Loyalty. Envy. Obligation. Dreams. Disappointment. Fear. Negligence. Coping. Elation. Lust. Nature. Freedom. Heartbreak. Insouciance. Audacity. Gluttony. Belief. God. Karma. Knowing what you want (there is probably a French word for it). Saying Yes. Destiny. Truth. Devotion. Forgiveness. Life. Happiness (ever after).
Hannah and Zoe haven’t had much in their lives, but they’ve always had each other. So when Zoe tells Hannah she needs to get out of their down-and-out New Jersey town, they pile into Hannah’s beat-up old Le Mans and head west, putting everything—their deadbeat parents, their disappointing love lives, their inevitable enrollment at community college—behind them.
As they chase storms and make new friends, Zoe tells Hannah she wants more for her. She wants her to live bigger, dream grander, aim higher. And so Zoe begins teaching Hannah all about life’s intangible things, concepts sadly missing from her existence—things like audacity, insouciance, karma, and even happiness.
An unforgettable read from the acclaimed author of The Probability of Miracles, The Museum of Intangible Things sparkles with the humor and heartbreak of true friendship and first love.
Title: The Museum of Intangible Things
Author: Wendy Wunder
Genre: YA Contemporary
Page Amount: 304
Publisher: Razorbill
Publication Date: April 10, 2014
Goodreads Rating: 3.62
My Rating: 2/5
There are so many parts of this book that I seriously dislike. I would never recommend this book to anyone because that’s just how bad it is. I heard someone say once that a book character was too stupid to live and that describes the main character, Hannah, in this book so much. I could easily give you a list of twenty things that were so completely unrealistic it was actually offensive. But I still rated it two stars because the first 100-150 pages were so promising.
Honestly, if you want a story about how to be the worst best friend than this is the story for you. Hannah’s best friend, Zoe, is bipolar and is suffering a breakdown following an incident with a boy at a party. Instead of getting her best friend help, or even telling someone that something happened with the boy, she decides that Zoe’s idea of running away is a good idea. From there things only get more and more unrealistic.
Another thing that majorly frustrated me with the story is the romance. My biggest problem with YA books is how they portray romances and this one was just terrible. Like the story, it started out so promising and quickly got more and more unbelievable. I don’t want to give any spoilers away but like the story, I could easily give you twenty reasons I hated the romance.
Despite all that, this is a book that will sit on my shelves forever because it is freaking pretty. Which makes me happy I bought it even though I didn’t like the story. Do you have any pretty books that you kept even though the story wasn’t good?
Also, I wanted to add that I’m not sure how well the author portrayed bipolar disorder. I looked at probably ten reviews and none mentioned that there was an issue about it. I just wanted to mention it because while, I don’t recommend this book at all, I still want to be aware of not taking the issue of mental health lightly. Which does raise an interesting point of view; maybe this book could be taken as a cautionary tale of what could go wrong by not taking the symptoms of bipolar disorder seriously.
If the plot of this book sounds good to you then please check out Morgan Matson’s Since You’ve Been Gone. It has the same premise of a best friend trying to help her bestie get more out of life and has the same adventure feel. Also, the romance in Since You’ve Been Gone is so much better. However, this book does not deal with any mental health issues.
~Cassie
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