doesn't make logical sense. I was also dismayed by the overuse of swear words. In my experience, high school geeks are much less likely to swear than other high school cliques and seeing so many f-words and b-words was upsetting.
Did the cover tempt you and/or reflect the contents of the book: No, the cover was somewhat garish and annoying. It did catch my attention, but I'd change the title, for one. It really is... umm awkwardly misplaced? The sort of thing that a popular kid would say. The subtitle, Stories from the Nerd Herd is simply offensive (although it's tough to put why it is into words). I'm quite the nerd, but I would never call myself a part of a herd. Especially in this case. Since when are there that many nerds? Since when have we geeks been people who allow the society to herd us? It is definitely not a turn-on for nerds or geeks of this generation.
Age Range: 14-15, 16-17
Quality: 4Q Better than most
Popularity: 3P Some teen appeal
1 comment:
Y'know, my complaints about this book are nigh-on identical to mine. Except I loved the cover. It's 8 bit renderings of the contributing authors!!!! What's not to love?!?!?!?!!
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