Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd
edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci
This is one of the stronger teen short story compilations I’ve read. Not only is the list of contributors like a who’s who of teen fiction, the geek stories run the gamut: LARPers, Star Trek fans, Star Wars fans, MMORPG players, Rocky Horror participators, trivia nerds, and more. There’s definitely something here to suit most everyone, and I identified at least a little with many of the stories. Interspersed between the stories are humorous one-page features and comics, which sort of serve as palate cleansers.
I’m all about owning my geekiness and it’s fun to revel in it sometimes, but the main thing that came across to me as I read this book is the universality of the characters’ experiences. We all have our own pet passions, but our experiences of uncertainty, shyness, camaraderie, and so forth transcend the specifics. Recommended.
Reviewed from ARC provided by the publisher.
Thanks to the generosity of Little, Brown and Co., I have four free ARCs of this to give away. First four people to comment on the LibrariAnne blog win! (This means that if you’re reading this on Facebook or LiveJournal or somewhere else, you’ll have to click through to comment to enter.)
Sounds great! I’d love a copy!
jpetroroy@gmail.com
Could I have one? I’ll pass it along when I’m done, too!
I’m in the UK so not sure if I qualify
but thanks for drawing my attention to this one.
JenP, you’re the first winner! Email your mailing address to me at anneheathen at gmail dot com!
Ben, you’re the second winner! I’ll throw your copy in your mailbox at CPL.
Karen, you’re the third winner! Email your mailing address to me at anneheathen at gmail dot com!
That leaves one more copy! Next commenter gets it!
Wow Anne, can I have the last one? I’ve never commented on your blog before, but I am a regular reader/ subscriber & a Michigan ex-pat & a teen librarian. The only reason that I don’t have my own copy already is that I am unfortunately not in charge of ordering our YA material & I can’t convince the schlep who is to spend any of her ultra-tight budget on it. sad
It’s yours! Just email me at anneheathen at gmail dot com with your mailing address and I’ll send it right to you. I was afraid no one was going to ask for it. Thanks for reading!
My copy has arrived (in the UK)! Thank you so much Anne for this competition. The book looks fantastic.
So glad it got there! Enjoy!