Kicking off my book reviews with The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash! This was listed on my book haul post and I dove right into it despite my ever growing list of tasks.
When I first picked it up, off the little cart of books that might as well have been labeled “Sarah Read Me I’m New AF”, I was interested. While I’ve mostly grown away from the high school love story plot line I didn’t hesitate to pick this up. Bright colors always catch my eye. But what really sold me on taking this book out to read was flipping it open and reading the summary on the inner sleeve of the book. It had mentions of Harry Potter and Hogwarts and I had made my decision.
Graham met his best friend, Roxy, when he moved into her neighborhood eight years ago and she asked him which Hogwarts house he’d been sorted into. Graham has been in love with her ever since.
The overall premise, after getting passed my initial excitement about all the possible references to one of my all time favorite book series, seemed pretty cool to me so I added it to the pile.
Not many stories can mesh well with present tense writing, but I think in this case it worked quite well. I was a little skeptical when I first started reading because the sentence format was really samey. It was a lot of ‘I did this and I did that’ so it felt more like a person talking to me telling me a story rather than the smooth flow of a novel. Though maybe, based on the kind of story it is and the age of the protagonist it fits.
That I admit did bother me a bit throughout the book. Tash has a lovely vocabulary and sometimes the sentences really have me captured, it’s just hard to enjoy when it’s always “I. I. I.”. Changing up your sentence structure can really, really go a long way.
Rating: 3.5/5
I don’t know if I would necessarily buy the book for myself, especially at the price of $23.99 CAD, but it is definitely worth the read and I would check this book out from the library again. I enjoyed the plot more than I thought it would, though it was easy to tell which way the story was going, which was all well and good. It was easy to empathize with the main character, Graham, but overall despite my enjoyment of the plot, I found some of the actions, and some of the things that were said to be unrealistic. Again that can be reasoned away by the point of view the story is being told.
I suppose, also, that that’s what a lot of us look for when we read books. To visit other possible realities where things that wouldn’t work out here work out there, but it just felt a bit stiff. As if the story had been built around a number of clichés that the author picked out. That idea in itself, sounds like a fun challenge I just don’t know if it was executed to my standards. Maybe I’m picky?
Overall it’s worth the read for sure, I really enjoyed it. Though I do have questions about the title. Having a title starting with “The Geek’s Guide” I kind of expected to have some kind of little written notes to make it feel as if the protagonist was really writing a guide. As if he was making little scribbles in a notebook or on a blog or something of tips on love and girls and what not. I think that would have been a really great addition to the book.
I have high hopes for the author and will definitely be checking out her other books in the near future. Definitely consider taking this book out for a spin you won’t be sorry! Happy reading!
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