Book Review | The Museum of Intangible Things | Wendy Wunder

Title: The Museum of Intangible Things
Author: Wendy Wunder (web | twitter)
Genre: Contemporary YA
Amazon | Goodreads | B&N
Publisher: Razorbill
Release date: April 10, 2014
Source: ARC from the author (Thanks, Wendy Wunder!)

Loyalty. Envy. Obligation. Dreams. Disappointment. Fear. Negligence. Coping. Elation. Lust. Nature. Freedom. Heartbreak. Insouciance. Audacity. Gluttony. Belief. God. Karma. Knowing what you want (there is probably a French word for it). Saying Yes. Destiny. Truth. Devotion. Forgiveness. Life. Happiness (ever after).

Hannah and Zoe haven’t had much in their lives, but they’ve always had each other. So when Zoe tells Hannah she needs to get out of their down-and-out New Jersey town, they pile into Hannah’s beat-up old Le Mans and head west, putting everything—their deadbeat parents, their disappointing love lives, their inevitable enrollment at community college—behind them.

As they chase storms and make new friends, Zoe tells Hannah she wants more for her. She wants her to live bigger, dream grander, aim higher. And so Zoe begins teaching Hannah all about life’s intangible things, concepts sadly missing from her existence—things like audacity,insouciance, karma, and even happiness.

An unforgettable read from the acclaimed author of The Probability of Miracles, The Museum of Intangible Things sparkles with the humor and heartbreak of true friendship and first love.

When I first read Wendy Wunder’s debut, THE PROBABILITY OF MIRACLES, it kind of killed me. It was sad and lovely and lively and funny. It was one of my favorite books that year, and made me instantly a big fan of Wendy Wunder. THE MUSEUM OF INTANGIBLE THINGS has been one of my most anticipated books as a result of that fandom, and when Wendy sent me an ARC, I was salivating. The good news? There’s a lot to appreciate in THE MUSEUM OF INTANGIBLE THINGS. Lots of important thoughts on life, and it’s always good to be reminded of those. Friendship and family and mental illness are also all important aspects of THE MUSEUM OF INTANGIBLE THINGS, and of course there’s some romance. The bad news? There were things about this book that seemed just too far-fetched to me. If I were to compare this book to THE PROBABILITY OF MIRACLES—which I hate to do because they’re such different stories, but I can’t help because I loved it so much—it’s really not a contest which one I thought was better.

So THE MUSEUM OF INTANGIBLE THINGS is about Hannah and her life in a New Jersey lake town. (There is a real place that I’m basically 100% sure is the setting of this book, slightly fictionalized. MAKES ME SO ESSITED.)  Her best friend is Zoe. These two girls couldn’t be more different. Hannah is kind of quiet and always wants to do the safe thing. Her mother is falling apart after her parent’s divorce and her dad is an alcoholic struggling to stay on the wagon, and Hannah is left to make sure neither of them completely lose it. Zoe is more of a daredevil, a free spirit. She forces Hannah out of her shell more than once. Zoe has a new boyfriend every week, but Hannah has been crushing on the same guy since they were all kids. When Zoe and Hannah go to a party at one of Zoe’s new crush’s home, something happens there, and it sets the girls on a bananas road trip. See, Zoe is bipolar. When she doesn’t take her medicine, she kind of goes off the rails. It’s this Zoe—completely at the whim of her illness Zoe—who drags Hannah away from their hometown and attempts to teach Hannah lessons about various feelings (you know, since Hannah is not so much into the FEELING THINGS.) Bananas things ensue.

The focus of THE MUSEUM OF INTANGIBLE THINGS is–no question–the friendship between Hannah and Zoe. For sure, Hannah is meant to be the main character, as we see things through her eyes. But this is mostly a book about friendship and the things you’ll do for your friends. For Hannah, that means being there when Zoe has one of her swings and does crazy stuff totally out of her own comfort zone. It means making Zoe feel safe and loved and not judged while still worrying over her. For Zoe, it means showing Hannah what it means to break out. It’s Zoe’s instruction of Hannah in the fine arts of being insouciant, envious, angry, loving. The journey that these two girls go on has its ups and downs and it gets, at times, crazy to the point of disbelief. But I never doubted the connection between these two girls and how important they were to each other.

I really liked the way Wendy Wunder portrayed Zoe’s mental illness. I had a very good friend in college who was also bipolar and so I recognized Zoe’s behavior and the way she struggled with it. Perhaps, though, it was a little unsettling for the two girls to take advantage of an unmedicated Zoe to go on an insane road trip without telling any adults just so that Zoe could avoid trying to help herself. It just made me think how dangerous and unsafe it was. But then again, I don’t know what it’s like to have bipolar disorder, and the way Wendy Wunder described Zoe’s frankly heartbreaking relationship with her medicine and treatment went a long way to helping me understand it better.

That being said, the fact that these girls literally drove across the country in a beat up car, stealing stuff, evading capture by the authorities despite a few ACTUAL BRUSHES WITH THE LAW, hot-wiring cars, and breaking into stores was a little outrageous. There was an Amber Alert for them, for crying out loud, and they didn’t really try super hard to avoid attention (see stealing stuff, breaking into stores, etc.) Perhaps what made this even more unbelievable–even though I enjoyed the general outcome–was the fact that Danny, Hannah’s crush/boyfriend-ish person, somehow ALSO wound up on this road trip. Maybe I’m naive or something, but THREE kids disappearing from the same town at TWO DIFFERENT TIMES and making it allll the way across the country without getting caught? EEP! Don’t buy it.

Speaking of Danny, his relationship with Hannah in THE MUSEUM OF INTANGIBLE THINGS was actually really great and real. They were cute together, with their banter. He seemed pretty confident in his feelings, generally, and it was a nice contrast to Hannah, who sometimes struggled with hers.

Overall, I enjoyed THE MUSEUM OF INTANGIBLE THINGS. There’s so much more to Hannah and Zoe’s relationship, and as you might assume from a story that involves two girls running away and dealing with the increasingly worrying mental state of one of them, things don’t end in the best way. But I enjoyed the writing and the way Wendy Wunder illustrated really profound points about happiness in life and the importance of opening yourself up to feelings, good and bad. I didn’t love it, but I’m glad I read it, and I’ll keep reading Wendy Wunder’s books for sure.

Check out another review of The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder!

Rachel @ Hello, Chelly: “If I had to sum up The Museum of Intangible Things in one sentence, this would be it: two best friends go on the craziest, most unrealistic road trip ever.”