My Never Ending List

This is one of those middle school novels where life is not fair. It just seems that Anna’s life is crumbling all around her and she had no one, I mean no one to dump on. Her best friend had decided that this is the year that she was going to branch off and find other friends and her father also decided that he was branching off and he found himself a new family. Anna was left in a house with her mother, who was crumbling right before her eyes. Anna blames herself for her mother’s downfall, for “if only” Anna had seen the signs, she could have saved her. With all the downward twists in Anna’s life, she didn’t lash out or get depressed, Anna puts on a strong front.   As I read, I could feel the weight inside Anna, I could feel how she wanted her life to reverse itself, she felt helpless yet Anna knew she had to resign herself to her new life no matter how different it now was.   There were times that Anna expressed herself to the individuals in her life, a few comments spoken here and there about the situation at hand, it just seemed when she couldn’t handle things any longer she let go, sometimes her words not finding their targeted audience.   She felt alone. She wanted her mom; you can feel her desperation in the author’s words. Her mother was dealing with her own issues and being a mother was not something she could handle at the moment, so Anna couldn’t count on her mother when she needed her. Anna resented her father. He did more than just walk out the door when he left the family that day and I had wonder if Anna and her father were ever going to build back that relationship and how.   Reading this novel, I especially liked the honesty of Anna. The situation that she was addressing and her feeling were sincere and honest. I wasn’t too fond of the ending and I’m not stating why as that might spoil it for some but that is why my rating is what it is. The ending, to each its own.