Theresa ♫'s Reviews > Catalyst

(*sharp inhale*) Wow. I'm really glad I decided to reread this one.

(PRE-REVIEW WARNING: SPOILERS UP AHEAD. LOTS OF THEM. Please only read them if you have read this book before, because I would hate to ruin it for you. It is a GREAT READ.)

Just to let you guys know, this is my second time reading and reviewing this book, and the reason why I had to hop onto goodreads immediately after I finished the book (at 12:50am, with an 8:30 General Chem II class tomorrow, nice. It was worth it) was because from the beginning of reopening and rereading this book all the way to the end when I read the last words of the acknowledgements, I knew that I rated this book 1 star on goodreads 2 years ago. Because I HATED this book. For the last 2 years I thought this was the worst book ever written (clearly I had never read the Selection before this). I was so angry and frustrated and I just finished reading my 2 year old review and have come to this conclusion:

2014 me was a very STUPID AND UNEXPERIENCED ME. An extremely different me.
What have I experienced in the last 2 years? I started college. I started stressing, because high school was a load of bull. I learned what good and bad relationships actually are.

And so let me describe to you why 2 years ago, this book was practically given a rating of negative stars, to 2017, when I am very happy to rate this book a solid 5 stars.

(Am I exaggerating? No. I'm not. I assure you. I had LOTS of effing homework to do and I decided to read this book until late into the early early morning.)

Mostly I'll be comparing what I now understand to what I understood in 2014. You have to just . . . have the right experiences when you read this book. You have to be able to withstand the scientific terms, and get all the "inside jokes" of analogies that Kate makes between her math oriented mind and the real world that she is experiencing. You have to be able to understand why the characters do what they do. You just . . . have to understand things. I know this because my HS Junior Year self understood NOT A DAMN THING.

So.

1. Kate, and her stupid, stupid decisions.
Or . . . her one stupid, stupid decision: Apply for 1 college. And having that college be MIT. Ha.
You know what, my 2014 year old self was like "WHAT THE EFF, STUPID?!" without realizing that of course Anderson knew that Kate was stupid for doing that, like WOW you're such a genius for realizing that this was suuuuch a dumb mistake, past Theresa.
But when I was in 8th grade applying to magnet high schools (because you have to apply for the special programs they offer, since they're not the standard local high schools) I sent 3 applications for 3 different, high-demand programs in THE SAME SCHOOL. And guess who got rejected. Guess who inhaled the rejection letter?
Honestly I guess I didn't think about it being that bad because the greatest experiences of mine came out of high school (and of course the worst, because high school is high school). But I was such a damn hypocrite.

This let us know her entire personality. She is determined, she is driven crazy wanting to go to her dream school, she is ALWAYS STRESSED with like 8 different things running through her mind, she is always busy, never gives herself air to breathe, always has to be somewhere, oh my GOD Anderson wrote this so well. Do you know what Kate is like? I read through Anderson's words, and I recognized it immediately. This is me, starting from Fall 2015. Always busy. A mental checklist in my mind. Always running around, doing SOMETHING. Never sitting still.
MIT was ALL that was on her mind. Now that I think of it, Anderson is EXCELLENT at writing in points of views of different mental stabilities, especially the serious, turbulent kind. It blows my mind how she can write. OH my goodness, I don't know why my past self didn't just take a deep breath and think "Wait. THIS IS LAURIE. HALSE. ANDERSON. DUUUH!!!"

And through the book, she had to struggle with that one choice that she made. She was too overconfident. Her character grew and she learned. And I love how the book didn't make us wait the whole time for her to read her rejection letter because this let us roll our eyes at the beginning saying "Ah. Of course, you dumbass. But wait . . . there's this whole book left to read. How do you put up with that, Kate? Tell us."

2. Teri Litch

Who I hated for so long, and hated even more because she and I share the same freaking name.
No. I don't hate Teri Litch. I can't now.
What changed?
Now SHE has got character. Tough and rough as nails. Soft heart for her Mikey. In fact, in the entire book, she might have been my favorite character. Her emotions, her implicit reasons for doing everything that she did . . . this book made you THINK about WHY characters did things. It was WONDERFUL. And Kate didn't even have to cross her limited first person POV to explain ANYTHING, it just spoke for itself. And the way it speaks for itself is different for every reader because all of us have different understandings and analyzations of peoples' actions because we were all raised differently or in different environments, and UGH. IT'S GREAT. Not having to explain EVERY SINGLE DETAIL about something that should be implied is just great.

Teri had a lot of crap going on. And she was definitely hard to understand. Which is why my naive little child 2014 self failed to understand her and only saw her as an obstacle in everyone's way. She always had a reason for doing something, even if it was something nasty. Or rude. I'm not saying that they are right at all, that everyone should just STRIVE to be like Teri if they wanted to have character. No . . . it was just that I want to believe Teri was based off of a real person. In all her actions, you could read what her past life must have been like. She's unconventional, and the implicit data tells us WHY.


3. Mitch Pangborn

Oh yes. This guy.
My "favorite" character in 2014 out of this book, why? Oh, I thought he was nothing but sweet to Kate. And that Kate was just constantly turning him down, pushing him away, ignoring him, neglecting him, unappreciating him . . .
WRONG. Oh so wrong, 17-year-old me.
Mitch, and all of her other friends, Sara and Travis. They. SUCKED.
The book did a great job of showing that they seemed super supportive at first, but by the end, they just seemed to morph into something different. I finally got it. Mitch isn't exactly a good guy. I think I could say this from personal experience.
All these people could talk about, or wanted to talk about, was school. SCHOOL SCHOOL SCHOOL.
And it took Kate a while to realize that she just didn't want to talk about it anymore. From the moment she was rejected to the end of the book, she just . . . didn't want to talk about it. She needed a distraction. Not only was the poor chick stressed that she didn't get accepted, she was stressed that the people around her would give her nothing but pity. That this rejection defined her skills. ALL HER "FRIENDS" DID WAS FUEL THIS FLAME. All they wanted to do was TALK about it, and they did not once consider that maybe she just needed some real comfort. Some reassurance that she is still amazing, even if she didn't apply to safety schools. SHE NEEDED FRIENDS THAT WERE GONNA BE THERE WHETHER SHE WAS IN SCHOOL OR HOMELESS OR STUPID OR SMART OR WHAT. Those are real friends.
Now that I'm typing this, I realize how much I HATE her friends, especially Mitch.
I just wanna go back through the book and every time she treated Mitch coldly or blankly, I just wanna go "YOU GO GIRL, YOU GET YOURSELF ANOTHER MAN".

I think I speak out of experience because friends that constantly, and I mean CONSTANTLY, talk about school are so
EFFING
ANNOYING. AND BORING.

And these friends were basically heartless. I'm ranting about them, but honestly I love this book for how it portrayed Kate's actions to the most accurate actions of someone surrounded by these kinds of people. If I was her, I'd ignore these guys like the plague too. I'd be so ashamed, and so sick when I'd hear them start to talk about school. These guys are TACTLESS and I'm so emotional about it and I love it because UGH this book is GOOOOOD. I really feel the empathy.

4. Chemistry

2014 me sucked at chemistry and nearly flunked it.
2017 me is a Biochemistry major who is deeply in love with the field of chemistry. And calculus.

So I was able to comprehend the analogies that Kate made, which were generally good (but just a little bland and extremely simplified, which of course I don't mind at all because even Anderson said that she nearly flunked chemistry too and that any mistakes made were hers and she had to have her writing double-checked. There weren't any mistakes that I saw. Just a weird typo on the last page of the book where "would" is written twice, so it says "Teri, you said you would would teach me how to use a hammer" or something of that sort.

This book was excellent though. The analogies made sense and were accurate to my satisfaction.


In conclusion: Read the books you hate 3 years after you read them. See if you still like them.

Dude, my whole perspective on this book from 2014 to now completely 180-ed on me. I feel COMPLETELY OPPOSITELY different than I did before.

This book was hard to put down. Very easy to get lost in. I didn't have to reread pages often because the words flowed so smoothly that it was easy to read. Easy to understand. Easy to feel. I finished the book in a day. It was not a tangled spider-web mess, it was art. This book was art.

Hmm. That's interesting, I never really pictured myself ever saying Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson was art. I hated this book so effing much. Now I love the crap out of it.

2014 me was like "I WON'T RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE".
2017 me is like "Goodbye naive 2014 Theresa. You're as dumb as Kate's tactless, one-track minded friends."

Review as of April 8, 2014, rated 1 star

VERY ANGRY REVIEW AHEAD
I lost my temper.
I do not recommend this book to anyone.


................
................
....(*shakes head)
(*closes eyes)
(*grabs a bundle of hair
AND YANKS IT OFF AND NOW IS BALD)
Okay I didn't really yank off my hair, but believe me. I wanted to.

I have some stuff to say before I start the review so...um...

1. THIS REVIEW IS GOING TO HAVE A SPOILER EXPLOSION
But you know what? This book was so awful I INVITE you to just read the spoilers and save yourself 232 pages.
I don't think I ever write really mean reviews but this book...I've never been so...(*shakes head/face palms)

2. To those of you who liked the book, please know before reading that I'm going to rip this book to shreds in my review.
(Not in real life of course, because this belongs to the library.)
Also if anyone tries to post a comment disagreeing with me I will just shake my head and face palm again.
But I don't even bother replying.

3. I got carried away earlier doing my page updates. My emotions just went out of hand. I was seriously furious with this (*insert nasty word here). I couldn't hold it in.
I'm sorry if I sounded like an immature angry little reader.
But really. This touched me in all the wrong places. (AHEM!)

4. If you want to have a happy day just--please don't read this review. It's going to be bad, trust me.

5. IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A HAPPY LIFE, DON'T READ THIS BOOK-----
Sorry...sorry I let my anger out of control...sorry...



I HATED this book.
I don't give a flipping flipper that it's by Laurie Halse Anderson. Beautiful author of beautiful The Impossible Knife of Memory.
I HATED this.
I've read some crappy crap but this is awful. This was AWFUL to me.


(*sighs) okay.



WHY DID SHE ONLY APPLY FOR ONE COLLEGE?!
Okay...calm down Theresa...calm down it's only the first sentence of the review--
BUT WHY DID SHE--IS SHE DUMB--
Shhhh Theresa...shh
BUT WHY---
Shh......shhhhhhhhhhh

Sorry I'm having inner conflicts with my anger.
But anyway.

I don't know why Anderson decided to make a story about a girl who only applies to one college. I felt like this was some sort of insult.
And then Anderson decided to lay upon a fantastic spin!
LETS NOT LET KATE GET INTO THIS COLLEGE!
Not only will this depress readers but also show Kate's stupidity!

I don't flipping care if she's in AP Chem! I passed Chemistry Honors the way a car barely misses getting hit by a TRAIN!
Or the luckiest man barely misses getting hit by a car!
Or outrunning a bear or the cops or--I DON'T CARE.
SHE IS STUPID TO ME.
And trust me, the college thing was not the only stupid thing...
Maybe Anderson wanted a certain affect to her story by making Kate ONLY apply for MIT.
But this affect just...just--it did not work! At least not positively...

IN THE END IT WASNT ABOUT THE COLLEGE ANYWAY!
I thought this story was going to be about a stressed girl coping with stress. THEN her stupid one-college-application would have made an affect.
Like how Wintergirls was about coping with anorexia and TIKOM was about a girl and her dad coping with bad memories of war and disputes.
WHAT THE HECK WAS THIS ONE ABOUT?! I don't freaking know.


Sorry I'm...my anger is getting out of control again...
What added MORE to the stupidity was that Kate refused to accept that she wasn't accepted.
I mean I see how she's determined but the more she acted on it, the more stupid she seemed.


That's only a fraction of what makes Kate a piece of poop.

Now the biggest piece of poop of them all:
TERI LITCH. Rhymes with--sorry sorry I can't curse.
She was messed up.
She was MESSED UP.
I wanted to destroy her existence. I wanted to REWRITE THE STORY so she would die, or learn her lesson!
But in the real Anderson story, SHE NEVER LEARNS A THING!

First, we don't even know why she acts like such a (fill in the parenthesis). Why she bullied people. It wasn't clear to me.
She stole Kate's things when they were letting her stay in their homes.
She demanded food. She nearly wrecked a car. She smoked cigarettes in someone else's car. She kept calling Kate names when KATE WAS BEING A HOSPITABLE HOST TO HER.
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH HER?
We never know. We never learn.
And when (HUGE SPOILER HERE PLEASE DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU) her freaking son died, I was sad. Trust me.
BUT I FELT NO SYMPATHY FOR TERI.
None. She was messed up.

And I don't know if Anderson made her like this to let the readers know that she wasn't a likable person, but it didn't teach the readers anything good.
In the end, Teri still didn't learn her lesson.
She was still Princess Potty Mouth. Still disgustingly horrible, rude, obnoxious--SHE DIDN'T CHANGE, even when her son died.
There was no point to her being there. NO POINT to her messed up personality, NO POINT.
It taught me nothing.
Did Teri change her ways after Mikey died? NO, she didn't.

Did we know WHY Teri was acting the way she did?
NO, we don't.

There was no point in reading about her existence.
What on earth was Anderson thinking?

TO ADD TO THAT, we don't learn much from these characters because THEY ALL SEEM TO KISS UP TO TERI.

Kate,
You got your things stolen,
Got called names,
Got pushed around,
Bullied,
AND YOU STILL TRY TO BE NICE TO HER, as if she did nothing to you.
Sure she went through misfortune. But DO YOU HAVE SELF-RESPECT?!
What are you teaching your readers, Anderson? Kate had no self-respect when she let Teri push her around, flip her off, and mess with her things.

And to be frankly honest, if Teri really appreciated what people were doing for her, WOULD SHE DO ALL OF THIS TO KATE?
I'm sorry, I personally hate ungrateful people. This was a bad example for a YA Audience. This was a horrible example for teenagers to follow.
Teri learned nothing from all of this. In the end, she was still a B.
Kate just let Teri push her around. In the end, she still let Teri push her around.

What the freaking fo-shizzle?

At the restaurant when Teri tried to take Kate's food as a waitress, Kate wanted to apologize to Teri if they made her angry!
NO SELF RESPECT.
This was at the end of the book too! NO ONE FREAKING LEARNED ANYTHING.

Even the other characters wanted to kiss Teri's butt. The only character I like in this book is Mitch, the unfortunate misfit who has a crappy girlfriend and whose voice is seldom heard.

He was the only one who stood up to Teri. Who, on page 222, defended his girlfriend and said, and I quote because this is the ONE good quote in this book,

"I don't have to do anything. You did it yourself. We're all really sorry that Mikey was killed, and I know you've had a really hard life. But that doesn't give you permission to make Kate feel like s***, or make fun of people, or steal from them. Don't touch her food.

Amen.
AMEN.

And yet still, Kate ended up kissing Teri's butt and saying "sorry about what Mitch said".
Mitch. FLIP OFF KATE AND GO GET ANOTHER GIRLFRIEND, please. PLEASE.
Mitch was also the person in this story to tell Kate to sign up for safety colleges in case she didn't make it to MIT. And Kate didn't listen. Of course.
Kate is also ignorant to Mitch, putting him off after other "important" things, being busy from him, and pretty much just sucking as a girlfriend.
Mitch is stupid for not ditching that,
Mitch DEFENDED this girl. And comforted her.
What did she do?
"I don't want to talk right now."
"Leave me alone."
"If you don't like it, you can't leave."
"I'm busy."
"I had to wash my hands first."

THIS WAS THE MOST AWFUL THING TO USE TO TEACH A YA GROUP.
Anderson.
You disgusted me in this one. TRULY.

A main character who only cares about her college. (Also stupid for signing up for only one, and has no self respect. And is a horrible example of a girlfriend.)
A side character who is rude, despicable, insulting, and pointless.
A boyfriend who WON'T DITCH HIS HORRIBLE GIRLFRIEND.
Supporting characters that don't make wise decisions.

WHAT EXACTLY DID WE LEARN FROM THIS BOOK THAT WAS ANY GOOD?!

1. APPLY TO MORE THAN ONE COLLEGE JUST IN CASE YOU'RE NOT AS GREAT AS YOU THINK YOU ARE OR IN CASE S*** HAPPENS

2. KISS UP TO SCARY PEOPLE

3. DON'T LEAVE YOUR KID ALONE IN A DANGEROUS PLACE


THIS BOOK. IT DESERVES NO STARS.
None.
Not a speck of stardust.

I want to believe that this is a satire for stupid teenage girls that only sign up for one college--a very upper college, in fact--kiss up to bullies instead of standing up for themselves, and ignore their boyfriends/girlfriends.
Please tell me this is a satire.
Please.
Please tell me this isn't a legit thing.



Anderson. Wow. WOW.