Retro Geeks by Karen Mueller Bryson
Pages: 132
Publication Date: March 29, 2012 by CreateSpace
Age Group: Young YA
Source: Author for Blog Tour
Challenge(s): Ebook challenge,150+ reading challenge, Just Contemporary challenge, Standalone Challenge, ABC challenge
Buy this Book: Amazon
Summary(from Goodreads):
Retro Geeks is a Short on Time Books for Teens, fast-paced and fun novels for readers on the go. Remember when it wasn’t cool to be a geek? That’s so yesterday! Retro Geeks, chronicles the (mis)adventures of two self-proclaimed geek girls, Molly and Ally, as they attempt to land super-hot dates for their senior prom. The 80s obsessed BFFs attempt a variety of date-finding schemes, including spying on the popular girls for the 411 on fitting in, in their quest for top-tier prom dates.
This is a “short on time” teen book. And short it is. At under 100 pages it took me only 45 minutes or so to read. But since the characters are two senior girls in high school, I assume that it is still considered a YA book. I was really excited when I saw the theme of this book was the 80s. I love 80s music. But unfortunately Retro Geeks fell short of my expectations. (pun unintentional, but maybe fitting) Retro Geeks read more like a middle grade book with older characters. Ollie, the younger brother and youngest character in the whole book, was actually the most mature.
I liked Ollie and Ally, but Molly (the other main girl) got on my nerves. And virtually all of the other characters were mean girls or other high school cliches, and all very immature. And don’t get me wrong, sometimes I love a good cliche but all of the characters in this book felt so one dimensional and flat to me. I couldn’t connect with any of them or even get to know them. And that was probably due to the fact that the book moved so fast since it was trying to build a complete story in about 85 pages, which is a very tall order.
Now that is not to say that this book was the worst ever or anything like that. It had a lot of potential. I think that it could have been a lot better developed and the characters could have been fleshed out more and then there would have been a more compelling story. There was a whole lot of telling and not showing going on. It just felt very rushed to me.
I think that younger readers would appreciate the story more than any YA audience. Even though the characters were all around 17 years old, they acted much, much younger. So I would say that this book would be best for girls around 9-12 who are looking for a quick, cute read. I don’t think I will be trying anymore short on time stories. I like my books more developed that this one was. I would however, be interested in seeing a full length novel by this author to see more of her writing style. Her writing wasn’t bad it just read more like a story outline or shell. The bullet points were all there but no detail and no meat. Retro Geeks was cute, but just not for me.
If you enjoyed this post, please Subscribe to Book Briefs in a reader
Retro Geeks by Karen Mueller Bryson
The concept sounds good..and i love the crazy 80’s..lol too bad it wasn’t developed enough 🙁
I love the 80’s concept in books but as long as its interesting..sorry this didn’t blow you away though i’d still like to read it. Very good review, honesty is best.