Review: The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

Published: September 2015

Pages: 352

Synopsis: “After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting-things don't just happen for no reason. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory--even if it means traveling the globe, alone. Suzy's achingly heartfelt journey explores life, death, the astonishing wonder of the universe...and the potential for love and hope right next door.”

Rating: ***

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The Thing About Jellyfish featured on the Carnegie Award 2017 Longlist.

The Thing About Jellyfish follows main characters Suzy (who I believe is 12) and her reaction to the death of her best friend. The Thing About Jellyfish took me quite a while to get into, and initially I thought this had a quite childlike manner about it. In the UK library system, The Thing About Jellyfish is classified at S+ which is one category below YA. This suggests it is a children’s book and therefore you would expect it to be childlike to some degree, but compared to other books in the S+ category (such as Harry Potter and The Hobbit) was almost like a different category altogether.

As I progress through the book however, this felt less and less childlike and actually quite cleverly written. Researching jellyfish became something or Suzy to focus on after the death of her best friend and I interpreted that and Suzy’s silence as indicative of some underlying issue such as Asperger’s or Autism. This was further supported by other behaviours displayed by Suzy such as constant-talking and the repeated breaking time down from years to minutes and seconds.

I liked the ending, as it felt like a new beginning for Suzy which rounded everything up nicely, however we never did find out exactly what happened to Suzy’s friend, which, to me seemed to defeat one of the objectives of the book.