catalyst

catalyst
laurie halse anderson
ya/realistic fiction
speak
published 2002

Meet Kate Malone - straight A science and math geek, minister's daughter, ace long-distance runner, new girlfriend (to Mitchell "Early Decision Harvard" Pangborn III), unwilling family caretaker, and emotional avoidance champion.  Kate manages her life by organizing it as logically as the periodic table.  She can handle it all - or so she thinks.  Then, things change as suddenly as a string of chemical reactions.  Kate feels that her life is spinning out of her control - and then, something happens that truly blows it all apart.

I loved Speak and Wintergirls.  Laurie Halse Anderson's writing is very poetic and descriptive and I feel like her words are floating around in the air like clouds, lightweight yet heavy with meaning.  The one fangirl moment I had while reading Catalyst was when Melinda makes a quick appearance.  Speaking(!), happy and full of life for a brief moment.

I should have known there was something that would break me and unfortunately I got to that part at my break before I was going to sleep so I had to continue reading because I could not go to bed with that being the last thought in my head.

I wonder how impactful this book would be for a young adult and if it would be as meaningful to them as it was to me.  I found Kate to be kind of a pushover and even at the end she wasn't someone who stood up for herself as much as I needed her to.  There was very little resolution, but there was an ending.  Does that make sense?

I didn't find any characters well rounded or sympathetic.  Kate treated her brother like a kid yet I found him to be more mature than that.  Her father just seemed like a mess, her best friend was just there and her boyfriend was flat and uninteresting.

In the end, I thought the whole thing, like Pangborn, kind of fell flat.


Meet Kate Malone-straight-A science and math geek, minister's daughter, ace long-distance runner, new girlfriend (to Mitchell "Early Decision Harvard" Pangborn III), unwilling family caretaker, and emotional avoidance champion. Kate manages her life by organizing it as logically as the periodic table. She can handle it all-or so she thinks. Then, things change as suddenly as a string of chemical reactions; first, the Malones' neighbors get burned out of their own home and move in. Kate has to share her room with her nemesis, Teri Litch, and Teri's little brother. The days are ticking down and she's still waiting to hear from the only college she applied to: MIT. Kate feels that her life is spinning out of her control-and then, something happens that truly blows it all apart. Set in the same community as the remarkable Speak,Catalyst is a novel that will change the way you look at the world.