The Thing About Jellyfish (National Book Award Finalist)

The Thing about Jellyfish, is a novel by Ali Benjamin. This book shows a relationship between two friends that always stick together, but while this book goes on they go on separate paths. A quote that goes through this book is: “Sometimes things just happen,” but Suzy doesn’t want to look at it this way, especially after the tragic that happened. This book will target someone who likes mysteries and The Thing about Jellyfish is a book with a mystery that you would really want to know more about. Suzy and Franny are best friends. There’s a popular girl named, Aubrey that Franny never wants to be like: “Shoot me if I ever become like that. Send me a signal… a secret message. Make it big.” As Franny once said to Suzy. One day Franny did become like Aubrey and Suzy tried to fix it and make that “secret message,” but it didn’t work. Franny got new best friends and is becoming the opposite of the way she really is. Suzy grows and learns new thing every day and going from not talking to talking again little by little. That’s the way the author develops Suzy’s character. Franny grows somewhat negatively and goes on opposite roads with Suzy: ”Why do you have to be so weird ?” Franny hisses. ”Your just.So.Weird.” Franny says, and you turn around and storm out of the cafeteria and the other girls follow.” .It’s always important to keep your close friends by your side, because friends come and go, but if you hold on tight they’ll stay with you. The author shows how friends are important to stay by, for an example, Suzy and Franny are good friends, but they don’t go down the same paths. Franny goes down a road with her new friends and Suzy goes down a road with learning and discovering out the tragic drowning of her best friend that is not by her side anymore. The message that the author is trying to shout out is, to always keep your true friends by your side and don’t let go. This book is written in an interesting way, that the author back flashes in her writing, that it’s like Suzy is talking with Franny even though she’s not directly there, and the author is doing it like a memory is coming to Suzy’s brain. I really like the way Ali Benjamin writes this book, and how the book is structured. The book is an easy read and it’s a great story as well to how it’s written. “Tiny species, move through an invisible field, the way a pair of boots moves through mud, getting heavier as they go.” This imagery is showing that, things drift away and it’s hard to handle. The Thing about Jellyfish, is a great read. What is good about this book is the way the characters grow and it shows lots of character development and it’s a great thing. The way Suzy grew throughout the book was amazing. She went from not talking to talking step-by-step and showing her inner voice. This book is a great mystery that needs to be answered and is an amazing book to read and to enjoy! “Sometimes when we feel most alone, the world decides to open up in magical ways.”-Ali Benjamin.

I picked this up on a recommendation from the author Ashley Herring Blake on Twitter for good middle grade reads. I don't read a ton of middle grade but I have a mini obsession with jellyfish so without even reading the description I picked it up. It's been on my shelf for awhile and I had no clue what I wanted to read tonight at work so I grabbed it and I am so happy I did. I was thrilled with this story, it was a delightfully emotional read that I was not expecting. First off the writing is fun, the story is emotional and caused me a ton of tears but the writing had me hooked, it was informative and carried the story so well. Suzy the main character who is going through a a lot of grief due to her best friends death, has stopped talking and doesn't know what to do with life. She loves to learn, she wants all the facts, she wants to know how the world works around her and it made for an interesting character. She didn't care what others thought of her and didn't see the world they way everyone else always did and with the death of Franny she is just trying to make it through the year. Her class takes a trip to an aquarium and she learns about a jellyfish with a deadly venomous sting that she decides is what killed Franny and she becomes obsessed about learning all she can about them. It was a story of over coming grief, forgiving ourselves and those around us, learning and growing, there was so much to dig into to. I loved her parents being there for her and trying to help her even they don't know what's going on. I loved the ending, I cried tears of happiness and of love for this book. There are very few middle grades I've read that dealt with such emotional situations and this one handled it so well. The relationship Suzy had with her science teacher was also a delight, I had a science teacher in high school who I probably wouldn't have graduated without. She made sure everything was okay even if it wasn't and helped out so many kids when she really didn't have too. I enjoyed that character because teachers are so often demonized in kids and ya books and that's not the case with the majority. I adored this book all around. It was a joy to read and I'd probably sit here and read it again at work if I could!

In her debut novel, The Thing About Jellyfish, Ali Benjamin manages to beautifully weave together multiple conflicts through the single character of Suzanne Swanson. At twelve years old, Suzy deals with a problem even adults struggle with into their later years: things change. “Sometimes, things just happen” her mom says to her after delivering news that Suzy’s best friend, Franny, drowned. As Suzy delves into the past to figure out what could’ve possibly led Franny, an excellent swimmer, to drown, she discovers something many people never figure out––she and Franny weren’t really friends at all when she died. Eccentric, smart, and sometimes just plain weird Suzy delves into her own theory of how Franny must’ve died: a jellyfish sting. While there’s so many things to say about how much I enjoyed reading this, one thing I must commend is the amount of research that must’ve gone into writing this middle-grade novel. There were so many wonderful scientific tidbits that I, a once marine-biology nut, found myself right at home in Benjamin’s hands as she took me through Suzy’s story. The scientific jargon never bogged down the writing style and made for a quirky read. Speaking of quirky, it was refreshing to finally see a female protagonist who was into science. Too often are young women in literature given stereotypically feminine hobbies (i.e. poetry, creative writing) and gifted in their English classes––which is great! But currently, there’s a problem in America with girls feeling excluded from STEM areas. In my mind, Suzy Swanson grows up to become the world’s leading expert on the Irukandji jellyfish. The writing also never struck me as middle-grade, which is probably why I was able to finish the entire novel in one sitting. When I found out that this was not Young Adult, as I originally thought, I was a bit apprehensive since I’ve never been a big fan of middle-grade, though I’m glad I got past my preconceptions about the genre. My only disappoint with this novel was the lack of confrontation between Suzy and Franny. While I loved their relationship arc––the whole “we were best friend’s but now you’re their friend and you’re mean to me now” plight––I was really itching for an eruption at the end of all the build-up. Suzy passively allowed Franny to bully her for an entire school year, and in the end that all summed up to Suzy making a desperate attempt to appeal to her friend. I would’ve loved an explosive conversation between the two of them that finally brought out the malice that Suzy clearly has, something that would’ve justified the feelings of guilt that Suzy carried the entire novel. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to what Ali Benjamin has in store for us next. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go through my daily life again without realizing one of the many lessons her novel taught me: Shakespeare is inside all of us.

Wrenching, beautiful, and haunting, this is one of the best middle-grade novels I’ve ever read. Seventh grader Suzy Swanson is on the autism spectrum, and she can tell you lots of things most people don’t know, ranging from the sleep pattern of ants to almost everything about jellyfish. But she can’t explain, or understand, how her former best friend, Franny Jackson, could have drowned swimming in the ocean over the summer. Not just because Franny was a good swimmer: Franny had also shattered their friendship and then Suzy had done something horrible in response to Franny just before the start of summer—something that the two of them never had a chance to talk about. Now they never will. Suzy, in fact, has stopped talking completely. To anyone. But Suzy thinks if she can prove that her friend Franny died because of a poisoned jellyfish sting, then there will be some closure. And perhaps then Suzy will feel better, because there will be a villain in the story that isn’t her. This National Book Award-nominated middle grade novel is a moving story of loss, grief, broken friendship, being a non-neurotypical kid, and the halting journey toward healing from grief. Suzy gets a few things completely, noticing some details with excruciating clarity, while missing others—including how to fit in, anywhere, in the shark tank that is life in middle school. Suzy’s autism spectrum disorder—which is never named in the book, but is clear—gives the author, Ali Benjamin, an excuse to alternate simple, straightforward prose with occasional burst of lyrical beauty in description, at the funeral (“after the men wheeled your box away and your mom stumbled after it with wild eyes…”) or even describing things like over-fishing the oceans. (“We send them to Red Lobster and Long John Silver’s. We fill supermarket cases with their flesh, all slick and gleaming on heaps of ice.”) The power of the story comes from Suzy’s aching vulnerability: She’s a kid different from the neurotypicals, although until the seventh grade she had that one good friend who made everything bearable, but then she lost that friend. Who is now irretrievably gone, even unable to hear “I’m sorry.” It’s a situation that can’t be fixed by learning everything there is to know about poisonous jellyfish, but Suzy does eventually reach some understanding of what she’ll never know, and takes the first few tenuous steps toward making two new friends. The best kind of heart-breaking story, the kind that heals and expands your heart, and you understanding, by the end.

If you are in the mood for a heartfelt tearjerker, then this book is for you. I love books that make me emotional, so naturally, I loved Ali Benjamin’s novel, The Thing About Jellyfish. The story is told from the perspective of Suzy Swanson. Suzy is not your typical middle school girl. She doesn’t get along with many people, and she seems to know facts beyond what others are capable of knowing. As I was reading this novel, my teacher's brain kept wondering if Ali Benjamin intended Suzy to almost have Autistic-like tendencies. Suzy fixates and she can’t let things go. Her brain never stops, and she is very limited in her ability to understand the social taboos that one is often expected to follow in middle school. Suzy’s life is turned upside down multiple times in this story. This first time is when her best friend Franny Jackson decides to ditch Suzy at school in order to fit in more with the “popular crowd.” You see the typical struggle of a middle school again. But then, life becomes exponentially more difficult when Franny drowns while swimming with her family. The drama of the novel all centers around Suzy’s inability to process the changes in her life. She spirals out of control. Suzy then becomes desperate in her efforts to find the answers that led to Franny’s tragic death. In her mind, the only viable explanation is a jellyfish sting. Why else would her best friend be dead? I would recommend this novel for an older audience. It is much more suited for a middle school or high school student. This message is great; however, there is a ton of scientific and technical vocabulary within this text. I loved how Ali Benjamin utilized these nonfiction elements of her writing to heighten Suzy’s obsession with Franny’s death. It just makes this novel out of reach for some younger readers.

The Thing About Jellyfish is a beautifully written middle-grade novel and is full of clever and witty writing. Benjamin was constantly sending me through moments of laughter and joy as well as moments of true sadness that lingered with me, pulling at ever single little string in my heart. The first few pages sucked me in right away and brought me back to my middle school days. The words were expressive, raw, and made me feel like I was experiencing them in real life and not just on the page. There were many times throughout the novel where I had to stop and re-read paragraphs because they were so touching. I can't say that I've read such an honest and captivating book in a very long time. Throughout the novel, the reader follows Suzy on a journey of self discovery as well as her journey to figure out why her best friend died and what caused the downfall of their friendship. Suzy attempts to study and pick apart the days leading up to the "accident" in order to truly figure out why it happened. She seems to believe the cause of her friend's death is by a lethal jellyfish, so she throws herself into research in order to find an answer. Suzy is an incredible young lady who does the best she can navigating through some of the toughest years of her life. There is much to be learned from this young lady and this great novel. All in all, The Thing About Jellyfish is a fantastic read, not just for middle-aged readers! There were so many wonderful quotes that I will continue to read over and over. I would highly recommend this book to readers 12 and up. Rating 5/5

The realistic fiction book, The Thing About Jellyfish, by Ali Benjamin, is a novel about a girl named Suzy who can't understand or put together how her friend Franny dies. Suzy is not like other girls, she doesn't spend time fixing her hair, doing her nails, or have a care in the world about boys. When middle school starts, she starts to see changes happening, the innocent girl she knew now was spending time with the mean girls, as well as criticizing her looks and behavior. Suzy was intelligent and new more than others, she was seen as weird but it didn’t affect her until her formally best friend Franny had now changed for the worst. One day Suzy went to go sit with the cool kids because Franny wanted to sit there. Suzy felt annoyed because she wanted to just sit with Franny, like it had been in the past. Franny is not very social and does not pick up general social cues, it’s not clarified in the book but she may even be on the autism spectrum. When she made her opinion on another girls comment, she started talking about urine. As she talked, the other girls laughed and thought she was strange. She knew so many facts about urine, but Suzy didn’t understand why that was funny or why it was the wrong thing to say. Suzy decides to stop talking altogether once she got the news that Franny died, her parents thought that there was something wrong with her. Suzy decided to stop talking, she didn’t think there was anything positive to talk about. She couldn’t comprehend that Franny had drowned, she thought that there must be some deeper reason. She started to do research and came up with a theory that Franny was stung by an Irukandji jellyfish. She did lots of research and thought that a researcher named Jamie could get her all the answers that she needed. Overall, The Thing About Jellyfish was a great book, I would recommend it to anyone above the age of ten. It is not too short and not too long, and it has the perfect amount of suspension. It may have taken a long time to understand the main idea, but it was an inspiring book with a wonderful story.

I was quite surprised with some of the content of this book. I'm a middle school teacher and read the wonderful reviews of this book so I decided to order it in hopes of maybe teaching this novel next year. As an adult, I was a little surprised by some of the things the main character does and I don't feel comfortable teaching this book. It's a good read, but parts of it are very strange.

Lindíssimo, extremamente imersivo. O inglês é bem tranquilo pra quem tem um nível intermediário, sendo que em algumas partes mais voltadas para ciência, as coisas podem ficar um pouco mais complexas. No mais, o livros é fantástico, muito fofo, mas sem perder o lugar de fala quando é preciso.

I love this book so much!!! I read this in one day as it kept me hooked. The only thing is i wished that at the end they would tell how Franny died.

I love it it made me cry it made me happy and it even made me a angry sometimes only at some characters I would read this book over and over again I couldn’t put it down love it

Ein super gutes Bich für Mittelstufe sehr empfehlenswert

Book is very nice But courier service is very poor delivery agent denied to deliver the book at door step and insist to collect the parcel from building gate and next day delivery agent insist to collect the same from 500mtr away from my building