“I am a collection of oddities, a circus of neurons and electrons: my heart is the ringmaster, my soul is the trapeze artist, and the world is my audience. It sounds strange because it is, and it is, because I am strange.”
After the sudden collapse of her family, Mim Malone is dragged from her home in northern Ohio to the “wastelands” of Mississippi, where she lives in a medicated milieu with her dad and new stepmom. Before the dust has a chance to settle, she learns her mother is sick back in Cleveland.
So she ditches her new life and hops aboard a northbound Greyhound bus to her real home and her real mother, meeting a quirky cast of fellow travelers along the way. But when her thousand-mile journey takes a few turns she could never see coming, Mim must confront her own demons, redefining her notions of love, loyalty, and what it means to be sane.
Told in an unforgettable, kaleidoscopic voice, “Mosquitoland” is a modern American odyssey, as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.
My Thoughts:
Mosquitoland was an odd book for me. I knew right away that if it got into the blogosphere enough, it would be a new trend book like The Fault in Our Stars. It’s full of so much deep thought and quirky opinions that it’s like, what’s not to love? But my feelings on it were pretty so-so. It was an instance that either I was absolutely loving it, or I was just annoyed.
Mim is a pretty stand-up main character. For those that like strong female leads, she’s your girl. She has a no-nonsense attitude that young girls will love, but still has a tender and loving side for those in the book that need help. I enjoyed almost all of the other characters in the book, and I love how- without making this the main plot- it showed two different sides of mental illness: the manageable more common side, and the feared side most people think of when they find out someone’s mentally ill.
However, what I didn’t like was Mim’s interactions with anyone she decided she didn’t like. Either someone was ‘in’ or ‘out’ and if they were out, they were treated like a zombie-sheep idiot. And most of them responded in the way a normal person would to a kid trying to fast-talk them, but she just thought herself so superior, it was rather annoying. During her inner thought sessions, I was thinking “wow, what a strong girl,” but anytime she’d talk to an adult, I was thinking “someone needs to knock this little punk down a peg.”
I’m going to rate it a three because I didn’t like half of Mim’s character, the writing sessions, and a lot of what really wasn’t believable, but don’t be discouraged! I strongly believe there are people out there that would absolutely adore this book, and you may be one of them!
Side Note: Also, Cait! Remember how you wanted Diverse books that weren’t about being diverse? It slipped my mind when I read it, but this is completely your book! I know you’ve already promised you’d read it so I can’t wait to see what you think!
Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye’s decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. And as her passive rebellion manifests in ever more extreme and frightening forms, scandal, abuse, and estrangement begin to send Yeong-hye spiraling deep into the spaces of her fantasy. In a complete metamorphosis of both mind and body, her now dangerous endeavor will take Yeong-hye—impossibly, ecstatically, tragically—far from her once-known self altogether.
Danni Mae 