Holly Bourne

Bree is a loser, a wannabe author who hides behind words. But when she's told she needs to start living a life worth writing about, 'The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting' is born. Six steps on how to be interesting. Six steps that will see her infiltrate the popular set, fall in love with someone forbidden and make the biggest mistake of her life.

The Manifesto on How to be Interesting

menna

2.5
The massage was good but it had very problematic aspects which to be honest I didn't expect from a Holly Bourne book

Charlotte J. Ruth

IDEL

nice book but kinda went overboard on its way to the end. + little cliche/predictable ending

Jo Young

I loved loved loved this book. It was so witty and amazing. I finished in in less than 24 hours it was so amazing. Definitely worth reading if you ever feel that you are boring. 5 stars :)

Eleanor Luhar

I fell in love with Holly Bourne's writing after reading Am I Normal Yet? and immediately decided to check out some of her other work. Hence me reading this novel.

The general idea of this book is Bree trying to become "interesting" enough to write something that publishers won't reject. She decides the way to go about this is by infiltrating to posse of popular girls at school, while anonymously blogging about it the whole time.

Bree has her issues; she's always been a bit of a loser, she's kind of falling in love with her English teacher, she has way too many rejection letters, and she self harms when she feels low. She has to make a lot of sacrifices for the sake of her new blog, one of which is her best friend, Holdo. She reminds herself that "it's all material" while she acts like a bitch, spends hundreds of pounds on new clothes and hairstyles, befriends with queen-bee Jassmine and even when she sleeps with Jass's boyfriend. Besides, her crush told her she wasn't interesting enough, so surely this is what she's supposed to be doing?

But things get a bit more complicated than she first anticipated, and things end up worse than before for Bree. Yeah, she's spent time with her mother and she's become a social princess, but things start to fall apart. There's a sex tape, and her teacher's realised his mistake, and she can't help but cut herself like she's always done... But this time, she takes it a little too far.

I love the way Holly Bourne incorporates painfully real issues into her novels, mainly revolving around mental health and feminism. Bree's issue with self harming isn't looked down upon, or brushed aside, or made into the main plot. Instead, it's just part of the story, like it is for most people who struggle with it.

My only real problem with this book is that I just can't believe that a makeover can get you into the posse of populars. Like, really? If I got a haircut and some new lipstick, would I really become best friends with the most popular girl in school? I highly doubt it. I did like how Bree actually became rather attached to the girls, and how she realised that they really are just normal people underneath all that bitchiness and foundation.

This was a nice, easy read though, and I did enjoy it. It combats some common thoughts that go round teenagers' heads, and although it is a little cheesy in some places, I think it's mostly rather realistic. Although it isn't quite one of my favourite books, I do think The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting could just about earn 4.5 stars from me.

Georgia Carr

I need to write this review because this book got on my nerves so much. 

It's great if you love this book. I'm happy that you enjoyed it. Before I started reading, I read a lot of reviews that declared 'The Manifesto On How To Be Interesting' as "the best of the year" or the new "favorite YA novel". I had high hopes, obviously. 

Instead of a great story with good characters and a solid plot, I found myself reading some kind of soap box speech about teenage culture and its downfalls. The writing's not bad, but the whole story just does not sit well with me on any level. 

Yes, there's a lot of truth to the themes in this novel. No, that doesn't make the way it was executed acceptable. It makes it unforgivable. 

This novel touches on a lot of issues that I've dealt with / am still dealing with. I love feeling connected to characters / plots that I can directly relate to - this book was not that. I was bullied horrendously for three and a half years; it's painful and it's horrible and it really, really sucks. Surprisingly, never did I once think that I should get revenge on the people who did it to me, because as much as they made me cry and gave me the problems I still have to deal with today, I knew that they were still people.

This book angered me deeply and I only finished it because I wanted there to be some sort of fix for the awful things that Bree does. There wasn't really, there was just more preaching and skimming over issues that could have been approached with much more realism. 

"I'm horrible and I'm going to hurt you and try and seduce your boyfriend and I'm sorry but I have to."

I mean, in what world do you sympathize with a character who thinks things like that? My friends have had to listen to me rant about Bree's stupidity all week long. I can't accurately describe how annoyed I was whilst reading. 

I want to make it clear that I think this novel offers some unfortunately truthful musings on teenage life, and that's great. What is not great at all is the way they're executed. 

Maybe it's me. Everyone seems to worship this book and I cannot understand that at all.

Ella Bouic

Not my favourite Holly Bourne book but it didn't stop me loving so much. It's an amazing story and I feel a lot of teens go through/can see this happening in everyday school like. Holly Bourne's writing style is perfect and captivates every reader

Linn Jukri

** spoiler alert **
           9/10

Wowowowo

Alright, so I enjoyed this way more than the first time. The first time I thought that Bree was really annoying an hypocritical. But this time around I noticed how much character development she actually had and absolutely loved her by the end of the book. While she did make mistakes, she realized that they were mistakes and tried to make it right. While it might have been dumb to post about the perfects (even if the blog was anonymous and didn't use their real names) she didn't do it to 'expose' them or to make them feel like crap and for everyone to hate them. She didn't think that anyone actually read her blog until the end of the book.

Kate

Firstly I have to say I really enjoy the way Holly Bourne writes. Her books are such comfortable reads. They flow brilliantly and read so quickly. I pretty much zoomed through and finished this in one sitting. Holly somehow manages to tackle difficult topics in a way that makes them 'easy' to read.

With that being said, I didn't love this book. I enjoyed it but there's something making it hard for me to work out how I feel about it. I'm conflicted. The whole book gave me a huge 'Mean Girls' movie vibe, it was similar in so many ways that I couldn't stop comparing the two. I found myself struggling to warm to Bree's character which is odd considering we're somewhat similar in things we've dealt with/how we've felt. I just think In the ways that we're not similar, we're such polar opposites I found it hard to connect with her and her actions, especially towards others. 

BUT I couldn't stop reading, I was drawn into the book and the lives of these characters despite pretty accurately predicting what would happen. I just don't know how to feel. I enjoyed it, I think, just not as much as I had expected too. I think I possibly put my expectations on this book too high after loving Holly's other book 'Am I Normal Yet?' so much. 

I will 100% continue to read whatever Holly Bourne writes because, as I said, I LOVE the way she writes and they way I read her books!

Bree is a loser, a wannabe author who hides behind words. But when she's told she needs to start living a life worth writing about, The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting is born. Six steps on how to be interesting. Six steps that will see her infiltrate the popular set, fall in love with someone forbidden and make the biggest mistake of her life.

The Manifesto on How to be Interesting

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