Tuesday, February 7, 2017

 

Kirkus- Style Review of The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

Faced with an overwhelmingly painful situation that she cannot accept, seventh-grader Suzy Swanson, retreats into a world of silence. There in her grief and guilt, she comes up with a hypothesis to explain the unexplainable.

Benjamin has written an emotional, insightful story, allowing you to intimately know and empathize with the main character. Her name is Suzy and she has always been interested in facts that most people aren't interested in. She is just being herself but this makes her "odd" to her peers. Her best friend Franny Jackson never minded though- until middle school when she starts to be interested in typical middle school girl things like her clothes, hair and boys, things that Suzy gives no thought to. Franny finds new like-minded friends and Suzy gets left behind. Suzy tries to fit in but when she does the situation only gets worse; she is ostracized and finds herself socially isolated. In an attempt to bring her friend back to her, Suzy does something she deeply regrets. Before she can make this awful thing right, Franny drowns. Suzy's scientific mind wants to know how it happened, but Suzy's mom tells her that, "sometimes things just happen." Suzy can not accept this answer. Grief and guilt haunt her and she thinks, "Sometimes you want things to change so badly, you can't even stand to be in the same room with the way things actually are." She retreats into silence and formulates a hypothesis about how Franny may have died. Because of the depth of her unacceptance ("Things had ended between me and Franny in the worst way. if I'd known, I'd have said sorry for the way things happened. I'd have at least said goodbye. But a person doesn't always know the difference between a new beginning and a forever sort of ending. Now it was too late to fix any of it. But maybe I could still do something.") she becomes increasingly obsessed with proving her hypothesis. This is what keeps the reader captivated. Will she get a chance to pursue her hypothesis or will she find acceptance? Tension builds as the reader realizes Suzi can't go on like this. How will this end for her? The book is cleverly organized into seven parts - the parts of the scientific method - but Suzy's problem is not one that can be solved scientifically. This is an often painful and deeply touching story that addresses serious issues like lost friendship, social isolation, regret, being "different," adolescent cruelty, death and finally acceptance and hope. There is an added bonus of amazing true scientific facts, especially about jellyfish.
Ali Benjamin has written a poignant story that speaks to all humanity, because at some point we all have faced, or will face, a situation that has no acceptable explanation. Then we realize, like Suzy has to, that, "sometimes things just happen." Readers will root for Suzy to find acceptance and heal. The message of the book is so important for all of us; sometimes there just isn't a happy ending, but... maybe there can be a new beginning.







1 comment:

  1. Professional tone, wonderful descriptions, and lots of sincerity. Great review, albeit a bit lengthy. 4.75 out of 5 points.

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