BOOK REVIEW: Klickitat by Peter Rock

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Vivian feels left behind when her older sister, Audra, runs away from home. She believes that Audra will return and pays careful attention to the clues around her. Then, inexplicably, writing begins to appear in a blank notebook. When Audra does come back for Vivian, she’s in the company of a strange man. The three of them run away together and practice wilderness survival. While Audra plans for the future, Vivian continues to gather evidence: Who is this mysterious man, and does he have any connection to the words appearing in her notebook?

This book was rambling and confusing and full of questions. It’s about two sisters who are incredibly close: Vivian and Audra. Audra is a huge brat who constantly yells at her parents, sneaks out of the house and complains about how her parents are “robots” because they expect her to do silly things like go to school or get a job. Insane, right? The parents don’t have a huge role in the book because it really is about the relationship between these two sisters, but the parents were showed enough for me to get a sense that they were frustrated by Audra’s behavior and they genuinely cared about their daughters.

This book was told from the POV of Vivian and I had zero emotional connection with her. First of all, there was something going on with her that required she take pills every day. I guess they were so important that her mom would count them every night to make sure she took them. The problem was that the author NEVER revealed this condition to the reader. It was so frustrating. It was talked about many times. Audra kept saying Vivian didn’t need the pills and her parents just wanted to keep her medicated. The only “symptom” it talked about was some kind of fit that Vivian would have sometimes when she would hold on to someone and not let go. Yeah, I didn’t get it either. 

The rest of the book was just as confusing and there was really no point to the whole story. It was basically about sisters who run away from him for absolutely NO reason. Vivian’s thoughts were all over the place and sometimes it was tough to tell what had actually happened. I didn’t feel anything for Vivian and I despised Audra. Like I said, she was a brat and she kept pulling her sister into her mess. I hated that she had two parents who loved her and a safe place to live and yet, she acted like life with her parents was so miserable. The ending was very unsatisfying and because of how Vivian’s thoughts were, it took a bit to even realize what had happened. When I did realize it, I felt cheated. The main reason I kept reading was to find out what happens with both sisters and it was kind of ridiculous. I didn’t get the sense that anyone really learned anything.

The only thing I really liked about the book was that the title refers to the name of the street that Ramona and Beezus lived on (you know, from the books). The sisters would say that word to each other or leave it as a message when they wanted the other one to know everything would be okay. That part was sweet and I loved those books, so any mention of them is okay by me. That was about it though.

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Skip this one.