87 pages • 2 hours read
David ArnoldMosquitoland
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 1
Part 1: “Jackson, Mississippi (947 Miles to Go)”
Chapter 1 Summary: “A Thing’s Not a Thing Until You Say It Out Loud”
The narrator introduces herself as Mary Iris Malone, and she says that she’s “not okay.”
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Uncomfortable Nearness of Strangers”
Mim writes to Isabel. It’s presumed that the letter is intended for Mim’s Aunt Isabel, but by the end of the novel it’s revealed that the letters are for Mim’s in-utero half-sister. She explains how she resents her dad for moving her to Jackson, Mississippi, away from her mom and her hometown of Ashland, Ohio. She tells Iz that the letters she’s going to write will be her “Book of Reasons” that will hopefully explain the reasoning behind her actions.
Mim overhears her stepmother, Kathy, and her dad telling the school principal that her mom, Eve, is sick. Thinking that her mom needs her, she steals Kathy’s can of money, runs away, and buys a Greyhound ticket to Cleveland, Ohio. At the Greyhound station, she meets Carl, the bus driver, and Poncho Man, an older man who tries to flirt with Mim although she’s clearly underage.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Northbound Greyhound”
Mim writes to Isabel to tell her why Labor Day is so important: It’s always been a special day between her and her mom. A group of “revolutionaries and idealists” in their old neighborhood used to throw a huge party on Labor Day (15), and Mim and her mother would go every year to revel in the rebellion of rejecting “suburban mediocrity.” Her mother, Eve, was always so full of the “Young Fun Now” (15), which is Mim’s name for these fleeting glimpses of youthful joy in her mom. Mim and her mom used to hold hands in these joyous moments, but one day her mom said, “I was lovely once…But he never loved me once” (17), and they never held hands again after that.
In the bus, Mim sits next to an older woman named Arlene. They become quick friends. Mim thinks back to her Aunt Isabel and how she used to journal to get rid of her “sharp edges.” Aunt Isabel told Mim she should write, too.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Abilitol”
Mim thinks back to how her dad forced her to see psychiatrists from a young age because their family had a “history of psychosis” (27). She adored her first doctor, Makundi, but her dad didn’t think he was helping so he took her to Dr. Wilson instead. She didn’t like him. He prescribed an anti-psychotic medication called Aripapilazone—commonly known as Abilitol—with her dad’s approval, but Dr. Makundi and Eve never wanted her to be on it.
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Sixth Letter”
Mim wakes up from a nap feeling exhausted because of weird dreams. She looks in the money can to assess her financial situation but finds rolled up paper. She goes to the bathroom to investigate. They are letters between Eve and Kathy: Eve is complaining about her living situation in the hospital. One of the letters isn’t signed and says, “Think of what’s best for her. Please reconsider” (33). Mim assumes that letter is from Eve, but it’s from Kathy. She flushes the letters down the toilet, but they get stuck and cause the toilet to overflow.
Part 1 Analysis
The beginning chapters introduce the main plot: Mim’s parents recently got divorced, her dad quickly remarried a woman named Kathy, and she’s running away to Cleveland to visit her sick mom. These elements work together to create a coming-of-age tale that follows Mim’s outward-physical and inward-emotional journey of self-discovery. The narrative is told in the present tense from Mim’s point of view. She explains her thoughts and actions in real-time, and the story often jumps between the present and flashbacks. The present story, which is Mim’s journey from Mississippi to Ohio, is told linearly. Her flashbacks, however, which recall specific memories from her childhood, are nonlinear and provide background information and context for Mim’s psyche.
The chapters switch between Mim’s first-person narration and letters that Mim writes to Isabel. The letters serve as a space for Mim to explore and explain her thoughts and feelings. At first, it’s assumed that she is writing these letters to her Aunt Isabel, but by the end of the novel it’s revealed that the letters are intended for Mim’s soon-to-be half-sister. The letters ultimately become a way for Mim to work through the trauma of her parents’ divorce and accepts her new life.
Chapters 3 and 4 first introduce the idea that mental health issues run in the family. In Chapter 3, Mim remembers when she and her mom attended a Labor Day party in their neighborhood. After leaving the party, her mom said, “I was lovely once…But he never loved me once” (17). By the end of the novel, when Mim visits her mom in the in-patient mental health rehabilitation center, her mom again repeats this phrase, revealing that she has always struggled with depression. However, for most of the novel, Mim doesn’t understand her mom’s mental state. She has always viewed her mom as fun and spontaneous, and she’s always viewed her dad as the villain who stops that fun. However, Mim’s memories of her mom throughout the narrative subtly highlight her mom’s debilitating depression.
In Chapter 4, Mim’s dad forces her to see a psychiatrist because he’s afraid that she has psychosis. He references their family’s history of psychosis, and it’s clear that he’s projecting his worries for others onto Mim. It’s assumed that he’s mainly referring to his sister’s mental health issues, but by the end of the novel it’s clear that Eve was his main source of worry: He was afraid that Mim would end up like her mom. This is why he pushes so hard for Mim to be on medication and visit psychiatrists; He doesn’t want Mim to get as bad as her mom.
