Revenge of the Geek by Piper Banks

Revenge of the Geek by Piper Banks ISBN-13: 9780451231345 Trade Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: New American Library Released: Nov. 2, 2010

Source: Unrequested review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover (slightly modified):
Whoever said imitation is the best form of flattery obviously never went to high school.

Miranda Bloom, girl genius, is totally psyched to start her junior year at Geek High. Too bad her boyfriend, lacrosse player Dex McConnell, is heading off to boarding school in Maine, leaving her to settle for a long-distance relationship. Miranda thought she could count on her best friends, Finn and Charlie, to cheer her up, but they're caught up in their own issues.

Miranda decides to make friends with the shy new student, Nora Lee. At first, things with Nora are great. But the more Miranda and she hang out, the more it seems like Nora is trying to take over Miranda's life. Nora's dressing like her, sucking up to Miranda's friends, and even trying to take her spot as a writer for the school magazine. When Miranda tells her friends, they think she's just jealous and they side with Nora!

Surviving at Geek High is hard enough without a copycat on your tail, and Miranda's not about to let some imitation artist take her place.


My Review:
Revenge of the Geek is young adult fiction with a humorous undertone. If, from the book's title, you expect the book to be dominated by a "battle of the brains" feud, that's not this story. It's about lonely teens who lack self-confidence and so feel jealous of what they think other teens have.

Miranda's a realistic but overall nice teenage girl, and her one act of "revenge" turned out to be the right thing to do even if it was initially motivated by the wrong reasons. Miranda's two best friends were quirky, but, overall, the other characters also seemed realistic even though we don't get to know them very well.

The suspense was created mainly by various relationship tensions and wondering how those would turn out. There was a very minor amount of bad language. There was no sex. This novel was the fourth in the series, but you don't need to have read the others to understand this story. Overall, I'd recommend this novel to teen girls as a fun read.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter One
"Just try them on, Miranda," Hannah, my stepsister, ordered me. She sounded like an army general sending troops into battle. Except that we weren't on a battlefield. It was even worse than war--we were at the mall.

Hannah had dragged me from one end of the Orange Cove Mall to the other, stopping in nearly every store we passed. We were now in J.Crew, and I was drooping with exhaustion.

"Why bother trying them on? They're my size," I said, double-checking the tag on a pair of skinny jeans. Then I saw the price. "These jeans cost eighty dollars!"

"So?"

"Why would anyone spend eighty dollars on a pair of jeans? That's insane. I could get these a Target for twenty bucks."

Hannah looked at me with a pitying expression. "No, you couldn't. Now go try them on."

I sighed. There was no point in arguing with her. I turned toward the dressing room.

"Wait," Hannah said. She handed over a huge pile of clothes--skirts, pants, tops. It looked like she'd gotten one of everything in the store. "Try these on, too."