Author: Holly Bourne
Genre: young adult, contemporary, realistic fiction, romance
Published: August 1, 2014
Publisher: Usborne Publishing
Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository
Apparently I'm boring. A nobody. But that's all about to change. Because I am starting a project. here. Now. For myself. And if you want to come along for the ride then you're very welcome.
Bree is by no means popular. Most of the time, she hates her life, her school, her never-there parents. So she writes.
But when Bree is told she needs to stop shutting the world out and start living a life worth writing about, The Manifesto on How to be Interesting is born. A manifesto that will change everything...
...but the question is at what cost?
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Holly Bourne is officially an auto-buy author for me! The Manifesto on How to be Interesting is easily a 5-star read!!
{ 4 reasons why this book is NOT your annoying school drama }
An author in the making. Don't many of us just wants to write and get published? Bree is like that. Her writing though isn't the commercial type. I guess I'd say she's the writer whose work only few will truly appreciate. She had rejection letters from publishers and uses that to inspire herself to write more. But when her English teacher told her that her stories won't sell because it's not something people are interested to read - that she should live a more interesting life to write something interesting - her life basically did a 360-degree turn.
There's drama and There's reality.
Following Bree's English teacher's advice, she entered the life of drama by becoming interesting! She changed herself to look interesting and appear interesting. I've read books that involves the main character changing herself to appeal to others and they did not end well for me. But Bourne's way of entering Bree into the popular community completely blew me away!
Let's talk about that.
Bree knows what she's doing (at least parts of it). She's being pretty and popular to become interesting! They are all writing materials for her - the experience, her relationship. But we all know where this is going - reality butting in and telling her that everything won't really go her way. In some way, it reminded me of Mean Girls (they are completely different, of course, but the whole going into the popular clique and the ups and downs of the story quite resemble it).
Bourne's writing is full of descriptions (and metaphors)!
I LOVE Bourne's writing!! It's not just how she wrote Bree that convinced me that she's worth reading. It's her writing - her use of descriptions, how she talks about things, how she really made me feel experiences through metaphors. But you know, I really can't give justice at how great Bourne's writing is. Just. read. this. book.
At the end of your journey with Bree you'd come to realize things with her.
Or maybe not? This depends on how much you care about life, about the people around you, and maybe how you generally look at yourself. Are you a pessimist? An optimist? A person who wants to fit in? Someone who wants to greatly achieve something? This book may or may not speak to you but you'll still love the journey.
Bree's input about popularity, the point of bullying, and such will make you love this book. At some point you'll find yourself nodding with Bree. Realizing everything with her. She even tackled student-teacher relationship and bigger things like self-harm. This is definitely a book you must delve into right now!
OVERALL, The Manifesto on How to be Interesting is a contemporary read whose main character will completely attract you. Will you find her actions stupid and all? I don't know about you but Bree's decision may seem stupid or out of desperation but she does everything with a reason. She may not completely know that outcome of her actions, but you'll love her witty lines, life pondering, and metaphorical descriptions. Just read this now
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{ how about you }
How do you feel about books with main characters trying to fit in? How about books that involves bullying? Do you think these topics are overly used? How do you feel about school-drama books? Do you hate them? Like them?
let's connect!
