My Mind is a Blur of Rupe

Love this review from the Grintastic webzine:

As ICM announced back in August, the main character in Julie Halpern’s new book “Into the wild nerd yonder” would be a huge Rupert Grint fan.
Julie Halpern herself had left a message in our comments: “Thanks so much for mentioning my book, INTO THE WILD NERD YONDER, on your page! I’m a big Rupert fan, and the main character of the book has pictures of him hanging around her bedroom”.
So, of course we made sure to check out the book, which has only been released on 29th September 2009.
I tried to keep the spoilers out so you can all enjoy the book yourselves, and therefore this review turned out to be pretty short.

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The plot itself is simple:
Jessie Sloan has just started her sophomore year. Her two best friends, Bizza and Char, decide to become punks, and one of them goes after Jessie’s long-term crush Van. Jessie’s brother Barrett, in his final High School year, gives up his life as punk because of his budding romance with the homecoming queen. Which leaves Jessie to figure out who she is, who her friends are, and: What makes someone a nerd?
With Jessie as the narrator, the story is told in a funny, witty and somewhat sarcastic tone and describes typical teenage situations everyone can relate to: your best friends seem to be way cooler than yourself, the girl sitting next to you in class is just weird, and unlike you, even the nerds manage to find a boyfriend.
Instead of the “typical” teenage books, Jessie is not the school’s beauty queen, nor is she the outsider who will turn into the beautiful swan who gets the most handsome bloke ever. She’s a normal girl with normal problems. And with a crush on Rupert Grint.

So, what about Rupert? First off, Rupert Grint only gets mentioned four times. Beware, though, as these are moments where most of us will almost cringe because the situations are very well-known to every proper “Roupie Groupie”.
However, the entire book is peppered with little descriptions that will make you think of our gorgeous red-head or his film characters : A bloke called “Van” (we all know Rupert’s most famous vehicle), another guy with too-short jeans and far-to-white sneakers. The main character sharing the names with a co-star from HP and the stills photographer from Cherrybomb. The cool big brother (coincidence that his punk hair is orange?), funky t-shirts and a guy whose fringe keeps covering his eyes; and jealousy over a BJ…

So, yay or nay?
Definitely a big YAY! The book is easy to read, and I needed only one day to finish it. It is very funny and witty, and it is easy to feel with Jessie, who is a normal teen instead of the classical “teen-novel character”. Not to mention that Rupert (or what might be interpreted as hints to Rupert) keeps popping up in the most unexpected moments.
How much Rupert is there really? The more you know about Rupert and his films, the more you can pick up, laugh about, cringe at and agree to. If you only know his name and link him to Harry Potter, it’s not that much. If you know characteristics of the characters he has played, his co-stars, Rupert’s behaviour and interests, it’s quite a lot.
But maybe I only found that much Rupert because I’m a nerd.
And nerds can be pretty cool, too…

I wonder how much I actually subliminally did write about good ol' Rupe. I love how there is a photograph of his name on the page of the book. I had no idea when I wrote the book that I would reach Rupert fans. It's such a cool, unique fanbase. Thanks to The Ice Cream Man site for spreading the word about NERD!