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.