Review: And Then Things Fall Apart by Arlaina Tibensky

Rating (Out of 5): ~4 (Maybe 4.5)

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Simon Pulse/Simon Teen/Pulse It [Whatever])

Spoilers?: Minor.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Keek’s life was totally perfect.

Keek and her boyfriend just had their Worst Fight Ever, her best friend heinously betrayed her, her parents are divorcing, and her mom’s across the country caring for her newborn cousin, who may or may not make it home from the hospital. To top it all off, Keek’s got the plague. (Well, the chicken pox.) Now she’s holed up at her grandmother’s technologically-barren house until further notice. Not quite the summer vacation Keek had in mind.
With only an old typewriter and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar for solace and guidance, Keek’s alone with her swirling thoughts. But one thing’s clear through her feverish haze—she’s got to figure out why things went wrong so she can put them right.

Review:

I was expecting this to be good, and it was. I usually end up enjoying letter or journal style books, especially when it's about a person that might be rambling and thinking a lot throughout the book, and when I found out that's what this book is, I wasn't disappointed.

The book is about Keek, who has chicken pox and is staying with her Grandmother, while her parents are divorcing and she's trying to deal with her fight with her boyfriend Matt, and so is re-reading The Bell Jar, her favorite book, (which I've never read, and so have no idea what the actual similarities are between this book and that one) and typing up her feelings on an old typewriter.

So, I did like Keek. I really got to know her in this book, and agreed with her on several things. I enjoyed her thoughts on everything, and her musings on it all while being sick, and I felt a little bad for her at some points. One of my favorite musings of hers, I think, would have to be what she thought of virginity. I won't say much more, but I really enjoyed that. (Oh, also, sofa king. That is the most amazing thing, ever, and I love it, and am so glad I read this book, just for that. I mean, I'm glad I read the book for everything else, too, but that? Icing on the cake, or whatever. And if you don't understand those two words, say them together, aloud, very fast. Isn't that awesome?)

I enjoyed living through everything with Matt and her parents and her friends, and just everyone else around her. Her parents took a bit of a turnaround, and they both kind of suck, but it seems like her dad, surprisingly, it getting higher on the scale than her mother is (because what her mother did, completely sucks; I mean, what he did sucks too, but it's more impractical and hateful what she did. It's like she took business and pleasure and mixed them together, and she shouldn't have done that. Not that what he did wasn't wrong, though, because it was). And Matt? There were some really nice, steamy scenes with him, which I enjoyed. And some of the time I liked him. But, honestly, he's kind of a douche (again, I don't like that word, but sometimes it just kind of fits, okay?). And I don't think he's getting all that better at the end of the book. I feel like he should be, but that's not how things turned out. Her friends, on the other hand, were, and so that was nice at least. Well, I guess Keek is, too, which is good.
The ending left a little to be desired, something a bit bigger and more definite. But that's alright.

Aside from some of those things, the book was really good. I liked being in Keek's head, and I liked how her journals were; they were very fun. The book was fun, and very easy to get through, and I was a little surprised by how attached I got to it, what with not wanting to put it down. I am definitely looking forward to Tibensky publishing more books in the future.