For the Nerdy Girls

Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci

The Goods: Remember how you felt about the freaky girl in high school who wore a cape and shaved her head and had no friends? Well, Victoria, aka Egg, is that girl and she does not care how you feel about her. She hates you. And not in that "I'm really just lonely and my cynical contempt is a shell I build around myself to protect myself from rejection" kind of way. She really hates you.

And then she meets someone she doesn't hate. And this forces some self-examination, and some icky realizations about the kind of person she is.

Reservations: I know, I know... this is a YA novel where someone realizes something about herself.

The Good News: At the end of the book, it's not like that part of The Breakfast Club where Ally Sheedy puts on a white camisole and some eyeliner and suddenly isn't a freak anymore. Victoria is still a freak at the end. But she's a better freak. The changes are subtle and believable, and even when Victoria is annoying the hell out of you with her self-defeating, bitchy ways, you still love her.

Added Bonus: It's set in Hollywood (in my neighborhood, in fact), and Victoria's parents are both industry people, so there's plenty of fictionalized celebrity cattiness.

If You Like...: comic books, Peter Jackson movies, Star Wars, and you are a girl, you will find a lot to relate to here - this book is for you.