Warning: This book contains really bad and uncomfortable romance and is generally boring. This review contains spoilers for this book. Do not read this book or this review if you are uncomfortable with any of these things. But thanks for stopping by anyways.
Disclaimer: I am not making you read an article about a super cringy book. You chose to be here, and I am also not making you stay. If you wish to leave then do so now. But thanks for stopping by anyways.
So… apparently you guys liked my Warcross article a little too much. So much so that now I’m writing another book review, specifically for you. I’ve gotta wonder if Coach B is purposefully giving me stuff she knows I won’t like so that you will read these articles. Either way, here we are, so enjoy A Mango Shaped Space as much as you possibly can.
A Mango Shaped Space is about a girl named Mia who has synesthesia. There are many different kinds of synesthesia, but the main kind mentioned in the book is the type which Mia has, which allows Mia to see different colors and shapes whenever she hears a sound. The book begins with a flash back to third grade, when people are calling Mia a freak, and appearently this scars Mia for life. This later makes it so that she never tells anyone about her colors again until later in life, when Mia is in 8th grade, which is also when the main story begins. We find out about Mia’s dead grandfather and her cat Mango, who she found on the day of his funeral. Then Mia just decides out of the blue to tell her family that she sees colors. Randomly. Without warning. Alright then. So Mia visits a doctor, a psychiatrist, and finally arrives at Dr. Jerry Weiss. Jerry is a professor at a college and he specializes in dealing with synesthetes, people who have or experience synesthesia. He assures everyone that nothing is wrong with Mia.
Mia then goes on a website for synesthetes and begins emailing with a boy named Adam, who also has synesthesia. Mia reads about acupuncture and how it apparently does weird interesting things for synthesthetes’ colors, and then pulls a really stupid move, deciding to get Roger (the boy who is doing a social studies project with Mia) to take her to acupuncture without her parents’ permission. So that happens, and then Mia sees some really trippy things, and then she does it a second time. Moving forward about three solid chapters when nothing happens, we find out that Mia is planning to go to a meeting of synesthetes, and that she’s really excited. She goes to the first meeting, meets Adam in person, kisses Adam, and then literally in the next five pages Mango dies. Because she’s depressed, Mia loses her ability to see colors, and then gets them back automatically when she sees a five year old. Okay then.
Honestly, that’s about everything important that happens, and that’s in a 270 page book. I was bored to death reading this. Also, I need to get all the authors of the world together and have a little talk with them, because I don’t think that they understand the concept of books being an escape from reality. Keeping this in mind, why on earth would any middle schooler want to read a book that is basically about being in middle school, when they could honestly just read a summary of their current life? Is there something I’m missing, because I honestly don’t see the appeal. No one in middle school wants to read these books. Only people who are really old and want to remember the past or people who are in, like, fourth grade and want to see the future would be likely to willingly read this book. Really, why would anyone write about middle school, what with an audience as small as that? That’s all I’ve got to say, as I wasn’t given much to work with. See you if I end up doing another one of these, I guess, if you want to keep reading my reviews.