summer's Reviews > Catalyst

Me before reading Catalyst:

Ooh it's written by Laurie Halse Anderson! This should be good!

Me after reading:

Why the hell did I even waste money on this book and WHY did I actually waste precious reading time to suffer through this garbage??

Yep. It was that bad.

And the thing is, I kept reading, mistakenly thinking that this would be one of those books that resolves everything in the last few pages and everything clicks by the end of the novel.

But, disappointingly, nothing was resolved. At all.

Another thing that bugged me was how stupid Kate was. She brings shame upon all perfectionists everywhere; if I was one, I would be very offended by how they are portrayed. It is claimed that she is a straight-A student who is perfect in school. But, alas, she has absolutely no common sense. She doesn't apply to multiple colleges, because she is obsessed with MIT. (Which is completely out of character.) Not only that, but she spends the entirety of the book moping around and whining.

The multiple references to chemistry was a bit overused and unnecessary, in my opinion.

To me, there wasn't really a point to this novel. It kind of just rambled on and on about MIT this, cross-country that, and loads of drama over insignificant things. To say Kate is melodramatic is an understatement.

Don't get me wrong, Kate's character actually had potential. If LHA executed her character well, this would have been a semi-enjoyable read. But she was so unbearable and irritating that it was hard to sympathize with her.

Maybe I'm totally missing the point of this book. Maybe this book has a really good message that I am unable to see. I don't know. What I do know for sure is that this book was a pain to read, and unless you want to torture yourself and be trapped in the mind of Kate Whining Malone, you probably won't be a fan of this one.