Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson

This book. The setting of this book is half at a high school and half at home from a the main characters life. Kate Malone is a bright student who is in her senior year of high school and has applied to one university, MIT. She is stressed out from having to wait for the acceptance/denial letter. Kate is part of the Track team and is the like the best they have. She a boyfriend, a best friend, an arch nemesis, and a really religious father. At her home its all about God and helping others while at school it's about her education.

Kate's life starts to spiral out of control when her nemesis's house sets fire and Teri, the nemesis, and her little brother Mikey have to move into Kate's house. Teri steals important items from Kate. Honestly I hated that because I personally have some personal things that I would hate if they were stolen. Kate gets declined from MIT because her writing isn't the greatest (same here) and that she isn't going to be bringing an extra something to the table. Once that letter gets to Kate's hands she starts to spiral out of control. And then out of nowhere after a long day of rebuilding Teri's house, her brother dies. That event destroys Teri. She goes on a "lets destroy all the hard work and progress everyone has done" rampage and starts to sledge hammer the house to pieces. She does not succeed. At the end of the book Kate talks Teri back into building her house again and starts to help. It is a nice ending to a sad yet totally possible story.

The reason I love Laurie's books is because she writes about stories that can actually happen and probably has happened to someone in real life. I have also read her book Speak and loved it. I hope to more from her soon.