David Arnold’s 2015 debut novel, Mosquitoland, is a coming-of-age story that’s intended for a young adult audience. The novel was one of NPR’s and Amazon’s best books of 2015. This guide refers to the 2015 Penguin Random House edition.

Plot Summary

The story follows 16-year-old Mary Iris Malone, also referred to as Mim, as she travels alone from Jackson, Mississippi, to Cleveland, Ohio. Shortly before her journey, her parents divorced, and her father remarried and moved the family to Mississippi. Her mother stayed in Ohio. Mim doesn’t adjust well to the move: She misses her mom, resents her dad, and hates her stepmother. Her mom has stopped calling or sending letters. Mim accidentally overhears her dad talking about her sick mom and decides that her mom needs her. She steals her stepmother’s money, runs away, and buys a Greyhound ticket to Ohio.

The story is told in the first-person point of view, and it alternates between Mim’s present journey, flashbacks to her past, and letters to her in-utero half-sister. The story is told linearly as Mim travels from Mississippi to Ohio, and the flashbacks and letters fill in critical details about Mim’s history that reveal her thoughts and reasons for running away.

Mental health is a key theme—both how Mim experiences it and how others view it. Her father’s sister had mental health issues and depression before committing suicide, and he is constantly terrified that Mim might have the same issues because she is prone to dark thoughts and strange behaviors. Mim’s journey is simultaneously a physical pursuit to reunite with her mother and an internal quest to understand herself and learn how to be okay.