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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Sexual assault, Violence
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Ableism, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Antisemitism
What a unique story! Really fun, a clever concept that I thought could almost have been split into two books. It is a literal interpretation of "income inequality," where people who have more money are literally BIGGER than those who have less money. The hero, Warner, and his sister Prayer, are "littlepoor," so they are the size of rats and live a very difficult life--their mother was paralyzed by an attacking housecat, their father killed when a "middlescale" larger, richer kid accidentally stepped on the milk crate they were using as a house! Warner and Prayer are constantly trying to avoid various life-threatening hazards, in their quest to gain more "munmun" (income) and therefore "scale up" to a larger physical size. When they are fostered by a wealthy halfscale family, it seems their fortunes are looking up--but with barely an education when they were littlepoor, they find it very hard to keep up academically with the bigger kids (they're still smaller than their classmates, even at a larger scale). And will Warner and Prayer be able to keep scaling up and get even richer? Will they leave their littlepoor origins behind for good? The rich life isn't as easy as they think. If you stop to really think logically about everything that goes on in this book, it will blow your mind; I was constantly referring back to the handy illustration provided of all of the various levels of income and their corresponding sizes. Better to take it all in stride and just go with the flow--it's quite a unique story! The part that I thought could have been a completely different book was the fantasy element of the Dreamworld: when everyone sleeps, they can visit each other in their dreams. Warner wants to parlay his skill at creating dreamscapes (either beautiful or horrific) into a way to make munmun. But will he be able to pull it off? And if he does grow wealthy, how will he treat others? The stuff in Dreamworld is very psychedelic, to say the least! But overall it is a fascinating book that takes a very real-world issue and spins it to fantastical and also logical conclusions. A+ for originality, that's for sure. Recommended for 9th grade and up, for the complexity of the concepts and for some more mature content. It's also tricky to read until you get the hang of Warner's weird slang; he barely has an education (all the schools and teachers are for larger sized kids!) so he uses lots of odd slang and compound words.
I didn't enjoy reading this book, but every time I tried to just put it down I picked it back up again.
A really innovative idea - I enjoyed exploring the idea behind the novel. This would make a great reading group book.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s been years now since I’ve read this book, but I’m still not ready to talk about it. Go read it and have your own questions raised and your own heart broken. All I will say is that Jesse Andrews is a master of language and especially of portmanteaus.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Death
Minor: Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment
This was one of the strangest works I have ever read. It takes an interesting topic and then makes it so strange to read. This was indeed strange because of how I had been completely interested and yet rather disconnected.
It wasn’t the standard type of story and it didn’t really just became the best thing I have read. It was a mixture of both. It took an interesting concept, satirize it. And managed to get me reading to the end.
A fact that really bothered me more was the narration and the writing. A little hard to adjust but eventually I got to it. And the story was a get rich story. Except that wealth isn’t always the answer.
And the ending where Warner grew up so big that he was a hazard was one of the best moments the story has. And suggests that too much of one thing isn’t a good idea. And wealth has its own downsides too.
It is an interesting point to note just how he chooses to showcase it. The beginning had been fascinating as it did catch my attention on how poorly treated the littlepoors were. Where their bodies were so small that an education was not necessary to them.
And highlights the class divides and how it is not a fair system. It is a story which manages to make jabs at the thing it wants to. Although it wasn’t particularly funny.
The point of view was certainly interesting. Even as at times I felt that it had been too vague and more could have been done to give me a clearer picture of what was going on.
Overall, this work had been really interesting to read. It isn’t the perfect and the writing was something that really hampered my ability to like it. But other than that it was a brilliant story and subject to tackle.
It wasn’t the standard type of story and it didn’t really just became the best thing I have read. It was a mixture of both. It took an interesting concept, satirize it. And managed to get me reading to the end.
A fact that really bothered me more was the narration and the writing. A little hard to adjust but eventually I got to it. And the story was a get rich story. Except that wealth isn’t always the answer.
And the ending where Warner grew up so big that he was a hazard was one of the best moments the story has. And suggests that too much of one thing isn’t a good idea. And wealth has its own downsides too.
It is an interesting point to note just how he chooses to showcase it. The beginning had been fascinating as it did catch my attention on how poorly treated the littlepoors were. Where their bodies were so small that an education was not necessary to them.
And highlights the class divides and how it is not a fair system. It is a story which manages to make jabs at the thing it wants to. Although it wasn’t particularly funny.
The point of view was certainly interesting. Even as at times I felt that it had been too vague and more could have been done to give me a clearer picture of what was going on.
Overall, this work had been really interesting to read. It isn’t the perfect and the writing was something that really hampered my ability to like it. But other than that it was a brilliant story and subject to tackle.
I love it when a book can surprise me - both in where the story goes as well as explaining something I think I already know in a way that I never would have expected. This book did both. I love the explanation of math on pages 211 and 212 of the hardcover book. Warner explains that the imaginary number "i" is a moaning groaning mathghost. I love that!
I also loved that Warner really wanted to make things better for everyone, not just himself. Because of that, I can't say I liked how the book ended. But I won't say how the book did end. I loved that heros and villains came in all sizes.
This was such a great satire on how unfair life is. If you are born to a family with education and at least a modest income, your life will be much better, regardless of the effort you put into it than it will be for someone who is born to poor and uneducated parents, regardless of how much effort they put in.
I also loved that Warner really wanted to make things better for everyone, not just himself. Because of that, I can't say I liked how the book ended. But I won't say how the book did end. I loved that heros and villains came in all sizes.
This was such a great satire on how unfair life is. If you are born to a family with education and at least a modest income, your life will be much better, regardless of the effort you put into it than it will be for someone who is born to poor and uneducated parents, regardless of how much effort they put in.
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes