NerdyBirdie

Hey guys, I hope you all are having a great day! This is my review to Mosquitoland by David Arnold!

“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.

I am going to start off with saying that this book is one of my favorites! I don’t think this is a hyped-up book, or that surprisingly, there was anything special for me to love. But for some reason—this book really got me in the feels. Mim Malone is easily a smart and sassy heroine who wins over my heart by the time I’m finished Chapter One!

This book is about Mim’s story—and I feel like what makes this so realistic and really gets to me is how raw and real this story is! The situations Mim gets into, it really gets to me, and I understand the things she does and why. One thing though, I would like to point out, would be her Cherokee war-paint that she would put on with her mom’s lipstick. Was it really necessary? I’m not really sure . . . but, just to be sure. Don’t get offended or weirded out by the Cherokee war-paint-not-really-it’s-lipstick-thing. :D

The other characters were portrayed just as realistically. I felt like every person was so important because of the way Mim encounters them and the things that she learns from each person, but this doesn’t mean that each person she met was necessarily good or bad. She did learn something from everyone, and that’s what was most important to me.

Mim obviously grows from a misguided girl just running away from home to a girl who learns so much in one road-trip. This is probably why I love this story so much! :D

Another thing that I really liked is that even though this is contemporary, Arnold decides to add a hint of suspicion. We don’t realize a lot of things that we thought we knew (but really didn’t) at the end. Arnold kind of makes you want to read because the story is told from two different ways that weave together so well, it’s just written as one way to me. :)

One way is Mim in the present (and we learn some other flasbacks from Mim’s perspective, personally) and the other is in Mim’s diary. Only Mim writes her diary in the form of letters to Isabel. Both these ways were fun to read about.

And the last thing: just the story itself. You need to read this. This is honestly one of my all-time favorites.

Overall, Mosquitoland is an amazing story about one girl who’s got a lot of problems. And she goes on a journey to realize what she really wants—maybe even needs—in life. There are a lot of revelations in this book which make you realize that anyone’s story can be as inspirational and everybody’s story is unique in it’s own way. Okay, now I’m just gushing because I love this book so much!

I would recommend Mosquitoland to anyone! The only thing is be cautious while reading from Mim’s point of view, because you have to keep in mind about her condition. If there’s anything that offends you, then as a person who’s finished this book, I would say not to take it offensively, because please remember, this is Mim’s story and her perspective on different things. Please, do try to give this book a read, though. I thought it was worth it!

Thanks for reading this review! Until the next one! :D