Itching to Read Mosquitoland

This new YA novel should be on your to-read list right now

Itching+to+Read+Mosquitoland

“—1— A Thing’s Not a Thing Until You Say It Out Loud:  I am Mary Iris Malone, and I am not okay.”

Congratulations!  You have now read the first chapter of Mosquitoland.

It is both dull and intriguing, and who knows how David Arnold, author of the going-to-be-New-York-Times-Best-Seller, pulled off a one-sentence first chapter.  I’ve never known an author to successfully do that, but then again, I’ve never known an author to attempt it at all.  Perhaps that’s why it was so intriguing.

But the 10-word first chapter isn’t the only intriguing thing about Mosquitoland, because “Mosquitoland” is actually Mississippi, the pest-infested state Mim, our imperfect heroine, gets hauled off to by her dad and recently-acquired step mother.

Mim hadn’t been in Mosquitoland very long when THE BREAKING NEWS came and reached out with a pair of scissors, which promptly snipped the single thread she had been holding on to.  This thread, now severed, had been tying her so loosely to her “house-but-not-a-home” in Mississippi, but could no longer hold her anywhere.

Dunbar graduate (class of 1999) signs copies of his novel in the library.
Dunbar graduate (class of 1999) signs copies of his novel in the library.

So, she did what any lost sixteen-year-old girl would do.  She went to see her mom.  On a Greyhound bus.  To Cleveland, Ohio.

With nothing but a change of clothes, some chips, a journal and over $800 of her step mom’s secret waitressing tips.

I think my best course of action here is to just let the ridiculousness of that sentence marinate.

In this rendition of a “New-girl, road trip story,” no cliché is left unturned, leaving each one on brand new ground.  The stereotypes of the people in the cities Mim passes through are written in hilarious honesty as is the seriously comedic commentary recorded in the letters Mim writes throughout her trip, all beginning, “Dear Isabel.”

Mosquitoland is the first book that has ever made me laugh out loud, then produce actual flowing tears not half a page later.  Actually, it is also the first book that has ever made me laugh out loud at all.

If you like John Green, put him down and pick up David Arnold.

There are the good books that make you want to read everything on the planet whether it is good or not, then there are the good books that make you never want to read anything else ever again.  Mosquitoland is the latter.