Amaterasu Reads: Review: A Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading by Charity Tahmaseb

Geek Girl, meet World.

Readers, read this cute, funny love story that shook the very foundation of high school heirarchy.

The poster girl for the geek squad and the A-list Jock? Not going to happen. Really?

Title: Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading by Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance
Pages: 352
Release Date: April 30th 2009
Published by: Simon Pulse
Source: Borrowed
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Summary:

When Bethany -- self-proclaimed geek girl -- makes the varsity cheerleading squad, she realizes that there's one thing worse than blending in with the lockers: getting noticed. She always felt comfortable as part of the nerd herd, but being a member of the most scrutinized group in her school is weighing her down like a ton of textbooks. Even her Varsity Cheerleading Guide can't answer the really tough questions, like: How do you maintain some semblance of dignity while wearing an insanely short skirt? What do you do when the head cheerleader spills her beer on you at your first in-crowd party? And how do you know if your crush likes you for your mind...or your pom-poms?

One thing's for sure: It's going to take more than brains for this girl genius to cheer her way to the top of the pyramid.

I had the biggest grin pasted on my face when I finished reading this. And then came the realization that I needed to read Pride and Prejudice. I've read two other lovely YA contemporary books with the story deeply intertwined with Elizabeth and Darcy's story and if that's any indication of how good the Jane Austen novel is, then I know I'm in for a great read.

Novels like this make me miss high school. And when you say high school there's nothing that describes it better than the cliques. The popular ones make the lives of the nerds, the geeks and the not-so popular a living hell, and drama ensues every day. I miss seeing all of that and it made me reminisce while reading Bethany's story, who suddenly found herself caught between two different worlds. It's very entertaining to read through her story as she tried balancing the scale between being a geek and discovering (and unleashing) her inner school spirit through cheer leading.

This book reminds me so much of Epic Fail, another YA contemporary novel I loved reading. Only this time, it's the reverse. The guy is poor but extremely popular, and the girl is geek personified and had money. It's a matter of balancing every single thing in this book from time, studies, navigating through social circles in high school and trying to figure out where you stand when the geek and the jock fall in love. Should they hang out with her people or his people? Can one be a geek and still be popular? Can a jock be a geek? I love reading how they eventually figured it out. And who wouldn't be attracted to a guy who plays sports? Jack had the right recipe for popularity: a great face, a quiet personality and his reputation of swearing off women.

Cute but not to so fluffy. I love how this book deals with a lot of things we can all relate to. Family and the complications that comes along with being brought up in a certain lifestyle and surroundings. Friendships can fall through and be strengthened, and sometimes a little change, may it be from being a geek to a cheerleader or being popular suddenly, can mean a lot, for better or for worse.

A Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading is already worth the read by the number of times I laughed throughout reading. It's always entertaining to read a story through a point of view of a girl who's honest, sometimes sarcastic, most of the time funny. I won't deny that I've done the same crazy things Bethany did when I was in high school. Connecting with any of the characters won't be a problem since at one point in our high school lives we've encountered one like them. Give this book a try!

My rating

Content (plot, story flow, character):