English 485: Expedition Adolescence

 Oh. My. God. This book is almost a 10/10 for me. I'd say a 9.5 overall because of the ending. Not that the ending was bad, but I'm selfish and I wanted more haha. I LOVE the way Anderson writes. I have owned her other book Speak for almost a year (before this English course) but I never had the nerve to pick it up because I wasn't sure if it would be as good as others have said. But I'm going to go ahead and assume I've been wrong and I so desperately want to read it soon. I'm in a low place with my mental health right now, but I plan to read it hopefully in a few weeks when I know I feel better and I can handle the material. The story was great. The pacing was phenomenal. Just... Chef's kiss. This has to be my favorite book we've read and maybe my favorite book from this year. It was so heart wrenching and it cut me deep. The imagery was one of the best things from this book. It was like each time I picked up the book, it was like a new Netflix episode...

 I'm going to be honest. I did not care for this book. I finished it pretty quickly. The material of the book was real, authentic, factual, etc. and I though that the author did great with the overall topic of the book. However, I don't think I cared for the writing style. I don't usually mind short books, although I prefer long and lengthy reads because it usually has more substance. I don't usually mind them because it's quick, straight to the point and my brain enjoys them. But this one was almost too quick. I felt like the book wasn't very tense for a story covering this type of material? I imagine being in this scenerio would be frightening and so tense that you feel a little panicked. This book didn't give me that feeling and it just felt like a school assignment. It felt anti-climactic. The ending was a little rushed to me. I didn't feel like every question was answered or even acknowledged. Miguel and his sister's inner-turmoil felt unanswere...

 I know how late this blog post is considering that I wrote the first paper on this book. Honestly as I sit here and write this at the end of the semester, this was my one of my favorites, if not my favorite book, that we've read the entire semester. It looks like it's long when you look at the physical book, but it feels like a quick read. Especially the last 100-150 pages or so. Fabiola wasn't my favorite narrator from the other books we've read, but she was realistic and I liked that. She knew (mostly) what her priorities were (to herself) and although not all of her decisions were the best, she stuck to her views and how she saw the world. Mostly, when Fab was feeling a certain type of emotion during the book, I was right there with her. She was smart, strong when she needed to be, and was one of the most loyal characters I've ever read about. When I was in the middle of reading American Street, I wasn't sure how I felt about the small chapters about each ch...

      (I forgot this was a draft and forgot that I never posted it!) It took me an extra week to read It's Kind of a Funny Story. I just don't think I connected with the book very much. The content wasn't too heavy or triggering to me personally. Even though I often struggle with depression, it comes and it goes, I just didn't connect with Craig's character. Okay, let me re-phrase that. I related to him, but didn't connect with him. I am a worrier and I stress over every little thing like he does. It's exhausting to say the least. But I understand where he's coming from when he panics and feels suicidal from his depression. I myself have not really dealt with suicide, but I know others or close friends who have, so it's a hard topic to discuss sometimes. Even with our similar struggles, Craig just didn't click with me. It don't think it's the characters, or the setting, or the story. Something about the book apparently didn't suck me ...