Book Review: Mosquitoland by David Arnold

Title: Mosquitoland
Author: David Arnold
Publisher: Viking Children's
Release Date: March 03, 2015
Genre: YA Contemporary
Length: 336 pages
Source: Library
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Find it Here: Amazon // Goodreads

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.

My Review:

Mosquitoland by David Arnold is a beautifully written, contemporary novel about a girl named Mim (Mary Iris Malone) and who is on a journey to, what she believes, is going to help her mother. But what she discovers at the end of her road trip is completely different. Even though Mosquitoland is a coming of age story, the road trip is a hilarious adventure full of twists and turns around every corner!

"Through the window, I see the ocean of trees, now in slow motion: each trunk, an anchor; each treetop, a rolling wave; a thousand coiling branches, leaves, sharp pine needles. My own reflection in the window is ghostlike, translucent. I am part of this Sea of Trees, this landscape blurred."

Please tell me that the cover of Mosquitoland reminds you of the movie Little Miss Sunshine? Because it totally does for me! I love that movie so this cover definitely drew me in! Even though now I totally understand the cover after reading the book, the cover in general is just awesome! Mim is such a great main character! Lately, in YA, I’ve been finding young sixteen year old main characters a little annoying and winny for my taste; maybe because I’m getting older. But I just loved Mim! I lover her grunge thrift store style, the journal she carries with her everywhere and her unstoppable drive to complete her mission. The only problem with Mim is her perspective of life and what’s going on around it is totally skewd. But Mim’s journey back to her family is the purpose of Mosquitoland.

I love the physical journey aspect of Mosquitoland! I’ve always been a sucker for a road trip book and this is still a road trip but in a very unusual sense. And the characters that she meets along the way are very usual indeed.

I gave Mosquitoland 4 stars because I just didn’t feel like a 5 star read to me. While it’s a memorable book, I can’t go as far as to say that it’s one of my favorite read this year. I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves YA contemporary!