[Review] The Manifesto on How to be Interesting by Holly Bourne

Title: The Manifesto on How to be Interesting
Author: Holly Bourne
Publication: August 1st 2014 by Usborne Publishing
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Pages: 448
Format: Paperback

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.

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My thoughts:

I received a review copy of this book from Usborne in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion.

I have constantly put this book off because I didn’t know if I would like it or not. Gladly, I picked this book in the right time and was completely astounded. While reading this book, I found myself curling in a blanket of feels. There’s just too many emotions triggered in almost every part of the book, making this one deserving to get my first 5-star rating this year.

This book revolves around a said-to-be “loser” and “uninteresing” named Bree who loves to read and write but has been rejected by most publishing companies that she contacted. She asks for advice, and then, she starts to completely change her life by getting a new hair look, changing her fashion style and hanging out with the populars. She has done this because she was starting a blog called “The Manifesto on How to be Interesting” and here she talks about her journey from being loser to popular. Little did they know about her agenda behind it.

“What pretty person achieved anything of merit anyway? Who cares what a writer looks like as long as their words are beautiful?”

Holly Bourne has done it again! This is the third book I have read by her, and it’s just keep getting better and better. I think I’m in love with her writing style that is why I am able to connect with the characters she creates despite that the characters and I have different personalities. The characters just exemplify reality that being teenagers in our generation, and it is one of the reasons why I like this book.

Feels. Feels. And feels. Bourne has done nothing but give me feels. All her books that I have read contained feels that left me emotionally hurt and unstable. There is a way in her writing that will make you just want to bawl your eyes out and cry loudly while your pillow is against your mouth (but that seriously didn’t happen to me because I’m not a crier – I am just a “feels-er”).

“You don’t know or care who I am. But you will on Monday. I’m going to start fighting back with the best weapon I have: words. Indelible, permanent words.”

This book is accurately relatable because my dreams correlate with Bree’s. She wants to write and I want to write. For now, I use my blog and she uses one too. But at least, she has finished writing a book and I have not. Consequently, I can hear myself in my head shouting, “Hey, that’s me in the future but won’t probably happen.”

Fully and extremely recommended because it’s my actual very first 5-star rating this year, and I’ve been waiting for the very perfect book to be given this kind of rating. I have no regrets giving it 5 stars because it truly deserves every star possible because it’s literally amazing, from the first page until the last.

5 swords for completely surprising me!

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About the author:

Holly Bourne writes for young adults for a living. She is a journalist for www.TheSite.org, an advice and information website for 16-25 year-olds.

Before this, she spent two years working as a local news reporter on the Surrey Mirror and was nominated as Print Journalist of the Year 2010. She also has a first class degree in Journalism Studies and has won awards for her writing.

Her debut novel, Soulmates, is published by Usborne on September 1, 2013.

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Have you read any Holly Bourne’s books yet? Comment below and let’s talk about it.