a mango-shaped space [book review]

Description: This book is told in first person from 13-year-old Mia Winchell’s point of view, and mostly focuses on her experiences with her synesthesia and the way it impacts and even causes challenges in her life.

From the beginning, I had high hopes for this book. The title was intriguing, the introduction immediately caught my eye with its descriptive narration, and the contents seemed interesting to me personally. Synesthesia? Told in narrative form? Wow, won’t this be fun to read about!

As it turns out, this book isn’t exactly what I thought I was signing up for.

Pros: The book explored different types of synesthesia accurately — from what I know and/or have experienced — and had fairly good prose. It communicated ideas clearly, and at no point was I confused by what it was saying. As I mentioned earlier, the first chapter had vivid description and good imagery, which was another thing I appreciated. Overall, it wasn’t too clunky, and though the style didn’t particularly stand out to me as very unique, it was a nice and easy read that was generally enjoyable.

Cons: However, the events of the book were often disorganized and not well-used as plot devices. Instead, mostly unimportant events suddenly appeared then disappeared. I found myself thinking things like “why is this even here?” or “what was the point of that interaction?” as I read. Especially when it came to romantic attractions (which were completely unnecessary, in my opinion), I repeatedly wondered why they were mentioned just once or twice when they ended up having no significance to the rest of the story. “I think Roger likes you,” a girl says in the middle-to-end portion of the book. Well, why is that important?? There was literally no point in mentioning Roger’s emotions. I don’t care??? That did nothing for the plot. This isn’t a one-time occurence, which is why I was so bothered by it while reading. This just keeps happening with no other development.

Recommendation: I would recommend this to someone who wants an easy read in the realistic fiction genre and would like to learn about synesthesia. Though I have heard someone complain about the lack of realism in the types of synesthesia in this book, from my experience, I would say that Mia’s synesthesia was realistic enough for me.

In conclusion, I would rate this book an “interesting in terms of synesthesia but questionable otherwise” out of “this is how I would have liked to write it myself.” Honestly, this feels more like a comfort book to read for a bit of quick fun rather than a book I’d read on repeat because I genuinely liked it so much. The only final note I have to say is that if you also have synesthesia, Mia’s descriptions of her experiences may conflict with yours and constantly annoy you. I am warning you now because this absolutely annoyed me (but whatever. That’s my problem, not the book’s). Have fun. Be free. Goodbye.