"The Museum of Intangible Things" : A Book Beyond My Expectations

"The Museum of Intangible Things" By: Wendy Wunder honestly had me presently surprised. I was originally expecting a fluffy contemporary read that I could read to get a break from my more heavy fantasy reads for the month, but boy was I wrong. This book had everything: travel, adventure, romance, friendship, life lessons and it tackled and discussed some hard subjects including mental illness and suicide. I am not telling you this to spoil you, however, I thought it was important to mention incase you are triggered by these things.

This book follows Hannah and Zoe who are best friends and who are passengers together on the rollercoaster called life. They are there for each other through every up and down that their lives bring them. The flowery spring-like cover, that has two best friends on it, may suggest that this book is just a road-trip book about two best friends, but this book is so much deeper than that.

Zoe is bipolar and has moments where she is invincible and moments where she can't get out of bed. Zoe also has a little brother named Noah who is on the Autism spectrum. While, Hannah is struggling with her parents' divorce and her father's alcoholism, and trying to sell enough hot dogs to save enough money for tuition to the local community college. Zoe and Hannah both believe that no one understands them but each other, so when everything seems to go wrong in their lives, Zoe and Hannah grab what change they have saved and pack the bare minimum, and leave for a cross country road trip.

On this road trip Zoe teaches Hannah about the intangible things in life, the different emotions, feelings and things she needs to get through life: gluttony, love, audacity, and so on and so forth. On this road trip Zoe teaches Hannah to give a crap and to live a little, while Hannah tries to help Zoe through her hallucinations, because of her bipolar disorder.

I loved not only how well developed the main characters were, but also how diverse and well developed all of the characters Zoe and Hannah met were. I also loved Wendy Wunder's writing style and how beautifully descriptive the scenery was. I could imagine every place they visited in my mind, and I really appreciated that.

While I thought this book was awesome, with relatable, diverse characters, and that it discussed some more difficult topics, I felt that I could only give it 4 stars. The beginning to me was kind of slow paced and confusing as it had many events that weren't in consecutive order. The pace really picked up for me right before they left on their road trip, and once they started their trip I couldn't put the book down. I also thought the book cover was a little misleading as I thought it would be a fluffy contemporary read. Lastly, I wanted to shake Hannah and make her get Zoe help and to take her home. Instead, Hannah kept letting Zoe run farther from home, where she could of been helped.

Overall, I highly recommend this book and I can't wait to read more of Wendy Wunder's books in the future!