Mosquitoland

Book 15 of my 2020 Reading Challenge

read from January 31 - February 28

Mosquitoland

by David Arnold

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2015

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 Opinion

2 stars

Even though I first started this book on January 31 I basically started it over on February 20 after a long break.  

I'm a little torn because I liked the writing and was going to rate it neutrally as a "it's not you, it's me" kind of thing because of what's going on in my life at the moment.  But then I really thought about it and there was just too much going on in this book regarding plot points and I can't overlook it.  I can't list things because of spoilers but there were way too many situations and way too many characters for things to come together the way they did.

I would probably read the author again but this one wasn't for me.

Quote from the Book

"(Every great character, Iz, be it on page or screen, is multidimensional. The good guys aren't all good, the bad guys aren't all bad, and any character wholly one or the other shouldn't exist at all. Remember this when I describe the antics that follow, for though I am not a villain, I am not immune to villainy.)"