All That Glitters by Holly Smale

All That Glitters (Geek Girl, #4)

by Holly Smale

“My name is Harriet Manners, and I have always been a geek.”

The fourth book in the award-winning GEEK GIRL series.

Harriet Manners knows many things.

She knows that toilet roll was invented by the Chinese in 600 AD.

She knows that a comet’s tail always points away from the sun.

And she knows that the average healthy heart beats 70 times per minute. Even when it’s broken.

But she knows nothing about making new friends at Sixth Form. Or why even her old friends seem to be avoiding her. And she knows even less about being a glittering supermodel success. Which she now is – apparently.

Has Harriet’s time to shine like a star finally arrived, or is she about to crash and burn?

Reviewed by Leah on

5 of 5 stars

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Holly Smale's Geek Girl series is by far one of the brightest and best book series I've ever read, and I think it should be required reading for anyone in secondary school. I would have loved a series like this when I was a kid/teen because Harriet Manners is just so relate-able and her fourth outing is her best yet.

What I love about the series is it generally doesn't take itself too seriously, but All That Glitters definitely had a more mature tone to it, which I liked. Harriet is growing up, whether we like it or not, and it can't always be amazing modelling adventures and everything is sparkling and great, because school and life is never like that. Mind you, it is still hard to read about what Harriet's going through because she feels like a friend, someone you're welded to, and it hurts to see a friend hurt. You just want to make it better.

All That Glitters broke my heart on a lot of occasions. It still had its hilariously funny moments and Harriet was still as clumsy/geek/awkward as ever, but this is the first time we've really seen her out of her comfort zone - her friends aren't talking to her (and she doesn't know why), Nick is in Australia (SOB), her new modelling agent isn't interested, until she suddenly is and to see Harriet implement her plan to be a "new and improved" Harriet Manners made me want to weep because I love her as she is, but I understood why she did it, because who doesn't want to have friends and be thought of as cool? We all do, really.

I'm so sad that there are now only two books left in the Geek Girl series (I wonder if we can persuade Holly to do more, or do a Harriet-as-an-adult series?!?!?!). I have no idea where the final two books will take us - will Nick return? is probably my main question, but I would also LOVE to see more of Jasper. Despite his antagonism toward Harriet I actually really liked him, and sometimes the best relationships come from antagonistic backgrounds, so we'll see. He definitely made an impression.

Holly Smale is such a fantastic, bright young author. I admire her so much for bringing me a heroine like Harriet Manners, because geeks really do bloody rule.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 26 February, 2015: Finished reading
  • 26 February, 2015: Reviewed