Mosquitoland

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I would flip back and forth between if I liked it or not. The story is set up nicely, I was invested in Mim's journey to reunite with her mother but I never felt fully invested in Mim...Just the plot. ~Ashley

If you read this book you know Mim has some Native American heritage and so I was wondering if her war paint was appropriate and a good representation. There is an open letter you can read about it here

This book was a very nice adventure, though there are some tough spots and some themes that hit hard. The main character is very relatable and all the characters she meets are charming. I really liked the boys she traveled with.
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Little bit of a spoiler.

The only thing that had me wondering was how they didn't find her sooner. Like what are these police for?

I really really enjoyed this!! This has been on my list since I read “The Strange Fascinations Of Noah Hypnotik” a little less than a year ago. One of my favorite things about David Arnold's books is that the characters are always crazy and wild and insanely memorable. I also love how there's always a bit a fantastical element to his stories. Not in the sense of magical realism but more to the effect of “That wouldn't really happen in real life, but I'm going to suspend my disbelief for the sake of the fact that I WISH it would happen in real life”, ya know?? I absolutely adore Arnold's writing style and the way he crafts his characters.

This 100% would've gotten 5-stars if it weren't for a few key things:

1) There were a few pretty fatphobic remarks from our main character. They weren't necessarily direct but more internalized. Mim also didn't learn or grow out of that behavior. It just didn't sit right with me.

2) There was a scene that was straight out of r/thathappened. I genuinely had to set the book down and take a break for a little while after I read it. It was something to the effect of:

Bad person: being bad
Mim: says something to that person
Everyone: CLAPS

I understand that this book was written in 2014 but it definitely shows. (Also the same thing happened in “The Fault In Our Stars” and that's not forgivable either. Just ugh)

3) I wasn't a huge fan of the last line. The ending as a whole was pretty great. It had just the right mix of ambiguity and closure, something I'm realizing David Arnold does really well. However, the very last two lines just didn't fit for me. This alone wouldn't have docked it a star, but combined with my other two points, it really just solidified its place at 4 stars.

Overall, it's a really great book and I feel it definitely deserves a read.

Original de: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

Muchos lectores nos caracterizamos por escoger lecturas basadas únicamente en que tan bonita es la portada. Mosquitoland no tiene una portada que, por alguna razón, me hace imaginar una historia diferente a la que me entregó. La veo, e inmediatamente mi mente, la categoriza como una biografía o algún tema muy serio de África :v Quien sabe que cosas hay en mi cerebro.

Debo decir/advertir antes que cualquier cosa que esta historia es narrada por una antiheroína. Así que, esta historia, sobre todo su protagonista, va a ser muy complicada para algunos de entender/disfrutar.

Obviamente al ser un personaje e historia conflictiva, a mí me encantó.

Como la portada indica, esta es la historia sobre una chica y un bus y el desastre que desencadena más desastres.

Más de una vez comenté que el road trip es una categoría de libro que adoro, da una gran oportunidad de encontrarnos con personajes peculiares y añorables. Mosquitoland no fue la excepción, creo que tener una narradora como Mim hizo la historia más interesante. Quiero decir, ¡Esta narrado mediante entradas de diario y cartas!

Y Mim tiene una forma de contarte las cosas muy entretenidas.

Este es otro libro donde nos encontramos con una enfermedad mental como gran eje de la historia, a diferencia de algunas otras novelas, que aunque realistas y a veces trágicas, romantizan ligeramente la historia, en Mosquitoland sentí el otro lado. Generalmente este tipo de libros nos traen el mensaje de tomar una enfermedad de manera bastante seria y apoyar a quienes la tiene, en Mosquitoland es ¿qué tal si esa preocupación por la persona con problemas mentales es demasiado?

Es difícil de explicar sin contarte un spoiler.

LO POLEMICO

Hay dos o tres decisiones en la historia que dejó a muchos lectores molestos, un tanto indignados. No voy a defender las decisiones, es más, una me hizo sentir bastante incomoda.

No sé si porque al final, las cosas resultan a su manera rara o el hecho que haya sido la única opción, pero he terminado disfrutando el libro, no puedo decir que he perdonado todo, sobre todo Poncho Man, solo que la cosa es esta: No siempre hacemos lo que deberíamos, más aun si eres adolescente, no justifico, solo resalto una realidad. Qué bonito seria que a los 17 todos hubiéramos sido tan maduros como los adolescentes de los libros. Lástima la realidad no es esa.

Mosquitoland no va a gustar a todos, es eso que llaman: Problematic Fave (favorito problemático), puedo ver todo lo que está mal, pero aun así me gusta.

¿Continuara la historia? ¡No se sabe! Tiene un final que me hace rogar que sí, o al menos una historia corta. ALGO.


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