I got gifted with a few Nerd books, so...what the hell.
At first, I wasn't terribly into/kind of bored of this one, and I was pondering just putting it down and not reviewing it entirely. But after awhile, I actually started to get into it. Go figure.
Why I wasn't too into it:
Zoe Tarleton (the only GWTW reference in the book, btw) is a hot redheaded actress who wants to do a more serious role as a chemist. (Let me just say that from what you see of the script, you're thinking, "No way is this a Golden Globe movie." It is cheese-dog-tastic. The hero calls the heroine "doll-face" and the plot revolves around a "billion dollar pill" that combines all kinds of goodies. Yeah, RIGHT for the seriousness.)
She wants to practice her audition with, and learn how to act like a nerd from, her lawyer, Flynn. Flynn and Zoe are already pretty friendly despite his straight-arrow lifestyle and her Hollywood life, and he agrees to do it. It's made pretty obvious that he has the hots for her and she kind of does for him as well. And while Zoe's technically seeing someone more for publicity rather than anything else, Flynn has a Serious Long-Distance Girlfriend that he's planning on proposing to...though the relationship seems pretty bloodless and dull from the getgo, so you know how much of an obstacle that's gonna be.
They haul off to the small ex-mining town of Long Shaft (and nobody ever makes a crack about this name? Why not?!), which is now trying to make money by claiming that Bigfoot is hanging around. They're renting a cabin procured for them by Zoe's "friend from high school" Margo. Here are Margo's traits:
- Zoe and Margo weren't really friends in high school, just sat by each other and were in cheerleading.
- Zoe went to the prom with Margo's boyfriend Rob, having no idea that Rob was lying that Margo had broken up with him. (Zoe feels bad about this.)
- Margo is now engaged to someone named Bob.
- Margo works as a waitress, wears a whole lot of 80's flourescent clothing, and is known in town for all of her Bigfoot sightings.
Let's just say that soon after you meet Margo, you can figure out where her storyline is going. As the Brain would say to Pinky, "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"*
Around this point, I started thinking, "Y'know, this seems kind of obvious and stupid. Do I really feel like continuing reading this?" And to some degree, there's a level of stupid in here that I am not fond of. For example, if Zoe really wanted to go incognito this week, she didn't bother to temporarily dye her hair or wear a wig? Really? Also, ah...if a tree falls on your cabin, maybe you shouldn't be trying to live in it afterwards?
But somehow I did keep going, and I found myself getting into it. Maybe it was the use of Bigfoot that got to me, as that was pretty amusing. (Flynn is a closet Bigfoot enthusiast, and even buys a furry-with-feet Bigfoot sleeping bag.) Zoe and Flynn are perfectly nice folks to spend time with, they seem to have a good time together (heh heh heh), and despite the aspects of stupid that periodically floated in, it was an amusing enough read.
So...three stars. Not bad.
* "I think so, Brain, but where did the baby Bigfoots come from?"
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