How I Made It to Eighteen: A Mostly True Story by Tracy White

Difficulty level (easiest to hardest) - 4

Emotional level (least to most) - 4

Action (little to a lot) - 2

How I Made It to Eighteen is a graphic novel about a girl (Stacy) who admits herself into a mental hospital for depression, anxiety, addiction, and an eating disorder. The novel itself moves quickly, with sometimes as few as one illustration on a page. Each turning point in the novel is followed by a question posed to her four best/closest friends about Stacy's situation and what they know about it. 

While it was a quick read, this book most definitely lacks in many areas, specifically in character development. In contrast to the reviews on amazon.com, I found it extremely difficult to get invested in Stacy, even though I knew I should. The drawings, while meant to be simplistic, detract from the story because of their quality. The simplicity of them intends for the reader to be able to put themselves in Stacy's shoes, but with the variety and quality of graphic novels available, I couldn't help but feel like it was an amateur attempt of storytelling, and I couldn't get myself to relate to Stacy at all. Also, being a "mostly true" memoir, I felt like the author was trying to cover something up, and the liberties she took with the text (see: mostly true, and not completely true like most memoirs attempt to be) seemed forced and exaggerated.

For anyone who might read and like Beneath a Meth Moon, How I Made It to Eighteen might be a suitable read, but should approach this book with low expectations.

Overall rating (poor to excellent) - 1

Quotes from the novel:

Instead of writing a few quotes from the novel, here is chapter 1.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Difficulty level (easiest to hardest) - 6

Emotional level (least to most) -5 (+1 from Divergent)

Action (little to a lot) - 7 (+1 from Divergent)

Insurgent is the second novel in Veronica Roth's trilogy, similar to Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. Beatrice Prior, known in the novel as Tris, shot another Dauntless initiate at the end of Divergent, and this is where Insurgent picks up from. The majority of Divergent was about developing the world that Tris finds herself in, a world of factions and rules and behaviours/attitudes categorized by faction. 

Insurgent is also an interesting read because it really delves into the different factions, why they believe what they believe (see the two manifesto images at the end of this post), and how they function. The Hunger Games didn't really get into the psychological/mental aspect of the different districts, but Roth has really uncovered and explained the inner workings of each faction - I can appreciate that. 

The majority of Insurgent is about action, running, and planning. I'll be the first to admit that I was bored half way through (I found that there was too much planning and running), but once I got to approximately chapter 29, I couldn't stop reading until I finished the novel.

The best part about Insurgent is definitely the end, but not for the cold-hearted reason of "now I'm finally done this book", but because of the twist. I almost called it, but it was enough of a twist for me to be upset when I put the book down only to realize that the next one wasn't at hand... because it hasn't come out yet! 

For those people who liked The Hunger Games, or liked Divergent, it's worth it to stick Insurgent out until the end. It really is. 

Overall rating (poor to excellent) - 5 until the last three chapters, then a 7

Quotes from the novel:

“We both have war inside us. Sometimes it keeps us alive. Sometimes it threatens to destroy us.”

“It reminds me why I chose Dauntless in the first place: not because they are perfect, but because they are alive. Because they are free.”  - Tris

“Like a wild animal, the truth is too powerful to remain caged.”  - Inside cover, part of the Candor Manifesto