Book Review: The Thing About Jellyfish

(Image from google)

★★★★★

334 pages 

"...having venom doesn't make a creature bad. Venom is protection. The more fragile the animal, the more it needs to protect itself. So the more venom a creature has, the more we should be able to forgive that animal. They're the ones that need it most."

This is the debut fiction novel of Ali Benjamin which is narrated by a middle-schooler, Suzy, whose former best friend, Franny, a swimmer, died from drowning. She couldn't believe that, and she couldn't accept that some things just happen so she tried to find out the probable cause (for her) of Franny's death by following the scientific method elaborated by her Science teacher.

The book gives a lot of interesting facts about everything, especially science. Although the story is fictional, some characters are real. I liked the way the author based the story on facts and then formulated her opinion thru imagination in relation to her real-life experience. According to her, the story was born from a failure. It was supposed to come as a non-fiction essay which she already submitted but got rejected, and from that, you will get to understand the story. 

It mainly emphasizes that there's more to life than grieving for the loss of someone dear to you...that's forgiving yourself. Not all stories have happy endings... but all ending means new beginning. It's up to us what to do with that.

I never rated a book 5 out of five yet, just this one. This is such a good book and I finished it in less than 24 hours. I wish I could have read it when I was 12.

xx, g.