I first read this book unnumbered years ago (code for I don't remember how many), and didn't understand it like at all. Thankfully, I am now quite a bit older and can make sense of things, and have been offhandedly looking out for it since about a month after I first read it (that's how I found it again, eons later).
It's about four |(later five)| kids--the titular Fitzgerald-Trouts--who are living in a car on an unnamed island; their names are Kim, Kimo, Pippa, and Toby. Though the book never tells us how old they are, I think Kim and Kimo (not twins) are both in their early to mid-teens. We know Pippa and Toby are eight and five, respectively.
And before you ask how Kim and Kimo, being the same age and having almost the same name, aren't twins... this book has an inordinately complicated family tree. I don't remember how exactly it goes, and it's too long to sum up; basically, Kimo's dad has disappeared, the other three's dad is a scientist who disappeared to a different island, Kim and Pippa share one mom, and Toby and Kimo share another one. |Also, the dad of the fifth one is someone else entirely|. None of their non-disappeared parents are particularly nice people, which is why they live in a car on an unnamed island.
If this sounds like a dystopian and depressing book, it's not. I'm serious, it's not. I mean, Kim (the main character) does become what I think is mildly depressed at one point, but overall the author does a good job of not making me DNF this.
This book gets a solid four stars.
Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: E10+ for cartoon violence (vampire iguanas) and crude humor (a fart joke). It could make a sort of Ooblets-like game, maybe.
Favorite lines:
After one of the "terrible mothers" (this one's a super vain country/western singer) releases a new song with the lyrics "Your lyin' heart / Will tear us apart / And make me start / A-cryin'", the Fitzgerald-Trouts keep coming up with new lyrics for the third line (hence, the aforementioned fart joke). Some of my favorites are "Or go to Kmart", "Or learn a martial art", and "Or tame a wild shark".
This starts on page 176.
Okay, vampire iguanas, tho? That's intriguing in a very weird way.
ReplyDeleteVampire iguanas. (Well, the book just says "bloodsucking iguanas", but come on, vampire iguanas.) Turns out if you're in a closed car, they can't get at you, and if you cover the top of said car in spikes, they stop trying.
DeleteDon't try going into vampire-iguana-infested forests in a convertible.
Sounds like an interesting life - 4 kids living in a car on an unnamed island with their two mothers?!!!! You read a large variety of books - maybe that's why you're such an interesting guy!!
ReplyDeleteTheir life definitely is interesting, yeah.
Delete