Review: And Then Things Fall Apart - Arlaina Tibensky

Where I got it: Library

Rating: 5 stars  

Cover Rating: 4.5 stars (Very eye-catching. I love it save for the fact that the typewriter is not the one Keek uses.)  

Genre: Young Adult

Publication Date: July 26, 2011

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Page Count: 254 p.

Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon

Keek and her boyfriend had an epic fight, and soon there after Keek gets the chicken pox. Her parents are fighting too, since her dad got caught cheating and moved in with his mother. Keek's mother is cross country helping care for a preemie cousin. So now Keek is stuck at her grandmother's house, which has practically nothing made after 1960. So Keek's grandmother brings her an old typewriter so that in between fits of fever and readings of The Bell Jar, Keek might write down some of her thoughts and emotions instead of just bottling them up. 

I really loved Keek's grandmother. She was frank and bold and fascinating. I loved it when she tells Keek to "Class it up, kid." Fantastic. She was probably my favorite character. Keek was completely delirious throughout most of the book and we slowly were let in on her family's secrets and her failing love-life. It was interesting jumping around the past few months with Keek narrating them as they came to her. I was anxiously waiting to figure out what was going on with her boyfriends and her parents. This is a great novel about dealing with divorcing parents. This story was also about friendships and relationships, about how sometimes you are so close to someone that you can end up trusting them too much, or not seeing things about them that you don't want to.  I loved all the reference to The Bell Jar. It made me want to pick up and re-read my copy, which I will probably have to do soon. What a great piece of literature for Keek's mind to play with while she is feverish and isolated. I agree the Keek is sofa king(read the book) not a name and rather sounds like something that you might do when you see something gross. I really enjoyed this book and it was exactly what I felt like reading this summer. It was a nice summer read. Enough stimuli without being a too much for my sun-addled brain. If you get a chance to check this one out I would recommend you do so.

First Line:

"I once watched a collector kill a monarch butterfly on a nature show by putting it under a glass dome with a piece of cotton soaked in gasoline."


Favorite Lines:
"Cute as a fucking button. Esther/Sylvia was as serious as a nuclear bomb."