Catalyst

Rating:
Summary: A good read, but...
Review: As several other reviewers have mentioned, 'Catalyst' does not compare to 'Speak'. To put it simply, Kate, our heroine here, is not a character it's easy to sympathise with, or even identify. At first she seems intriguing and promising (the Good Kate and Bad Kate idea) but after a while this wears off, and you become frustrated with her. I was disgusted with what she put up with from Teri, the class bully and 'weird kid', and despite the fact that we're supposed to develop sympathy for Teri as well by the end of the novel, I couldn't stand her. These are not terribly likeable characters.

Having said that, I did read the book twice within the space of a month, so it's not all bad. Many 'serious student'/'geek' types will be able to relate to the pressure Kate is under, and the storyline is fairly interesting. Read with caution, I suppose.

Rating:
Summary: Another brilliant novel by Anderson
Review: Laurie Halse Anderson has written a book as brilliant as her previous, Speak. The narrator of Speak even makes a brief appearance in this novel set back in good old Merryweather High (home of the Fight'n Hornets). This time, it's a year later. Our protagonist is Kate Malone, National Honor Society, ranked third in the senior class, cross-country runner and chemistry fanatic. It's nail-biting time for seniors. Colleg applications are coming in - will they get into their top school or have to settle for second best?

Kate doesn't have a second best safety school to fall back on. She "filled out one application, to MIT, and [she doesn't] sleep anymore." Before the letter comes, Teri Litch, the tough girl in school, and her cute, destructive little brother Mikey, move into Kate's house after their house is damaged in a fire, mostly on account of her father being Rev. Jack Malone, a "Good Man of God." And then, her father brings the thin rejection letter to school. Kate walks back into chem, lights a fire, and burns it.

Aside from the confusing chemistry terms, this is a wonderful book, whether you know the college-waiting-game drill, are going through it or waiting to. (Other notable well-written, fun secondary characters are: Mitchell "Harvard" pangborn III, the boy Kate once hated, and ended up dating; her best friend Sara, a "self-described Jewish Wiccan poet"; her brother Toby, a typical fourteen-year-old guy.

Rating:
Summary: Middle School Issues?
Review: While this book has many good qualities, such as strong, dynamic characters and a unique plot line, it seems this book would be intended more for a high school audience than a middle school audience. Some of the issues and dilemmas the main character, Kate, faces seem to connect with high school students and are things that middle school students would not connect with. However, this novel is a good example of literature that could be enjoyed by either a male or female audience.
In this novel, Kate struggles with the fact that she does not get into the only college she really wanted to attend, which is also the only college she has applied to. Already, middle school students would have a hard time connecting with Kate. Most middle school students have no idea what it is like to make a major decision like college. The main thing on middle school students' minds is the start of high school.
Also, there are some other major issues in this novel that seem a little advanced for middle school students. These issues surround Teri Litch, who is Kate's neighbor and also Kate's enemy. When Teri's house gets burned down and she ends up moving into Kate's room and into Kate's life, Kate discovers things about Teri that totally change her perspective. When Teri's brother, Mikey, dies and Kate learns that Mikey is really Teri's son, this adds a whole new aspect to the way Kate views Teri. Kate has to deal with Teri's feelings on the situation and helps Teri when she cannot find anything else to comfort her. No middle school student is going to fully understand this, which makes it even more difficult for them to connect with the characters of the novel.
However, this novel does not seem to be directed toward a specific gender. While two of the major characters in the novel are female, either gender would be able to identify with these characters. On the one hand we see Kate, an excellent student, kind of a "geek," an athlete, the oldest child in a single parent family, and a high school senior waiting to get accepted into the only college she applied to. She lives a far from perfect life, as do all of us. This makes it much easier to identify with her because she has many of the same problems as all high school seniors have, regardless of gender. Also, this novel focuses on much more than romantic relationships and typical high school things, such as prom, that we read about in many novels. Most males do not typically enjoy this type of reading, but a novel such as Catalyst, which shows a much different part of school life, would appeal to both genders.
Catalyst is a good novel, but there are many things that make it not very appropriate for middle school students. I would not include this book on my list for middle school students, but I would include it on a list for high school students.

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: I bought this book for two reasons:

Beacause I enjoyed Speak, and because the high school chemistry geek who might not get into her top school theme interested me.

Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down. I thought that it would focus more on Kate's situation in school, but it started to focus more on Teri and Mikey. That did not make it any less interesting, though.

I really liked the plot twists, and if I hadn't found out about them before reading them, I would have enjoyed them even more.

I recommend this book to just about anybody who enjoys a good story. You do not have to be interested in reading about chemistry geeks or school bullies, because Catalyst has so much more than that. I enjoyed every word of it.

Rating:
Summary: Different from what I usually read... but very good.
Review: 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. :)

Rating:
Summary: lacked a certain 'oomph'
Review: This is a tough book to review. For every pitch-perfect passage that captures how teenagers feel as they prepare to leave high school, there is one that falls painfully short. (Are kids still using the word "wicked" 20 years after it was first popular? Talk about longevity!)

Second, the heroine, Kate, is passive-aggressive, and avoids conflict to the point where it is unbelievable. I was pretty wimpy in high school, but you can bet I'd scream bloody murder and take serious action if someone stole my dead mom's watch AND my boyfriend's necklace then blatantly wore them under my nose. Particularly, if that person was living under my roof.

Also, Kate's viewpoint seemed too one sided when it came to her father. In the two or three scenes he addresses her directly, he seems fairly reasonable (after all, his kid won't tell him ANYTHING about her college plans). But they never wind up hashing out the issue - especially, that she told him such a huge lie. Their problems don't have to end with a Hallmark moment, but shouldn't there be some resolution?

Also, Terri Litch. Wouldn't her son insist on calling her "Mommy." In the book he does so only once, which again avoids some major issues. Two's pretty young to be a reliable secret keeper. Wouldn't Kate have clued in to Mikey's parentage a LOT sooner?

Maybe the "message" of the Terri plotline is that a lot of kids go without the help and direction they need, even when the law punishes their abuser. In any case, nasty as she was, she was a lot more fascinating than Kate, and definitely should have been the heroine instead.

Rating:
Summary: begins well but then fizzles like a bad science experiment
Review: I bought "catalyst" because "speak" (by the same author) is one of my most favorite books. However, "Catalyst" is NOTHING like "Speak" and so readers should not be expect it to be. "Catalyst" is suppossed to be about a senior in high school on the verge of "losing it" due to a number of stressors, dissapointments, and pent-up emotions. Instead the book follows the stories of both the senior, Kate Malone, and a school outcast, Teri Litch. By the middle of the book it is not even clear who the story is more about, kate or teri. the most disapointing thing for me is that there is no catalyst for kate. It seems that her own problems and emotions are never confronted because her life suddenly changes when she is forced to deal with all of teri's life issues and problems.

Rating:
Summary: Catalyst
Review: This book was an interesting story about a girl who was pushing on trying to get into the college that she wanted that she was to sure that she was going to make it in to it, and she didn't appy for any other college. When the time came for her to get her applications in something goes wrong and her fight to get through her high school career with many situatoins along the way with family, frriends and the neighborhood bully. I think that this book was good in detail and even though it was slow at some points it was good overall. I think that teens ages 15+ should read this book and it relates to alot of the situations that many teenagers go through in their senior year in high school. I really enjoyed this book and i recomend it to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: I was disappointed
Review: The writing style is very good and gripping. However, I was disapointed by the end of the book. I felt too much hadn't been resolved -- I even turned the page expecting to see more or an epilog or something. I felt that the main character's story wasn't completed and that the lack of completion wasn't adequately resolved (you can have stories that don't quite end but reverberate).

Rating:
Summary: Catalyst: An emotional Drama
Review: I thought "Catalyst" was a very good book. In the beginning, a high school senior struggles with problems that all high school seniors struggle with: Lack of sleep, work overloads, and college applications. However, Katie, heroine of the book, struggles with one more problem: She has only applied to one college. Needless to say, she is not accepted. However, she also has lied to her friends and family that she applied to a large array of colleges. While Katie is dealing with not being accepted, she is also forced to share her room with one of her least favorite people; a theif, bully, and general all-around jerk. This creates even greater turmoil in her life, and things are looking pretty bleak, until something far worse occurs. I higly recommend this book.