Mim has that typical YA teen voice that is snarky and standoffish, speaking in a way that most teenagers never would although they wish they did. Sadly, I found the book to be rather confusing and quite a slog to get through.įirst, I must be clear that the writing itself isn't bad. Add to that the promise of a good journey and mental health issues and I was sold. There was a great deal of excitement for the character with down syndrome, something not often seen in children's literature or literature in general.

I ignored the kerfuffle concerning the trailer and cultural misappropriation. I wanted to like this book, I really did. Mim has her own demons too, struggling with what the definition of sanity is and searching for a way to love those who have hurt her. But not even that goes right because she meets Walt, a boy with down syndrome who clearly needs someone to take care of him too. Eventually she abandons the bus, deciding to hitchhike her way to Ohio. She keeps it a secret though, not wanting her trip to end. First there is the bus accident followed by the stalker poncho man who corners her in the bathroom and almost rapes her. Things don't work out so well on the old Greyhound line though. When Mim catches wind that her mother be sick, she decides to take a bus back to Cleveland to me with her. Ages 12 up.Mim Malone has witnessed the sudden collapse of her family, being dragged from her home in Ohio to the wastelands of Mississippi to live with her dad and new stepmom. Mim's triumphant evolution is well worth the journey.

There is no shortage of humor in Mim's musings, interspersed with tender scenes and a few heart-pounding surprises. In my book, Carls are a top-notch species'). Determined to get back to her mother, Mim hops a bus to Cleveland, beginning an Odysseus-like adventure that introduces a delightfully eclectic cast of characters, who are made all the more memorable by Mim's descriptions ('I've only known two other Carls in my lifetime an insurgent moonshiner and a record store owner both of whom taught me important. Mim, blind in one eye from a solar eclipse and suffering from a 'misplaced epiglottis' that results in unpredictable spells of vomiting, is reeling from her parents' divorce and an unclear psychiatric diagnosis when she is dragged to Mississippi by her father and new stepmother. Newcomer Arnold's protagonist, 16-year-old Mim Malone, is as hold-nothing-back honest as they come, which makes the narrative she provides about her outlandish trek from Mississippi to Cleveland wholly enjoyable.

Mosquitoland book review