Arlaina Tibensky

I very much enjoyed AND THEN THINGS FALL APART. The entire story is told primarily from a sickbed, as the main character, Keek, has been struck by a late case of the chicken pox. Keek's parents are getting divorced, her mom is across the country, and her boyfriend is AWOL. All Keek has to distract her from the itching and other unfortunate side effects is her grandmother, well-loved copy of Sylvia Plath's THE BELL JAR, and an ancient typewriter.

For me, it was Keek's voice that made the show more novel. She's jaded, sarcastic, generally disillusioned... and who can blame her? It's no surprise that she identifies so closely with THE BELL JAR, even though she fully admits that sometimes she has no clue what Plath is talking about.

I loved the visual the author evoked of Keek sitting in a bed, covered in itchy bumps and perhaps a bit smelly, with a huge typewriter sitting atop her lap. Or maybe beside her... though I more frequently pictured it perched on her legs as she sat Indian-style. She sits in this room, on this bed, with a typewriter and types through her problems. It's like extreme journaling.

Though Keek's grandmother only pops up in the story here and there, I can't seem to forget about her. She's nothing like the grandmother that we might stereotypically imagine... she's a bit harder, a bit more mysterious. I like that though... Keek's grandmother would sometimes show Keek a bit of her history that I think we often forget grandmothers have... It made me look at my own grandmother in a slightly different light.

I'm curious to see what Arlaina Tibensky will offer readers next... Keek's personality stands out for me above the other main characters of other recent reads and I'm wondering if her next MC will follow suit. show less

I enjoyed this book--as a reader, as a Plath-fan, as a poetry-lover, as a writer. Keek, a Bell-Jar-obsessed teen with the chicken pox, is isolated at her grandma's house with nothing but an old typewriter and a copy of her favorite book. She feverishly processes the breakups and betrayals of her life and connects them to the life of Bell Jar protagonist, Esther Greenwood. This structure requires a strong character voice, and the author definitely did a wonderful job creating Keek--angsty, show more funny, a little delirious, a little broken, and sofa king itchy. Telling Keek's story like this, in isolation, is difficult, and it's not surprising that at times, as a reader, I felt a little restless, stuck in bed, a bit claustrophobic in the head of this mildly melodramatic girl and her bell jar. That said, there are moments where the book really shines, especially the small scenes with Keek and her grandma, and the realistic portrayal of Keek's sexual explorations and hesitations with her boyfriend. There were a couple of clumsy moments, too--some unwieldy text messages and some relationships underdeveloped, but overall an interesting, unique book with a good balance of humor and seriousness. show less

It wasn't very far into this book when I realized that I didn't really like it. I kept trying to convince myself to just enjoy the story or, at least, not to get too down on it so quickly. I was hoping that it would redeem itself somehow, but I don't think that it ever really did.

The narrator, a fifteen year old girl nicknamed Keek, is stuck at her grandmother's house during the summer with a case of chicken pox because her parents didn't get her vaccinated for that or any other communicable show more disease. As the story goes on, the reader finds out that her mom is off in California with Keek's aunt because the aunt has just given birth to Keek's baby cousin three months prematurely. You also find out that Keek's parents are getting divorced, which Keek is convinced is her father's fault because he had sex with Keek's twenty-three-year-old best friend. By the time I was fifty pages in, I was not only convinced that the character was a whiny, selfish, slut-shaming, Sylvia Plath-obsessed brat. It felt like her pseudo-rebellion of dyeing her hair pink and black and her obsessive love of Sylvia Plath fed into her own feeling that her life was worse than any other person in the universe, I was also convinced that her mother was immature and a bad parent, not just for leaving her extremely sick daughter, but for going to California, where she would be spending time around a premature baby that is fighting for its life and might accidentally expose it to an infectious disease. I was also judging both of her parents for letting her hang out with a twenty-three year old--an eight year age difference when you're fifteen is kind of a big deal.

Keek was not only shameless in her bashing of anyone who might have even the slightest sexual inclinations (except herself), she was also pretentious and seemed to be unaware of anything outside of her little world. I know that there are fifteen year olds out there who are like this, but that doesn't mean I like reading about a character who is anything like those teenagers. She is obviously very, very immature, which kind of makes me wonder why a twenty-three year old would even want to hang out with her.

The story had no real plot. The characters were all very shallow. It seems more like it's a Mary Sue-ish fanfiction of The Bell Jar than anything else. If I ever hear or see the words "sofa" and "king" next to one another again, I just might scream. I wish that I hadn't read this book because I think I could have found a much better use for my time. The only thing that could possibly redeem this story is if the author came out and said that it is really a satire on how some people in suburban settings are just completely out of touch with reality and how they raise their children to be just like them. show less

I liked this title; at least I think I did. Keeks was an interesting character. Not only does she love the book The Bell Jar, her fever from chickenpox makes her hallucinate. I’m fairly certain that her boyfriend problems would have really annoyed me if the hallucinations hadn’t been so funny. I found the fact that Keek’s boyfriend’s name was Matt. (My sweetheart’s name). Every time she was complaining about something that he’d done in the past, I had this internal dialogue of show more “not true!!” I’m completely biased and refuse to hear anything negative when the words “boyfriend” and “Matt” in the same sentence.

There is some “absent parent syndrome” in this novel and usually I hate that, but I think it was used brilliantly in this novel. Her parents are going through a divorce and so completely wrapped up in their own lives that they rarely check in with Keeks. I think that does happen a lot in divorce and it was interesting to see that in a novel. Keeks does have her Gram taking care of her though and her Gram Is. Awesome. There were some really funny scenes with the grandmother and a really touching scene involving a bathtub.

While I don’t think that this novel is perfect, I think that it touches upon a lot of issues: divorce, teen sex, frenemies in a way that a lot of girls will relate to or need to hear. (I can’t believe I just used the term “frenemies”…is that even how you spell it?)

I really liked that Keeks was a fan of Silvia Plath and The Bell Jar, well okay, I liked that she was a fan of reading in general. I don’t see enough of that in books. I really liked that her Gram supports her interests and goes along with it. I love when that happens.
The chapters were short and the book was formatted to appear as if they’d been typed on a typewriter, which was very unique yet suited the main character perfectly. The pacing of the story was good and I read it in just a couple hours.

Since I’m pretty much gushing, I think it’s safe to say that I do like this book. I would definitely read more from this author. show less