The Manifesto On How To Be Interesting by Holly Bourne

 Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 464
Publisher: Usbourne Books
Released: 1st of August 2014

Apparently I'm boring. A nobody. But that's all about to change. Because I am starting a project. Here. Now. For myself. And if you want to come along for the ride then you're very welcome.

Bree is a loser, a wannabe author who hides behind words. Most of the time she hates her life, her school, her never-there parents. So she writes.

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.

What I Have To Say

This book was quite a fun read. It's a really great book for Mean Girls fans, with the base storyline being fairly similar. The commonly told story of a girl becoming popular, with her own agenda. But with a bookish twist. 

Most of the issues I had with this book were, I think, things that the writer intended people to take issue with. This is a story about Bree's learning process. At the start she puts far too much importance on being 'interesting'. And by interesting she means popular. 

Bourne tackles a lot of issues in this book. Showing self-harm and bullying as they are in many teenagers lives. She does a really good job of this, but I think the fact that she shows Jassmine's self-harm as well as Bree's deserves a special mention for two reasons.

1. It's a message that is stated time and time again but keeps needing to be said; just because someone is popular doesn't mean that they're happy. 

And 2. Self-harm is not limited to cutting. There are many different ways that people self-harm and I'm glad someone has finally acknowledged that.