No spoilers.
Title: Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd
Author: Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci
Year of Publication: 2009
Genre: YA, anthology
Pages: 403
First Line: --
Summary: With illustrated interstitials from comic book artists Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley, Geektastic covers all things geeky, from Klingons and Jedi Knights to fan fiction, theater geeks,a nd cosplayers.
Source: Back of book
Review: Like I did for The Poison Eaters I will be doing this by individual story.
1. "Once You're a Jedi, You're a Jedi All the Way" by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci. Not wonderful. I felt there was something missing throughout. And I was kind of confused through a lot of it. But it wasn't awful, either. I probably wouldn't have started off an anthology, as an editor, with one of my own stories, especially when the anthology had better ones to offer, but, whatever.
2. "One of Us" by Tracy Lynn. I don't remember this one. I'll have to flip to the story to refresh myself. (I say that because I think the memorability of a story is important. And I'm doing this only by looking at the table of contents.) OH! OH! This was actually a really good one. Very interesting and pretty funny. Maybe memorability isn't a great judge? No, it is, but, this one was good. Really.
3. "Definitional Chaos" by Scott Westerfeld. I was totally expecting more from Westerfeld. This story was super confusing throughout.
4. "I Never" by Cassandra Clare. Awesome. I loved the idea of this (although it's a total "don't do this at home, kids" story). It was super cute.
5. "The King of Pelinesse" by M.T. Anderson. Uh-oh. I don't remember this one, either. Oh. This one was odd. An interesting idea, but I'm not sure I liked it. Kind of creepy.
6. "The Wrath of Dawn" by Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith. Well. No. This was disappointing, also. It wasn't horrendous, but I wasn't impressed.
7. "Quiz Bowl Antichrist" by David Levithan. This story was pretty awesome. Sometimes I really like Levithan, other times I don't. This time I did. Fairly original, very funny.
8. "The Quiet Knight" by Garth Nix. A great idea. I loved the main character. I was annoyed that Nix changed the spelling of one of the character's names towards the end for no reason -- like, it was a typo/editing issue. And it was annoying.
9. "Everyone But You" by Lisa Yee. I vaguely remember this. But not really. Oh, right. This was weird. I felt like it didn't belong in this anthology. Or any anthology, really. I didn't really see the point. I mean, I did, but...I don't know. Not impressed.
10. "Secret Identity" by Kelly Link. Also not remembering. Okay. I just didn't know the title. This was totally creepy. Like, woah, ew. It was an interesting idea, but oh my God, so gross. Far too forgiving of the main character, I think. And some parts didn't really make sense to me.
11. "Freak the Geek" by John Green. I was really looking forward to this one but was disappointed. It's the only thing I've ever seen written by John Green (and I think I've read it all) in a girl's point of view. There was a reference he made that I was all excited about, but other than that, I was not impressed.
12. "The Truth About Dino Girl" by Barry Lyga. I loved this until the end. The end was awful and horrific and I hated it. Seriously. You'd have to read to understand, but it was just really awful. (And not in a "bad writing" kind of way, the character was just. . .oh my God.)
13. "This Is My Audition Monologue" by Sara Zarr. Totally weird. Indulgent. Disappointing.
14. "The Stars at the Finish Line" by Wendy Mass. I. Loved. This. It was super. Interesting idea, good characters, I loved it all.
15. "It's Just a Jump to the Left" by Libba Bray. Another creepy one. And not because of the RHPS references. It was just. . .Cawley was odd, and, just, ugh. Creeps. Anyway, unimpressed again. Characters were annoying.
Overall: The stories that were good were REALLY good. Aside from that, I was disappointed.
Worst part: The creepiness of so many of the characters. Seriously.
Best part: Mass' story. Wonderful.
Grade: C+
Other Books by This Author: Black and Castellucci each has individual novels as well as work they've done with others. I'm too lazy to list it.
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