Today we are doing a review of the book, Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall. This was a surprisingly deep novel about one girl's life, in which she has made some mistakes, told through what she has bought at her hometown mall.
16 year old Tessa is in gym class when a dodgeball accident sends her into the hospital. Soon she is at "heaven" which strangely is just like her hometown mall where both of her parents work. The "mall manager" gives her a bag of the most important things she has ever bought there, and Tessa is off on a reminiscent journey where she explores her not-so-savory past, reflects on the choices she has made, and ultimately must answer one question.
This book was surprising to me. What I thought I knew about it before I read it belied its deep writing and truth about the life of Tessa, which seemed almost too real. I sympathized for Tessa when she felt confused and lost, I wanted to be there with her when dealing with her looks-obsessed mother. Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall led me on a reading frenzy for Wendy Mass, who didn't dissapoint with the rest of her books. (You may remember her book A Mango Shaped Space from March 2011 post, Different Points Of View.)
I would recommend this book to either gender. Someone who would love it would be likely to be a fiction reader, not opposed to sadness. However if another genre lover were to try it I'm sure it would still be good! It's just that kind of book.
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