The Manifesto On How To Be Interesting by Holly Bourne follows the life of Bree, a teenage girl who's not quite like the rest. "Why?" you may ask. Well, for instance, she dreams of becoming a writer and dyes her hair crazy colors once in a few months and doesn't give a flying fuck about what people say about her. Bonus, her best friend's name is Holdo, as in Holden Caulfield. Yes, the Holden Caulfield. You are now entitled to think that this book is utter bullshit judging by the way it starts, and I thought it was pretty awful in the beginning myself. By the end, though, my opinion has been changed for good, even though the plot became sort of predictable at some point.

There's not much to say about the plot itself. It's just this girl who isn't like the rest of the girls and tries to pull a Mean Girls scheme on the popular girls in her school, while documenting her experiences on her blog, for the sake of her writing, of course. Long story short, while trying to trick others, she ends up tricking herself and her whole life goes down swinging.

Now, what I loved about this book is the fact that it's so sincere and that the moral is so straight to the point. There is no hiding behind the truth in this book. Everything is straightforward and hits you hard in the face, just like your own teenage years. Bree is an amazing protagonist; she is strong and fearless and stays her ground, like a real warrior. The lists she makes, such as the one written on the cover are enlightning and it's surprinsing how accurately she follows them.

What's more, the book debates topics such as self-harm, teacher-student relationships and popularity, highlighting their impact on a teenager's mind. The reader watches as Bree goes on with her plan and for a while everything goes smoothly. But what happens when everything becomes too beautiful to be true?

For me, this book hit really close to home: I, too, wish to become a writer and would give so much for my writing and I, too, have problems with confidence and integrating in a group. The way Bourne chose to tell this story is remarkable because it shines a light upon the teenager's mentality and it helps young people realize that self-love is what it's really important. It surely helped me see that no one and nothing is more important than my health and well-being. After all, we are living alone with ourselves our entire lives, so we should learn to love who we are.

I think that the essence of this novel lies in this very quote: "Aren't we all fed up of being a brand? Of having to portray this perfect version of ourselves? Of beinb obsessed with making sure everyone else thinks we're doing and thinking the right thing? Why are we so scared of admitting to each other: ' I'm messed up' or 'I'm lonely' or 'That really hurt my feelings'? "

Those being said, I really recommend this book to all of you out there struggling in school or struggling with self-harm, disorders or anything that makes you feel uneasy. This book will give you hope and will make you feel better about who you are because it's a reminder that we ALL matter, and we should love ourselves because we're beautiful and special in our own way.