The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder

Gut Instinct Rating - 3.5

Characters - 4

Believability for type and topics - 3

Similarity to other books - 5

Writing Style - 5

Excitement Factor - 4

Story Line - 3

Title Relevance - 4

Dust Jacket Art - 3

To read or not to read? If you're into this sort of thing.

Movie? None

Goodreads users gave this book a 3.62. I think it was more deserving of a 3.83.

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Published on February 18, 2014

Pages: 292

Publishing Company: Razorbill

Number of books by author: 2

Genre: YA Fiction, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Travel/Road Trip, Fiction

In general, this book was just kind of meh. It was an impulse buy (buy 3, get one free)... and I had seen it quite a few times on bookstagram, and thought that I'd give it a try. I must've forgotten that it didn't hit my TBR for a reason. This book, on paper, sounds like it's going to give us a lot of give-and-take about seasonal or situational depression in a teen life. But this story is way bigger than that.

The book starts out typical. Zoe and Hannah are best friends and they try to teach Zoe's autistic brother feelings using a tangible museum. They go to a party, something happens (I'm going to assume sexual assault, but it's never once mentioned or given us any idea), and Zoe goes into a plague of manic depression. She's bipolar. And while it gets made into a lot of components of this story, it doesn't become the story in the ways it could.

Moving on from that, I'm not sure about the characters... we have this school of kids who are not even really going to school. But, how does this sort of thing happen in a middle-middle class area? I don't understand how surrounding characters (parents, teachers, etc) are capable of allowing this to happen. And what parent is this hands-off (in the case of Zoe)? I either had a really sheltered childhood (I didn't) or I'm just naive (and I'm mostly sure I'm not)... because I just can't see all of these things stacking up. But I can't dock the characters too much, because that's just the way the story was written.

All these surrounding factors made the book a bit less believable. Quite a bit less, actually. I mean, let's be honest... your kid has been put in the psych-unit before. She's clearly on a bender... and while she just leaves the house, you don't think to include the amber alert that she's potentially a harm to herself or others? You don't think that the police would've tracked hers and Hannah's phone at any point it was turned on? I mean, the whole thing seems a bit far fetched that these kids can get half way across the country in a week, and not a single person notices them. And the ending well, it's frustrating.

It was written fine; it was unique enough to count for something (probably because most books don't end this way). But the story line was just down right offensive. Meh, just read below because I can't accurately define my frustrations without spoiling this book.

Title was just fine, honestly. I mean, I get where the concept came from when they went on their trip. It makes sense. But this book was about more than that, I think. Or it could've-been,should've-been? I'm not sure. I don't really get the artwork either? I mean, this wasn't about two happy, flower-fairy'd girls. This was about more....

This book is targeted towards teenagers, right? So a lot of my frustration with this book lies in the way it ends. I'm really going to spoil this now, so if you don't want to read on, stop!

The books ends with Zoe committing suicide at the Grand Canyon at 4 in the morning or whatever it was. But let's back up a few steps... the girls run away from home, and Zoe takes them all over and continually tells Hannah that she's going to be gone, soon. It's a suicide trip with Zoe planning her last few days to teach Hannah all she knows. It's obvious this is what it is. At no point, in the 7 days they're gone, does Hannah pick up the phone and call the police. An easy solution, right? At no point does she call her parents, or Zoe's parents. At one point, when Zoe runs off from Hannah, does Zoe call anyone - a boyfriend!

Seriously?! A BOYFRIEND, who's not even actually her boyfriend because he's a cheating piece of crap. But that's not the point. She calls him and it turns out Zoe called him every day to let them know where they were... so why the hell didn't HE call someone, like say the police? I mean, this who thing is so absolutely frustrating. I get it - your friend is suicidal, and maybe you think you can talk her down after a weekend away. But, once that weekend passes, don't you think it's time to start enlisting some help? This book is a how-to guide from hell. It's not a how-to guide on committing suicide, it's a how-to guide on how NOT to help your loved one. There were a million things that could've be done to possibly try and prevent... NOW, suicide is a personal action and in some cases, no matter what is done, the individual succeeds. BUT, this book left a million holes in this story where we could've seen some valuable change. We could've seen this kid get help. If we back the fuck up a lifetime, WHY was this kid not put on meds when she was in the psych ward? I know she was given them, and not taking them. But, how was she released? She's a minor. She shouldn't have been able to be released until she was stable. Also, when the police DID find Hannah and little boyfriend hot wiring a car, and chased them... WHAT WAS THE POINT OF LOSING THE COPS?! Just tell them you're chasing your friend who is chasing aliens and lightening and wants to jump into the grand canyon because she thinks it's how to return to home (with the aliens, not her mom and brother).

This entire book frustrates me. Ok, not the entire thing. Just the entire part after the first day or two of this road trip. Read it, or don't. I don't care. Some people will find this to be some kind of heroic book where Hannah calls in her boyfriend for help to try and prevent this suicide, but.... it's really just a shitty concept to put in a teenagers lap.