I'm Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl by Gretchen McNeil

3.5 Stars

As soon as I saw my friend Peach reading this, I knew I had to get a copy of it immediately simply for that title alone. You’re all familiar with the Manic Pixie Dream Girl by this point, right? If not you probably live on Mars, but here’s a description for you . . . .

“A manic pixie dream girl is a character trope: a quirky, effervescent female who walks to the beat of her own drum and makes the male lead feel like she’s changed his world.”

“What else does she do?”

“Not much.”

Or, in other words . . . . .



My reaction to this type of girl?????



Be it on television or on Goodreads I have zero room in my life for this vapid waste. I know, I know that makes me a real woman hater. Guess what?????



I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl was right up my alley. When Beatrice’s boyfriend ditches her almost immediately after new student Toile pirouettes into class and her besties Spencer and Gabe appear to once again be on the receiving end of a year-long smackdown by the jocks, Bea does what she does best – creates a mathematical formula that will assure the trio's happiness in high school . . . .

“Or, in layman’s terms:

(1) Find the niche.
(2) Play the role.
(3) Fill the void.”

For Gabe that means he’ll have to find a way to channel his inner gay bestie, Spencer will need to unleash his brooding artist, and Bea will become Trixie – a manic pixie dream girl. Bea figures it should only take a couple of weeks for The Formula to work and once she gets the guy and Spencer and Gabe cease being a couple of punching bags they can ease back into their normal personalities. That is, until The Formula doesn’t end up being as foolproof as Bea thought and she risks not only losing her real self, but everyone she loves (or didn’t even know she loved until it was maybe too late) in the process.

The blurb says I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl is “perfect for fans of Kody Keplinger’s The Duff and Morgan Matson’s Since You've Been Gone." I can confirm fans of The D.U.F.F (like myself and Erica) are probably going to have an A-okay time with this one. I haven’t read Since You’ve Been Gone only because of . . . .



Simply reading the title will have that song in my head for a minimum of 87 hours.

I realize I’m not the target demographic for stories like these. For me they are pretty much the equivalent of . . . .



They have zero nutritional value, they definitely don’t improve my I.Q. after finishing them, and they make me super angry I was stuck with Sweet Valley High as a kid when I could have been reading this kind of awesome fluff instead. Being that I’m ancient I’m also amazed at the polarized viewpoints the younger set have upon reading this kind of nonsense. I GUAR.AN.TEE. there will be a crapton of young’ins who think Bea is an asshole – and I’ll tell you from the perspective of a grown-up she totally kind of is but not because she’s a “shamer” or whatever-the-eff the term of the week is that people will choose to call her . . . . .



Seriously. Dislike the book because it’s the equivalent of eating an entire gallon of ice cream, but at least see the point it’s trying to make that you shouldn’t change for anyone. (This goes triple for all of you "manic pixies" out there because that personality DOES. NOT. ACTUALLY. EXIST. IN. NATURE. Be yourself!) There’s even the little bonus of true love being right before your eyes the whole time to make you get the warm and fuzzies . . . .



I'm telling if you if this thing becomes a movie - which, once again, it totally should for the title alone - I will watch the SHIT out of it.