Customer Reviews

Catalyst

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I really enjoyed reading this book. It dealt with a lot of issues that many books just don't cover, and it was refreshing to read something different from fantasy for a change (I'm a big fantasy fan). It was also interesting to think about what the title means. To different people, Kate's catalyst was caused by different things... college, Teri, Mikey... it's up to you to decide just what was the turning point in Kate's life and what was the cause.

The plot follows an 18-year-old straight A chemist named Kate. Her father is a preacher, which makes the story interesting, because Kate is an active aetheist. She runs at night, irons clothes, cleans her brother's room, anything to get herself out of bed. This causes many of her friends (mainly Mitch, her boyfriend) to worry, but she explains that she can't sleep. Kate is trying to get into MIT, the college that her mother went to, and didn't apply to any 'safety' schools, so if she doesn't make it to MIT she's not going to college. The story also follows Teri Litch, Kate's neighbor, though Kate is still the main character.

Catalyst will keep you guessing. It's not a boring, predictable book, and I was surprised so many times in this book that it's not even worth it to write them down. Though the plot was unpredictable, the book still flowed extremely well. Happiness, confusion, loss, anger, grief, and unconditional love were all wrapped up inside, and I can assure you that this book is definately worth reading. :)

I recently discovered Laurie Halse Anderson in the YA section of my library and am in the process of reading all her books. Catalyst is probably my least favorite so far, although it's not a bad read at all. Since other reviewers have outlined the plot details so well, I'll limit my comments to what I chiefly disliked about this story, the way the subject of bullying is handled. Teri, the bully in question, treats Kate rudely, steals from her, and responds with ingratitude to the charity extended to her by Kate's family. Kate mentions to her pastor father more than once that Teri has stolen a couple of her treasured items and dad does nothing. Kate also mentions in her narration that Teri beat her up daily in elementary school. Apparently the school authorities were the do-nothing type as well. At my son's school kids are taught how to respond to bullying on their own but, if these efforts fail them, to call on an adult for help. In the book Kate's father is portrayed as being very involved with his parishioners but rather distant from his own children, so I supposed his passive response to Teri's behavior is consistent with the character. But it still bothered me that Kate's dad would not stick up for her. In fact, toward the end of the book when one of Kate's friends finally calls Teri on her behavior he is labeled as being "disrespectful." A disturbing message IMO. I believe the author intended for Teri to garner our sympathy but she just doesn't. At least not with me.

Anderson, as in her other books, displays her usual fine ability to get inside the skin of a young person. She really makes you feel Kate's desperation to get into MIT and her subsequent devastation when she doesn't. But if I were discussing this book with teen readers I would definitely handle the bullying aspect and make the point that, just because someone has been abused, he/she should not be allowed to abuse others without consequences.

Kate Malone seems like a perfect teenager. As an almost-valedictorian, a star track runner, and an obsessed chemistry student, it seems certain that she's going to get into MIT-her dream, her aspiration, her goal. But then the letter of rejection comes from MIT, and Kate's life begins to unravel. In the midst of Kate's depression and denial, her neighbor's house burns down (and who would that neighbor be but Teri Litch, who has always been Kate's worst enemy) and the family comes to live with the Malones. Kate has only her father after her mother's long-ago death, but her relationship with him still remains distant during this troubled time in her life. As Kate's life becomes more chaotic that she ever dreamed, how can she reconcile herself to a life without MIT?

If nothing else, "Catalyst" takes a brave stab at delving deeper into a topic that is seldom explored. Many "young adult" books deal with depressed, addicted, or low-achieving teenagers, yet "Catalyst" does just the opposite. Lori Halse Anderson begins the books with several well-done chapters showing just how driven, obsessive, and in some ways, dysfunctional Kate really is. Readers can literally feel how much Kate WANTS to go to MIT, and Kate's frayed nerves about being admitted and her subsequent denial over not being accepted are vividly brought to life.

But after those first few chapters and Kate's "breakdown" over the MIT issue, the book loses something. It seems that as we continue reading "Catalyst," the Teri Litch situation takes up more and more of the story line, and instead of being a good complication in the story, it merely seems to distract from the issue of Kate resolving her feelings about MIT, college, and failure. I kept wating for Kate to sit down, "take stock," and come to grips with her disappointment. But that never happened. Kate and her family are in a whirl of activity concerned with the Litches from the moment their house burns down, and this activity totally cosumes the latter half of the story. The end of the book is too hurried and unrealistic, and does not seem like a satisfactory resolution to all of the problems Kate has faced during the book. Finally, the characters in this book just seemed a little too distant and surreal. I can't totally describe this, but the book seemed a little too dream-like, and Kate's confusion over MIT and then about how to deal with Teri just seemed too distant and detached.

In conclusion, it's hard to know what to say. I'd say read this book, simply for the numerous moments of excellent writing and the portrait of a teenager who is the opposite of the many typically seen in "young adult" novels. But don't expect a novel that stays excellent to the very end and has completely "down-to-earth" characters. Like I said, in "Catalyst," the story's chemistry is just not quite perfect.

... ...

But, getting back to Laurie Halse Anderson and to Merryweather High, the setting for SPEAK, and now for CATALYST... What? Yes, indeed, Laurie returns us to the land of the infamous Mr. Neck, and Hairwoman, and Andy the Beast--none of whom we get to see here. The story is set at the end of the school year following SPEAK, and Melinda, in another of Mr. Free-man's classes, does actually make a cameo appearance. So, knowing all of this ahead of time, you are possibly going to open this book and look for it to grab you by the throat and mystify you the way you were immediately mystified by Melinda Sorrentino's treatment on the bus and in the auditorium on her first day at the school.

Right?

Well, get over it! This is a whole different chemical equation:

Kate Malone, minister's daughter, star student, and runner, is a senior who lives for her acceptance letter to MIT--the only college she has bothered to apply to.

"Insomnia rocks, actually. You can get a lot done if you don't sleep. I've turned into a hyper-efficient windup Kate doll, super Kate, the über-Kate. I wish this had happened last year. It would have given me more time to study for my AP exams."

She introduces us to her family:

"Toby and I are the proton and neutron of our atomic family unit. Dad is the loosely bonded electron, negatively charged, zooming around us in his own little shell."

She introduces us to her group of friends:

"Sara slides her sunglasses across the table. I take off my glasses and put them on. The room mellows to a golden, SFP-protected glow...They are all out of focus now, but...I'd recognize these shapes anywhere. Sara Emery, my BF, is a self-described Wiccan Jewish poet. This would send most parents screaming to the therapist's office, but the Emerys are totally cool with it. I've been asking them to adopt me for years.
Travis Baird is to Sara as water is to fire: opposite and necessary. Trav is a freakazoid good guy with a taste for body art. The vice principal in charge of discipline has been aching to bust him for four years. He refuses to believe that good things can come in colorful packages.
A warm hand snakes around my waist. My knees buckle and the hand pulls me down into the very familiar lap of Mitchell A. Pangborn III--my friend, my enemy, my lust."

She introduces us to the story's outcast, a tough female named Teri Litch:

"The ugly girl, the one who smells funny, studies carpentry at vo-tech, stomps around with sawdust in her hair, and has fists like sledgehammers. Teri beat me up every year in elementary school, fall and spring. I turned the other cheek for a while, then I learned to run. Intelligent life pursues self-preservation."

And she introduces us to her "sad excuse of a motor vehicle, a Yugo named Burt."

But who or what is the catalyst here is one of the things you're going to have to read the book to find out.

...

CATALYST, which alternately had me crying and laughing, is a moving story that seeks to knock us off our little career tracks long enough to see what's really important. <P...

Laurie Halse Anderson has once again crafted an unforgettable young adult novel filled with literary brilliance. This CATALYST sure got one [heck] reaction out of me! ...

Being the sister of an MIT student and having loved Anderson's previous novel Speak, I was prepared to be stunned by the author's next book, a novel about a girl who *gasp* wants to go to MIT! Maybe this was why Catalyst, a perfectly average (maybe even above average) teen novel came as something of a disappointment. While the author's wit, psychological insight and excellent writing remain, something is different.

The protagonist of Catalyst is Kate Malone. Preacher's daughter, brilliant student, lots of friends and a hot boyfriend who just got into Harvard. We should hate her--and hey! I do. I don't know where Anderson went wrong with Kate. In most respects, she's a fabulous portrait of a "perfect" person who's falling apart in the seams, breaking down from the inside. But I still can't help resenting the hell out of her--being jealous about her perfect grades, nice dad, faithful friends and great boyfriend. Anderson had a winner with Speak because the heroine, Melinda was someone almost everyone could either relate to or pity. Kate isn't relatable at all.

Catalyst is a solid effort in other aspects. While Kate lacks the witty, cynical humor characteristic of Melinda (Kate's humor is rather perkier), it's still better than the fluffy idiocy one finds in "Angus, Thongs...Snogging" and its ilk. What disappointed me about Catalyst, however was that we didn't get as comprehensive a view of all the different cliques and people that make up high school as we did with Speak. Kate was not as observant (or in my opinion, as intelligent) as Melinda. Anderson also showed a tendency to overdramatize, something which was mercifully absent from Speak. While Terry's brother's death was handled with the understated, not-too-flashy sorrow that made Speak so enjoyable, many other incidents got much more description than they warranted. Overall though, still 100% better than the average teen book.

The book {Catalyst was such an awesome book. The characters: Kate, Terri, Mikey, and Mitch were my favorites especially Mikey. Towards the end of the book is the best part of the whole thing. You don't want to put it down. It reminds me of my brother's life. He is a lot like Kate in so many ways. This book is about a typical teenagers life; the pressure of school, the pressure of friends, waiting for your college acceptance letter (hopefully), and just life at home. I would highly recommend this book to anyone especially those between 12-19. This book is in my top two. It's basically about an average 18-year-old girl named Kate whose mother died and her father is the town pastor, she has a 14-year-old brother and a boyfriend named Mitch. She's waiting for her acceptance letter to MIT, the school her mother went to, and a tragedy befalls the neighbors, which leads Kate from her normal happy life to a rude awakening.

I loved "Speak" (if you haven't read it, get it now!) because it was so funny and dark and made me feel like Melinda was right there talking to me and me only. It had this intimacy that just makes a book so powerful. "Catalyst" lacks this intimacy, partially because it includes much more dialogue. Which is OK. Just don't expect quite the same style. I found the scientific term symbolism a bit sledgehammered, but maybe that's only because I'm taking chem now and I'm sick of it.
The book moves so fast, I just kept wanting it to stop for a minute. I kind of like this. It made me feel like I was running to catch up with Kate. I predict this book won't be as big as Speak. For one thing, it has less sex and it's not as funny, important factors for most my age. I loved the ending, which is a big vague. I like vague endings; a lot of people don't.
Catalyst is a powerful work, but it just wasn't as strong as Speak. It's still awesome, however.

When I picked this book up off the self, I was expecting a pathetic attempt to re-create the magic and greatness of Speak. But, as I started reading it, I soon discovered that this work had created a magic of it's own. It's amazingly well written and it gives the reader a sense of being inside the page. As I read this book, I felt as if I was there running every race, taking every turn, and watching everything go up in smoke, right there with Kate. The realism, the way that Anderson captured true real emotions, not just ones that authors typically make the mistake of portraying, was amazing. I don't ever before reading this book and Speak ever recall seeing that in a book. My favorite part of the book was how Kate was definitely not a stock character. She was real, yet it seemed that no one had ever written about her before. Kate is new and fresh, yet so familiar, that if you saw her walking down the street you'd stop to say hello and ask how her week was going. Kate embodies a small piece of everyone, the insecurity and the struggle between being who you are and who you want to be. Amazing book, even though it can never hold a candle to Speak, I found it wonderful and grippingly true, able to relate to any age group, gender, or social group. All in all I think that Anderson has again created an amazing work.

As a sixteen-year-old, I can appreciate Laurie Halse Anderson's writing for its honest and unabashed portrayal of adolescence. In Catalyst and Speak, Anderson recognizes the fact that high school is not necessarily the "best years of our lives" filled with fun, friendships, and happy endings. In fact, Catalyst, while not overdramatic, focuses on many of the unhappy events in the protagonist's life, many of which will impact her future as well. And the book's ending, while relatively satisfying yet abrupt, is not at all reminiscent of the conclusion found in most young adult books.

The main character Kate is like many high school "geeks" - she has a good GPA, takes advanced classes, and is on the school track team. She has a boyfriend and a close group of friends, but her life is thrown into tumult when one of her "enemies" moves into her house after a fire. The book focuses on Kate's grappling with the fact that she is not accepted into the one college to which she applied, MIT. Anderson's genius lies, however, not in plot but in character development. Avoiding stereotypes and overdramatization of relationships serves the book well and lays a foundation to which all types of readers can identify.

If you are looking for an easy read that is not wrought with petty boyfriend-girlfriend relationships and high school dramas largely focused on prom and getting your first kiss, I would recommend this book to you. It held my attention the entire time I was reading it.

And for those of you who are fans of Speak, this book contains cameos by a few of the characters.

Like many others, I was interested in "Catalyst" because it's written by the same YA author as the fantastic "Speak." And I really liked the early parts of "Catalyst. In fact, I could hardly put the book down at first. In the beginning of the book, Laurie Halse Anderson is once again in top form, creating a completely believable, intriguing narrator with obsessive perfectionist high school senior Kate Malone.

I also enjoyed the direction the book seemed to be taking early on. It was clear something momentous was going to snowball its way into Kate's perfectly controlled existence and change her forever. I read on eagerly as she grew more and more stressed out, was devastated by her rejection letter from MIT, and had her home life completely disrupted.

However. When the Big Momentous Climax finally occurred? Huge diappointment. I won't spoil the book by saying what it is; suffice it to say it's a weak ploy obviously attempting to tug at the reader's heartstrings. I'll be honest, it didn't effectively tug at mine at all. Now if the Big Momentous Thing had actually happened to *Kate*, the main character I'd grown interested in, then I might have cared. Unfortunately, by that point Kate had been pushed aside and relegated to the dull position of bystander. A shame, because the book really did start out well.