Catalyst - my book review

Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


True rating: 2.5 stars

There is one word that illustrates this book: ordinary. That word itself is as dull sounding as what Catalyst actually is.

After reading two of Laurie Halse Anderson's books (first Wintergirls then Speak), I was convinced that every single one of her novels were worth 5 stars. But I was wrong. Naivety got the better of me. This was an awesomely tedious book. To tell the truth, I was sort of glad to be able to turn the last page.

The main thing that saved this book from a 2 star review was the fact that I never got bored or skipped parts, even though I wanted to do so.

I felt that there was no depth in this book. One accident leads to another, and then...? What about Mitch? (They didn't really seem to break up.) What about the university? (We don't know what happened with that in the end.) What about Teri? (She doesn't seem to hate Kate that much.) And the BIG incident that changed everything... well, it was quite sad, I admit that, but I didn't find that it affected Kate personally.

Aside from the above, I also disliked the characters. Except for Mikey, of course. But apart from him, none of the characters were very likeable in my perspective, and there was no real background information on them. Like, I know Sara less than Kate knows Melinda.

Speaking of Melinda, as a side-note, I enjoyed her cameo role in this book. I loved Speak, so naturally I liked her guest appearance in this book, starring as herself.

There's not much else to say, but I've got Prom and Twisted on my TBR list. I'm definitely gonna read them sooner or later. I hope they won't be as disappointing as this book was...!



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