White Oleander (Molly O'Connell)

Title: White Oleander
Author: Janet Fitch
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 446

I found White Oleander in my house. It had been in my house for a while, but I never acknowledged it. My mother suggested that I read it and that is how I came about choosing it for my first outside reading project.

White Oleander is about a fourteen year old girl named Astrid Magnussen who ends up in foster care because her mother, Ingrid Magnussen, goes to prison for murdering her lover. Astrid goes through a series of misfortunes and bad things seem to follow her wherever she goes. Astrid's desire to be loved finds her in really bad relationships with men, who aren't so desirable. She becomes very negative and labels herself, "Nobody Child." She is moved from one foster care to another because she becomes 'problematic' to her foster parents. Astrid meets a variety of crazy, unique people who make the novel even more enjoyable to read.

I believe that the audience for this book would be middle aged teens, because curse words are used at random and the (surprising) intimate parts are very detailed.

Janet Fitch uses a very descriptive writing style. She likes to make you feel as though you can visualize exactly what is happening. "The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw. Only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves." (page 1, Fitch)

1. "To them, pain was a country they had heard of, maybe watched a show about on TV, but one whose stamp had not yet been made in their passports." (page 124, Fitch) This passage struck me because it made me realize how depressed and hurt Astrid truly is. She feels as though she is the only person who feels pain and no one else knows what she is going through.

2. "I liked it better this way. Beauty was deceptive. I would rather wear my pain, my ugliness." (page 176, Fitch) This passage intrigued me because Astrid would like people to see her how she really is on the inside. She does not want people to concentrate on her good looks because she feels it degrades her and takes away from who she really is.

3. "Jesus knew my thoughts, knew everything, even if I couldn't see Him, or really feel Him. He would keep me from falling, from being washed away." (page 84, Fitch)I chose this passage because Astrid mentions that her mother taught her to believe that Jesus was just a myth and not something to believe in. Astrid turns to Jesus because she feels as though he is the only one who can help her now that her mother is in prison and she has no one else to turn to.

I thought that this was a really great novel to read. I was intrigued throughout the whole novel and often did not want to stop reading. Astrid goes through a lot of misfortunate events that I can not say I can relate to. Astrid feels very negative and depressed often, which is something that we can all relate to at times. After reading this novel, you really get to know who Astrid is because she lets you into her life, detail to detail. In a sense, you are able to experience some of the things that Astrid had to go through because the novel was so descriptive.