Catalyst

The book I read was titled Catalyst written by Laurie Halse Anderson. She is also the author of the books “Speak”, “Wintergirls”, and “Chains”. The story is about a senior in high school named Kate who is waiting to hear back from MIT college to see whether she has been accepted or not. MIT was Kate’s choice college, because it was were her Mother had went before she passed away. Kate struggles with communicating with her Dad, because he is a preacher, but surprisingly Kate doesn’t see herself as being very religious at all. She is also having some relationship issues and at this point has us all wondering how she plans to get out of these “sticky situations”

After awhile Kate finds out she has not gotten into MIT and she didn’t bother to apply anywhere else! To make matters worse the Litch family who lives down the hill`s house catches on fire and Teri and Mickey Litch are forced to stay with Kate and her family. This would not be so bad, but Kate cannot stand Teri. She is always getting in to trouble, she fights boys at school, and she is exactly the person Kate can see getting sent to jail. As the book intensifies she ends up working things out with her boyfriend and she even starts to not half mind Teri, but when it comes to the little boy Mickey she thinks he is one of the sweetest little boys. Kate`s father soon finds she has applied to no backup colleges and they must discuss what she is planning to do, Kate`s bond with her father becomes stronger as she learns to relies on him and be happy. Close to the end is a real shocker, one of the characters ends up dead while everyone is busy rebuilding the Litch`s house and with this loss it’s hard for many of the characters to see a way to cope with it. It turns out that all of the characters learn an important lesson, to be thankful for what they have. Kate also learns another important lesson. That lesson is that you can not always judge people from what you see on the outside or “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, which we all often do.

Personally I thought this book had its “boring points”, but I also enjoyed the read. I think the reader conveyed an important message not only about people, but the other helpful message that when it comes to college you must be prepared. I would say this book was okay, I think the middle of the book captured me more than the beginning and to really want to read something I like to be hooked in from the beginning. It was however an okay book, I just don’t think it was exactly the book for me. I would recommend you reading this if you enjoy inspirational novels, however at the end the book could probably also be categorized as a tragedy.

Book Review by Liz Z.