Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper - Book Review
Title: Out of My Mind
Author: Sharon M. Draper
Publisher: Atheneum Books
Publish Date: May 1, 2012
Rating: 4/5
Summary(blurb): Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there's no delete button. She's the smartest kid in her whole school-- but NO ONE knows it. Most people-- her teacher and doctors included - don't think she's capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows... but she can't because Melody can't talk. She can't walk. She can't write. Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind-- that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a voice... but not everyone around her is ready to hear it.
**This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.
I first came in contact with this book when it was in my English teacher's classroom, and I read the blurb and found the premise very interesting-- a genius kid literally trapped in her own body. However, I didn't have the time to read that (it was very very nearly finals week) and so, when I found this in the same same local secondhand bookstore I bought the Midnight Library as well as All the Bright Places (and about twenty other books) from, I picked up this one too. Mind you, that bookstore is the only secondhand bookstore near me. And it's not even super near my house, it's 20 minutes by bike :/
Anyways, again, the blurb. I usually like reading blurbs but felt like this one was a bit too long. As I mentioned before I really liked the hook/premise of this book of someone with a super brain yet a frustratingly un-super body. Honestly the blurb was so long that I just read the first few sentences before actually starting it, meaning I didn't know Melody gets a device helping her speak until it came out in the book itself. Looking back I think this was better for me, as the pleasant revelation that Melody had her own device to better express herself came as a surprise that way.
This book has a lot of the elements typical of a middle school book, with fifth-grade characters, school bullies, friendship issues, and a theme of difference and acceptance. It focuses a lot on Melody's early life, which is one of the aspects I enjoyed. The fact that Melody is exceptionally mentally talented makes her language acquisition as well as her clear memories of early life easily explained, and this can't even be counted as all being for writing convenience as Melody's mental talent is a key point of the narrative.
It was predictable but enjoyable how Melody aced the Whiz Kids test, and as with all friendship books, it was heartwarming how Melody's parents, Mrs. V, and Catherine all helped Melody in establishing her identity and helping to keep her mindset optimistic. Another interesting point of the story was after Melody and her team went on to win the regional championships and they were scheduled to all go to the capital, when Melody missed the flight by no accident-- the other kids had voluntarily left Melody out from going to Washington DC with them. After the close but sure victory the previous time, I had assumed the book would go down the traditional route and have Melody ace the national championships too (to establish the "don't underestimate disabled people" and to further elaborate on the Claire fake friendship line), but it didn't turn out that way which was a surprise.
Some of the parts I didn't enjoy as much or was confused about were the "escaped goldfish" metaphor, Claire's apparent fake TV personality friendship, and Molly and Claire staying the flat characters they are. I think talking about all of these in one paragraph is gonna be too long, so I might as well divide it by topic.
So first, the escaped goldfish. It's pretty clear that it's supposed to be a metaphor for Melody's bright mind trying to reach her potential which is limited the confines of her own body (the goldfish's bowl) as well as serving as an example of how Melody is sometimes totally misunderstood, but after that one incident in Melody's early life the goldfish is almost entirely forgotten. It doesn't resurface until much, much later in the book when Melody briefly mentions it to Mrs. V. Even then, it's only three lines on page 281, and it's also interrupted by the news that Penny survived the surgery from the car accident. I think the goldfish was supposed to be a prominent metaphor judging by how it's on the cover of the book, but it's not elaborated on enough in the book for readers to really connect to Melody's situation and the goldfish.
A similar issue comes up with Claire's apparent fake friendship, which comes out from nowhere. The phrase 'apparent fake friendship' may be confusing but I don't know how to adequately express it-- the situation was right after Melody's team's regional quiz team victory when someone came to interview Melody and her team, and during the interview Claire suddenly bursts in saying she talks to Melody a lot and is her best friend at school. This is obviously a lie (Claire is one of the two bullies that perennially make fun of Melody), probably done by Claire to get on the news somehow and make herself look good, but in the book Melody instead becomes confused by Claire's words. I am confused by Melody's confusion-- how does Melody not see that what Claire's doing is just for her to look better?
On the other hand, I do think that the author may have intended that Claire wanted to talk more with Melody and that's why Claire blurted out what she did on TV. This might connect with Claire's following uneasiness and subsequent puking at the dinner-- the interpretation being that Claire felt guilty so she felt uneasy which led her to the point of throwing up-- but even as I write this I don't think this is meant to be interpreted like that. Instead, the case is probably that Claire was so revolted at the sight of Melody being fed by her mom that she threw up. Depressing, I know, but it fits with her overall character. Whatever reason/motivation there may have been for Claire's blurt-out and throwing up, they can be reasonably explained by Claire's general character.
Speaking about Claire's character, I was also slightly disappointed by the ending that left Claire and Molly's characters not changed even one bit. They started out as bullies and ended up being the same misunderstanding, small-minded, maybe even bigoted characters they were. Most books of this genre/trope usually have the antagonists change their mind at the climax and accept the difference of the main character at the end (like the classmates in Restart by Gordon Korman, etc), but this book had the main antagonists Molly and Claire fully one-dimensional, not displaying any other side to their personality and continuing to be mean to Melody because of her disability until the very end. In a way, this might be seen as deviating from the standard trope, but this deviation actually makes the book worse in my opinion.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this book- I really liked how the story proceedings were realistic and how it highlighted the fixed mindsets of so many people regarding the physically disabled, augmented further by the fact that Melody is smarter than most of the adults in the story. The only parts I had problems with are all listed above, mostly the character development not being done enough and metaphors not being elaborated upon enough. Overall this was a great book that I enjoyed, I would definitely recommend it. The parts I'm dissatisfied with mostly aren't that central to the plot or narrative anyway.
I would recommend this book for grade 4/5 and up, it's not too difficult and a good enjoyable read.
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