Thursday, December 31, 2009

The Center of the Universe by Anita Liberty


Welcome to the story of my life. Well, at least the story of my junior and senior years of high school. It's a profound, touching, and hilarious (if I do say so myself) tale told through cunning poems, revelatory diary entries, perspicacious (look it up) word definitions, shrewd bits of advice, and off-the-cuff (but brilliant) insights. You'll probably relate to a lot of it. Especially the parts about hating my parents, never feeling cool enough, failing my first attempt at the SATs, having an incredibly romantic (but one-sided) relationship with the coolest guy in school, and getting hexed by my ex-best friend who became a Wiccan. And if you can't relate? Well, step to the back of that humongous line. You'll probably be right behind my family. If you're lucky, my mom'll bring snacks. How can I be who I am and who my family wants me to be when the person I am wouldn't be caught dead with the person my family wants me to be?


Words cannot describe my feelings for this book. It was so confusing! Don’t get me wrong, I liked it and I read it straight through. But, the whole time I was reading the same question was going through my head. “Are these Anita Liberty’s real Journals? Are they based off her real journals? What is going on!?”
A lot of the parts left me confused and I didn’t really know what to think next.
What I did like about this book was that it was easily relatable. It really captured what it is like to be a teen.* One of my favorite parts of this book was the beginning, the poem. It was magnificent.
I recommend this book to teens. I found it nice to read a book that was pretty relatable.

* You know! One minute you hate someone/something and the next minute you are like, it’s best friend.