{Catalyst* is missing a huge part of what could have made up a good book for me. The main character, Kate, is an ambitious over-achiever science geek with plans of getting into MIT, but her hopes are dashed when she is rejected from her dream school - and it happens to be the only college she applied to. Meanwhile the rest of her life is going crazy as her neighbor's house burns down and the messed up family - including a really rough and tumble girl Kate doesn't get along with very well - move in with her. It sounds like a great setup for learning to take what you're dealt and make the best of it, for learning to deal with rejection and failure and unexpected life events - for learning to grow up. But the book ends with Kate not really having dealt with a lot of the plot's conflicts, and not having learned very much. That is, though it's first person narrated, Kate's inner monologue lacks any real self-awareness, she never has any revelations or epiphanies at all about her situation, she mostly talks in circles and beats herself up. If anything, she seems to use the tragedy of her neighbors to sort of say "Well, it could be worse" and ignore all her problems and not resolve anything. Even at the end, though outwardly she seems more calm and some conflicts are partially resolved... there is no place where we can clearly see that Kate has changed very much, or if so, why and how. It just felt like this book went nowhere. A lot of the high drama elements came of nowhere, weren’t very effective, and then didn’t resolve.

Actually, there's a lot of stuff in {Catalyst that just doesn't work for me. I hated the gimmicky chapter headings of scientific concepts and "safety tips" under each one. They are really reaching to be metaphors for what's going on in the plot but when they make sense at all, they are kind of cheesy. I think the whole bit about Kate being a great cross country runner rang totally false - I mean, seriously, so many of the details are just WRONG, which mystifies me because in the acknowledgments Anderson thanks someone for providing details about cross-country. But the whole idea wasn't really used properly to deepen the character as much as it could have been, so it just seems like a waste. I don't know why so many writers who choose to write about runners try to make it all about some kind of masochistic obsession that's just slightly acceptable - for "good kid" characters; "bad kid" characters are cutters or something. Also, the idea of running obsessively as a metaphor for running away from problems? So old. And OBVIOUS. Gah.

I found this book at my house, but have no idea where it came from. I realized it was by Laurie Halse Anderson of Speak fame so I read it the other day, thinking if it was good I would keep it and if not, I would purge it with a bunch of other book I'm getting rid of soon. This one is going on the purge pile.

* And yes, the title really does have that { at the front. The ‘y’ in catalyst is also in a mathematical usage font, but I couldn’t replicate that here. ( )

I read Catalyst right after reading another one of Anderson’s books, Shout, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Unfortunately, Catalyst was a disappointment. The book started off great, but Kate, the main character, let Teri walk all over her and did nothing to stop her. Teri stole Kate’s watch and a necklace, and treated Kate horribly through the entire book. I kept wanting Kate to stand up for herself and demand Teri return the stolen items.

Tragedy strikes Teri’s home and Teri moves in with Kate’s family, taking over Kate’s bedroom. Teri’s terrible treatment of Kate escalates.

Mostly, I disliked the ending. After all that Teri has done to Kate, stolen her property, disrespected her, and treated her like crap, Kate helps Teri. The ending did not seem realistic to me. I get that Kate’s father is a minister and Kate was raised in a religious house, but for Kate to keep doing all the good she did for Teri, only to have Teri continue to disrespect her, was not realistic. ( )

Like the other book I read from this author (Speak), i enjoyed this one too. It was nothing amazing, but it good nonetheless.
Unfortunately I didn't bond much with Kate, because we are nothing alike. At all. I found myself muttering stuff against her thinking. And her story didn't interest me as much as Melinda's (that here appeared a little). I found much more interesting Teri's story to be honest.
I found interesting the fact that Kate runs when she has to thinki or whenher feelings are too much for her to andle.
The story was simple and easy to readthanks also to the simple writing style of the Author... but i found eccessivbe some passages, such as Mickey dying ( )

Meet Kate Malone - straight-A science and math geek, minister's daughter, ace long-distance runner, girlfriend, unwilling family caretaker, emotional avoidance champion. Kate manages her life by organizing it, as logically as the periodic table. She can handle it all - or so she thinks.

Then, like a string of chemical reactions, everything happens: the Malones' neighbors get burned out of their home and move in. Because her father is a Good Man of God (and a Not Very Thoughtful Parent), Kate has to share her room with her nemesis, Teri Litch, and Teri's adorable, troublemaking little brother. And through it all, she's still waiting to hear from the only college she has applied to: MIT. Kate's life is less and less under control - and then, something happens that blows it all apart, and forces her to examine her life, self, and heart for the first time.

This was a reread for class, and I had forgotten how darn sad it is. The writing is fantastic, and the character is really intriguing, but there is some serious tragedy that made me cry. ( )