So I’ve finished Geektastic and I must say that overall, I liked it quite a bit. It was humorous in some places, sad in others, which always makes for a great book. That perfect mixture of depressing and happy things. Yes, there are some completely depressing books out there (basically anything written by Jodi Picoult) and there are some completely happy books out there. I’m not saying that these kinds of books aren’t good, which they are. I personally happen to love Jodi Picoult and how she addresses controversial issues. But some of the best books are the ones that find the perfect balance between the sadness and happiness. Alas, I’m getting off topic. I tend to do that a lot where books are involved.
Anyway, back to Geektastic. This book is just filed with geeks becoming okay with who they, which I believe we need more young adult novels like that in this day and age. Our culture is becoming so focused on appearances that we sometimes forget that it’s okay to be who you are, and nobody should ask you to change. If they do, they’re not worth your time. I think that was the thing that I loved most about this book, that and some of my favorite authors had short stories written in this book. I shall share with you what my top 3 stores from this book were and why they in particular were my favorites.
“I Never” by Casandra Clare- I think this story was my favorite. Not because I think it was the best written one, the plot in the story was kinda predictable. However, I liked how the story just made you feel good after you were done reading it. It’s about a girl who’s dragged into this website where you pretend to be a character from a book, movie, TV show, etc., by her friend. She ends up talking with this guy, and basically falls in love with him. Her and her friend go to a get together for this website, and of course this guy will be there. But he’s not quite what she expects. I bet you can kinda predict where the story goes from there, but I just really enjoyed this story for some reason. It made me happy, and I like stories that can do that.
“Quiz Bowl Antichrist” by David Levithan- I always enjoy David Levithan’s work. He always writes such interesting stories, and this one is no different. This story follows Alec, an English nerd that’s a part of a quiz bowl team that’s full of math and science geeks. One of which he has a crush on. This may not sound like a very interesting story but….the thing is Alec has a crush on one of the guys on the team, not the one and only girl. And no one knows he’s gay. Basically, this story follows what happens when they go to one of their quiz bowl competitions, and quite a bit of crazy stuff happens. That’s what I like about David Levithan. He likes to weave these interesting stories, making them different than the reader expects. It’s nice to read a story and actually wonder how it will actually end, instead of predicting everything that will happen.
“The Truth About Dino Girl” by Barry Lyga- I liked this story because the main character, Katya, reminded me a lot of my sister. She is obsessed with dinosaurs, knows basically everything about them, and wanted to be a paleontologist when she was in kindergarten. This was my sister at one point, and reading all this about Katya made me smile. My sister used to be exactly the same way. The other thing I liked about this story was that it’s about the geek getting revenge. And sure, you see the stories where the geek is the outcast and comes to school one day with a gun and kills everyone that ever bullied him/her. But in this one, Katya was much more creative with her revenge, and it was kinda refreshing. I don’t know if I exactly agree with what she did, but I do like the reason why she did it.
All in all, this is a book that I would recommend anyone that considers themselves a “geek” to read. It didn’t contain anything about Harry Potter, unfortunately, but I did like what it did contain. I also enjoyed the definition of geek and geektastic that is provided on the inside cover, which I noticed the other day. It says:
“geek: 1. a person often an intellectual bent who is disliked 2. a person who is so passionate about a given subject or subjects as to occasionally cause annoyance among others
geektastic: marked by fantastic geek qualities; a compliment of the highest regard.”
Reading those definitions definitely made my day, and I believe that they would be excellent for t-shirts. Be proud of your geekdom. It’s what makes you cool 🙂