Teen Review: Gravity Journal

Gravity Journal by Gail Sidonie Sobat 
Release Date ~ April 11, 2008
Great Plains Teen Fiction
ISBN-13: 978-1894283786
Great Plains Teen Fiction
Novel recieved from publisher for review

Goodreads Synopsis:
Life is very grave for Anise. Hospitalized for anorexia, she wonders about the point of it all. Her frigid mother and ineffectual father seem oblivious to her struggle. Her beloved brother is too busy screwing up his own life to take note of hers. Living on the loony ward seems not to be making any difference at all, and Anise feels like a prisoner. Her only free choice is to turn to her journal - the place where she can dream, and where she can decide whether to live or die.

I know a fair number of people who have read this book, and loved it.  I decided to give it a try, and it was a lot better than what I was expecting. This isn't just some other whiney book that tries too hard to make you feel badly for the protaganist.  This novel was actually able to achieve what a lot of other books like this fail to: to send a message about issues such as depression, anorexia, and self-harm that wasn't preachy, but still got the point across.

1.  A likable angst-y character:
Characters with as many problems as Anise can be very hit and miss at times.  I always find that the line between a good amount of angst, and too much angst to be very thin.  A lot of the times, I don't really feel all that sorry for the characters.  They tend to whine, and I just want to scream at them because I become so frustrated.  Anise was different.  I actually liked her, and grew an attachment to her.  I genuinely felt very sorry for her, because the way she was wasn't really her fault.  The amount of angst in her character was just right.  You could see that she was going through something really tough, and even though she felt like ending it, she never completely let go.

2. Half journal, half narrative:
   
   I was expecting this book to be solely Anise's journal.  On the first page, that was proven wrong when Anise went into a normal narrative.  I was confused at first, and then I saw a handwritten-style of font that was used to depict her journal.  I liked this because sometimes journals can be a bit tedious if not written properly (though I had nothing wrong with this one).  The journal entries only sometimes told stories of current events.  Most of the time, it was just little blurbs about what was on her mind, or events that she felt were important to record. 
   
3. Anise's emotional poetry:
   
    Amongst others, one of the things that Anise uses to release her anger or pain is writing poetry.  Throughout the novel, poems are written in her journal.  I thought that the poems were incredible because I could understand and see exactly how Anise was feeling at that time.  It didn't rhyme, but it had that rhythm that almost all poetry needs.  The words flowed beautifully, and I looked forward to reading the next poem as soon as I finished reading one.
   

This novel was very well written, and wasn't a very long read either.  I think that this book is really good to read, and really got me thinking about how my actions affect others.  I wish that this book could've been a bit longer, because then things could've been explored in a bit more detail.  Nevertheless, this book was really good.

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