I talk about this book in my May reading wrap-up.

This is one of those books that is less than simple to rate and review because it engages (or tries to) the emotions. I finished last night and I felt a certain sadness and I also pretty much hated every single adult we met save maybe an old lady on a bus. I felt icky and I have to at least acknowledge that the story did that purposefully and worked in that regard. I mean, if it was Arnold's intention that I love all these characters, well that was a failure.

My biggest concern was a lack of connection between myself and the story and characters. That may seem strange since I just talked about my emotions being involved but those were mainly EW and WHY and I DON'T LIKE THIS and not really anything that was focused on my need to find out what specifically would happen to these characters. At the end of the day that boils down to the fact that I felt this story was a bit too manufactured. It felt contrived and by the 5th time Mim met someone who was also a wonderfully quirky character with some kind of light neurosis I was like, "ALRIGHT ALREADY."

The writing was lovely in many parts and gave me a good chuckle at points, but this just wasn't meant for me. There was a perpetual wall between me and Mim and the plot.

Not much more to say.