Schools across the world have always had the popular clique, the group of untouchables who were popular beyond measure & who looked down upon the rest of the student body. And for as long as the popular clique has existed, their unpopular victims have been paying the price. But maybe being outcast from this group is a blessing? What if the so-called geeks, nerds, emos and loners are the ones with the best chance of becoming the true stars in our world?
The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth follows seven people (a loner, a gamer, a weird girl, a band geek, a nerd, a new girl, and a self-confessed popular bitch) in American high schools as they navigate their experiences in the ‘cafeteria fringe’, a group of outcasts from popular cliques who commonly face social challenges in their school lives. It is also intertwined with Alexandra Robbins’ research into Quirk Theory, a school of thought explaining teenage popularity and the intricacies of getting and retaining it.
This read is deeply insightful and allows us to experience what life is like in these different groups (or being an outcast altogether if you happened to be popular in your school). It allows for such personal reflection on our own experiences and gives the reader space and security to discover why things were as they were, and how we can go about changing the animosity between certain cliques for the better.
This book is a great, empowering read, especially for those who themselves were outcast in school & serves as a lovely reminder of the beauty of each of our own uniqueness.
Rating: ★★★★☆
The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth (ISBN: 978-1401310776) was first published in 2009 and won the Goodreads Choice Awards’ Best Nonfiction Book of the Year 2011
