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The Language of Goldfish
"With a taut thread that winds ever tighter, Oneal pulls readers into the mind of 13-year-old Carrie Stokes, a sensitive artist and talented mathematician who is suffering a mental breakdown . . . A kaleidoscope of shifting emotions come tumbling out as Carrie retreats little by little into her head".--Booklist. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults.
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First published January 1, 1980
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About the author
Zibby Oneal
16 books9 followersZibby Oneal was born on March 17, 1934, in Omaha, Nebraska. "My mother loved books, both for their content and because they are beautiful objects. Our house was full of them. She read aloud to us a great deal. I can remember finding it miraculous that she could look at the strange black marks on a page and see a story there. I planned to fill pages with black marks of my own as soon as I learned how to make them. Wanting to write goes back that far anyway."
"[Our] house ... was full of paintings as well, and though I am no artist, I think in terms of color and composition. All my books have begun with a picture in mind--a character and a place visualized. When I can see these things clearly--almost as if they were a painting on a wall--then I can begin to write about them."
"[Our] house ... was full of paintings as well, and though I am no artist, I think in terms of color and composition. All my books have begun with a picture in mind--a character and a place visualized. When I can see these things clearly--almost as if they were a painting on a wall--then I can begin to write about them."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
April 6, 2014
This obscure book was a favorite of mine when I came upon it in my teens. The story so stuck with me that I hunted it down as an adult to re-read it. The descriptive power of the author still has me in awe.
November 7, 2019
This is one of the few books I remember from reading when I was 11. Even though I can't clearly recall details of the book, I remember the mental illness theme, and I remember being very engaged by the main character in the book and how she experiences the world. Possibly I have a clearer memory of it because I reread it as I got older as well.
January 15, 2012
My all-time favorite YA book. I've read it once a year since I was 12 (I'm 40 now.)
October 18, 2018
The Language of Goldfish: Growing Up is Inevitable
Here I am, an adult in her early 40’s, reading a novel for teenagers. I read a lot of young adult fiction for several reasons:
1. Young adult (YA) authors display better writing skills and the plot is not the same in every YA book unlike adult novels.
2. Regardless of the time the book was written, I can always relate to something: whether it’s a character, situation, or setting.
3. I feel young again. Sometimes I enjoy feeling young but mostly, I am grateful I have matured and no longer experience the emotional lows I had in my teen years.
4. Often, YA books do not have descriptive sex scenes unlike adult novels.
5. I may want to write YA fiction.
Just recently, I found a small paperback, with yellowed pages indicating the book’s age, on the donation table at work. The title (The Language of Goldfish) appealed to me. I knew the book was dated because on the cover was a teenage girl wearing a modified Farrah Fawcett hairdo. The book must have been written during the latter part of the 1970’s or the early 1980’s. I take the book vowing to read it then return it to the donation table when I’m finished. I think I have had that book for almost a year. A few days ago, I decided to pick up this book, which I found on my night stand. I started reading that book many months earlier, then got busy reading other books. One of my goals is to read what I have laying around my room before buying other books or checking them out at the library where I work.
The Language of Goldfish was published nearly 40 years ago, yet the theme can relate to the youth of today. Carrie, the 13-year-old main character, faces several changes in her life. As an eighth grader, her mother expects her to attend school dances and her older sister Moira expects Carrie to start liking boys and to stop playing games from childhood. One of Carrie’s favorite games was talking to the goldfish in her backyard pond.
Zibby O’Neal, the author, touches on a tough topic, mental illness. As I read through the book, way before I got to the end, I had the impression that Carrie may have been schizophrenic because she experienced what seemed to be hallucinations like seeing “a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes,” then she became dizzy and did things without knowing she did them (leaving the art room at school, getting lost on her way to her brother’s hockey game). Carrie’s doctor father insisted she was very anemic, but Carrie knew something was not right in her mind. After getting lost on her way to her brother’s hockey game, Carrie doesn’t realize where she’d been. A kind stranger drives her home and Carrie has to face her parents’ guests at their cocktail party. Her mind does this whole kaleidoscope of colors and shapes thing, then Carrie runs to the bathroom. Later, she finds herself in a hospital bed and she discovers she had attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of pills from the medicine cabinet.
Finally, Carrie receives the help she needs by visiting a psychiatrist several days a week and learns to accept the challenges of growing up. There is no mention of psychiatric medication, so I assume that Carrie’s condition was not schizophrenia, just a major mental breakdown. I can relate to mental breakdowns, because I’ve had a few of them throughout my life. What I admire about Carrie is that she does not want to keep her secret a secret even though her family does. Struggling with mental illness should not be something to feel ashamed of.
As a teenager, I struggled with depression, but I never experienced dizzy spells where I did not know what I was doing or wondered how I got somewhere. I was simply depressed, down in the dumps a lot and without any particular reason.
Here I am, an adult in her early 40’s, reading a novel for teenagers. I read a lot of young adult fiction for several reasons:
1. Young adult (YA) authors display better writing skills and the plot is not the same in every YA book unlike adult novels.
2. Regardless of the time the book was written, I can always relate to something: whether it’s a character, situation, or setting.
3. I feel young again. Sometimes I enjoy feeling young but mostly, I am grateful I have matured and no longer experience the emotional lows I had in my teen years.
4. Often, YA books do not have descriptive sex scenes unlike adult novels.
5. I may want to write YA fiction.
Just recently, I found a small paperback, with yellowed pages indicating the book’s age, on the donation table at work. The title (The Language of Goldfish) appealed to me. I knew the book was dated because on the cover was a teenage girl wearing a modified Farrah Fawcett hairdo. The book must have been written during the latter part of the 1970’s or the early 1980’s. I take the book vowing to read it then return it to the donation table when I’m finished. I think I have had that book for almost a year. A few days ago, I decided to pick up this book, which I found on my night stand. I started reading that book many months earlier, then got busy reading other books. One of my goals is to read what I have laying around my room before buying other books or checking them out at the library where I work.
The Language of Goldfish was published nearly 40 years ago, yet the theme can relate to the youth of today. Carrie, the 13-year-old main character, faces several changes in her life. As an eighth grader, her mother expects her to attend school dances and her older sister Moira expects Carrie to start liking boys and to stop playing games from childhood. One of Carrie’s favorite games was talking to the goldfish in her backyard pond.
Zibby O’Neal, the author, touches on a tough topic, mental illness. As I read through the book, way before I got to the end, I had the impression that Carrie may have been schizophrenic because she experienced what seemed to be hallucinations like seeing “a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes,” then she became dizzy and did things without knowing she did them (leaving the art room at school, getting lost on her way to her brother’s hockey game). Carrie’s doctor father insisted she was very anemic, but Carrie knew something was not right in her mind. After getting lost on her way to her brother’s hockey game, Carrie doesn’t realize where she’d been. A kind stranger drives her home and Carrie has to face her parents’ guests at their cocktail party. Her mind does this whole kaleidoscope of colors and shapes thing, then Carrie runs to the bathroom. Later, she finds herself in a hospital bed and she discovers she had attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of pills from the medicine cabinet.
Finally, Carrie receives the help she needs by visiting a psychiatrist several days a week and learns to accept the challenges of growing up. There is no mention of psychiatric medication, so I assume that Carrie’s condition was not schizophrenia, just a major mental breakdown. I can relate to mental breakdowns, because I’ve had a few of them throughout my life. What I admire about Carrie is that she does not want to keep her secret a secret even though her family does. Struggling with mental illness should not be something to feel ashamed of.
As a teenager, I struggled with depression, but I never experienced dizzy spells where I did not know what I was doing or wondered how I got somewhere. I was simply depressed, down in the dumps a lot and without any particular reason.
June 16, 2011
Carrie Stokes doesn’t like change. After she moves to a new place and has to adjust to a new school, new people in her life, and the challenges of growing up she loses it. Something within her just can’t take it anymore and she starts blacking out, passing out, wandering for hours with no idea of where she is or what she’s doing. She notices these episodes and tries to get her family to realize that something’s wrong with her, but they don’t take her seriously. Desperate, she tries to commit suicide by taking a handful of pills. She wakes up in the hospital with her family around her – still refusing to believe that anything’s really wrong with her. It frustrates her beyond endurance.
Carrie ends up seeing a psychiatrist during her stay at the hospital, and afterward, who is gradually able to help her understand at least some of her feelings – and to help her feel that she can control these episodes. She returns home eventually, and back to school. And begins taking her art lessons again. But she finds that her former work is flat, and she can’t immediately discover a new direction until she finds herself painting “the island” over and over again.
The island is symbolic of her childhood. She and her sister, Moira, used to sit by the fishpond and whistle up the goldfish. Moira said that if they called them, the fish could carry them to the island in the center of the pond. Carrie wishes things were always this way, magical, simple, and unchanging. Her painting and her therapy eventually show her what it is that’s bothering her, and she begins to change and know herself.
It’s not quite the bell jar in depth or pain, but it is another tale of someone walking off the path they thought they knew and being really disturbed by their perceptions of what the future held. I wonder how many people are terrified by growing up? Terrified of the changes it brings, so terrified that they try to kill themselves? And it’s not even that. She doesn’t attempt suicide to really end herself, but in order to make people notice that she’s not ok. I think these things come so easily to some or even most of us that we can’t even comprehend what a big deal it is to those to who they do not come easily. And our tendency is not to take them seriously. Is it by this example that we hope to show them that their fears are unwarranted? Or does it just make them that much more insubstantial in their own eyes?
Carrie ends up seeing a psychiatrist during her stay at the hospital, and afterward, who is gradually able to help her understand at least some of her feelings – and to help her feel that she can control these episodes. She returns home eventually, and back to school. And begins taking her art lessons again. But she finds that her former work is flat, and she can’t immediately discover a new direction until she finds herself painting “the island” over and over again.
The island is symbolic of her childhood. She and her sister, Moira, used to sit by the fishpond and whistle up the goldfish. Moira said that if they called them, the fish could carry them to the island in the center of the pond. Carrie wishes things were always this way, magical, simple, and unchanging. Her painting and her therapy eventually show her what it is that’s bothering her, and she begins to change and know herself.
It’s not quite the bell jar in depth or pain, but it is another tale of someone walking off the path they thought they knew and being really disturbed by their perceptions of what the future held. I wonder how many people are terrified by growing up? Terrified of the changes it brings, so terrified that they try to kill themselves? And it’s not even that. She doesn’t attempt suicide to really end herself, but in order to make people notice that she’s not ok. I think these things come so easily to some or even most of us that we can’t even comprehend what a big deal it is to those to who they do not come easily. And our tendency is not to take them seriously. Is it by this example that we hope to show them that their fears are unwarranted? Or does it just make them that much more insubstantial in their own eyes?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 25, 2021
The main premise of this book is a young girl who has a mental breakdown and then has to come to terms with her fear of growing up.
The first part of the book was actually very compelling, I felt like watching this girl struggling to find genuine connections in a shallow world was very relateable. Her mental breakdown and attempted suicide was unexpected in an exciting type of way. I thought the rest of the book would then explore the trauma that caused her to come to this. I started speculating about her old friend Tanya, that maybe something happened to her since they don't talk anymore, or perhaps she had some sort of sexual trauma since any mention of sex would start an episode.
After Carrie came out of the hospital, I thought that the slow progress she was making was reaching towards this end goal of her uncovering some repressed memories that caused her to be such an outcast in her social circles. Especially with all the allusions to the "island" in the pond. To me, this was her retreating to her happy place, a time when she was young and innocent.
The end of this book was severely disappointing. As someone who has struggled with mental health in the past, I find it extremely hard to believe that just feeling some trepidation about growing up is what would cause someone to attempt suicide. Also, I don't understand why it took her almost a year to figure out that was what she was afraid of when people had been constantly telling her she was immature, acted childish and needed to grow up throughout the entire book.
This story felt like a missed opportunity. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with a narrative of the fear of growing up, but to have a suicide attempted based on nothing is pretty outlandish as well as such unproductive therapy. The book was trudging to find a plot after Carrie got out of the hospital because it focused so much on the superficial parts of her life instead of the more meaningful times, like what her therapy sessions were like.
The first part of the book was actually very compelling, I felt like watching this girl struggling to find genuine connections in a shallow world was very relateable. Her mental breakdown and attempted suicide was unexpected in an exciting type of way. I thought the rest of the book would then explore the trauma that caused her to come to this. I started speculating about her old friend Tanya, that maybe something happened to her since they don't talk anymore, or perhaps she had some sort of sexual trauma since any mention of sex would start an episode.
After Carrie came out of the hospital, I thought that the slow progress she was making was reaching towards this end goal of her uncovering some repressed memories that caused her to be such an outcast in her social circles. Especially with all the allusions to the "island" in the pond. To me, this was her retreating to her happy place, a time when she was young and innocent.
The end of this book was severely disappointing. As someone who has struggled with mental health in the past, I find it extremely hard to believe that just feeling some trepidation about growing up is what would cause someone to attempt suicide. Also, I don't understand why it took her almost a year to figure out that was what she was afraid of when people had been constantly telling her she was immature, acted childish and needed to grow up throughout the entire book.
This story felt like a missed opportunity. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with a narrative of the fear of growing up, but to have a suicide attempted based on nothing is pretty outlandish as well as such unproductive therapy. The book was trudging to find a plot after Carrie got out of the hospital because it focused so much on the superficial parts of her life instead of the more meaningful times, like what her therapy sessions were like.
November 14, 2007
This book is really interesting because it talks about the main character, Carrie's hardship since she has some kind of sickness that nobody believes that it is true. This book is almost like, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time because the two life of the characters were not being understood by the people around them and it is hard for them to try to making others understand no matter how hard they try. I think this book shows us a person that does not live what is called a "normal" life since their conditions or obstacles in their life is holding them back from living the lives of the people around them. I think that it is a good book because there is a lot of obstacles and you can connect and it makes it seem as you were going through it because it is in 1st person and you can tell how she is feeling and her thoughts.
August 14, 2016
Re-read Review (Original Below)
I really disliked this book the second time around! I just wanted to grab Carrie and tell her to get it together! She always seemed to make a big deal out of things that were such a small deal. I think these days this story would have unfolded differently and Carrie would have got some help sooner. It just seemed bizarre for her to feel unsupported and lost in a family that was written in a very supportive way.
Original Review
Zibby O'Neal really is great at writing about emotion. I didn't really understand what the main character was going through in the first half of this book and I really wanted to believe her and explain her to her family, but it was hard to connect to her. However, an interesting read and definitely her deepest novel. I never experienced these emotions and problems with growing older, but now I see how someone could.
I really disliked this book the second time around! I just wanted to grab Carrie and tell her to get it together! She always seemed to make a big deal out of things that were such a small deal. I think these days this story would have unfolded differently and Carrie would have got some help sooner. It just seemed bizarre for her to feel unsupported and lost in a family that was written in a very supportive way.
Original Review
Zibby O'Neal really is great at writing about emotion. I didn't really understand what the main character was going through in the first half of this book and I really wanted to believe her and explain her to her family, but it was hard to connect to her. However, an interesting read and definitely her deepest novel. I never experienced these emotions and problems with growing older, but now I see how someone could.
September 19, 2020
Really can relate so l to do many aspects of this book. Recommend a read for anyone who can relate as a highly sensitive person or those who have a HSP in their lives.
October 28, 2023
My experience re-reading this book as a 37-year-old was very different from my first experience reading it in my late teens. The first time I read it, I found it relatable and well written. But this time around, I had a much more emotional response.
Carrie, the 13-year-old protagonist, begins having severe dissociative episodes. Her controlling mother and uninterested father don't take her seriously ("lots of girls your age have dizzy spells due to low iron. Eat eggs.") until they finally have to hospitalize her. Then she starts seeing a psychiatrist every week.
It’s a very touching book, and I love the fact that Oneal lets the reader know more than Carrie knows. That’s not something I see very often in YA fiction, which is surprising because developing self-awareness is a defining challenge of childhood. It takes Carrie a realistically long time to accept how much she’s struggling with the changes that come with puberty, because acknowledging it would require her to face that overwhelming topic. All of this is shown beautifully in the way Carrie begins to paint an island without understanding why.
The reader recognizes it as the island in her family’s goldfish pond, and connects it immediately to Carrie’s childhood, as well as her older sister’s transition into young adulthood. Carrie, of course, doesn’t make this connection until the end of the book. It’s a delicate and relatable look at the way struggles are often obvious to others, but not to the person going through them, especially when that person is still a child.
Ultimately, Carrie accepts that she just has “a really hard time with change,” (including her mother rearranging her art lessons and signing her up for dances without her knowledge or consent) and that the changes of growing up overwhelmed her. Which seems accurate, and I think it was a helpful realization for her to come to. But now, re-reading this with the benefit of age and understanding, I feel so deeply sad for this character.
She's 13, but her mother still decides how and when she's going to have her hair styled, what her bedroom decor will be, how interested she should be in clothes, and when she'll start going to dances and seeing boys. Carrie literally dissociates when people around her start talking about sex and how universal and powerful it is. This is just my own subjective reading of the story, but I can’t help seeing Carrie as an autistic and/or aspec child struggling with the very real difficulties of living under the weight of alltistic/allosexual expectations.
Because of that, I find the ending bittersweet, emphasis on the bitter. It’s a realistic conclusion that fits within the framework of the story, but it’s a sad ending to me.
Carrie, the 13-year-old protagonist, begins having severe dissociative episodes. Her controlling mother and uninterested father don't take her seriously ("lots of girls your age have dizzy spells due to low iron. Eat eggs.") until they finally have to hospitalize her. Then she starts seeing a psychiatrist every week.
It’s a very touching book, and I love the fact that Oneal lets the reader know more than Carrie knows. That’s not something I see very often in YA fiction, which is surprising because developing self-awareness is a defining challenge of childhood. It takes Carrie a realistically long time to accept how much she’s struggling with the changes that come with puberty, because acknowledging it would require her to face that overwhelming topic. All of this is shown beautifully in the way Carrie begins to paint an island without understanding why.
The reader recognizes it as the island in her family’s goldfish pond, and connects it immediately to Carrie’s childhood, as well as her older sister’s transition into young adulthood. Carrie, of course, doesn’t make this connection until the end of the book. It’s a delicate and relatable look at the way struggles are often obvious to others, but not to the person going through them, especially when that person is still a child.
Ultimately, Carrie accepts that she just has “a really hard time with change,” (including her mother rearranging her art lessons and signing her up for dances without her knowledge or consent) and that the changes of growing up overwhelmed her. Which seems accurate, and I think it was a helpful realization for her to come to. But now, re-reading this with the benefit of age and understanding, I feel so deeply sad for this character.
She's 13, but her mother still decides how and when she's going to have her hair styled, what her bedroom decor will be, how interested she should be in clothes, and when she'll start going to dances and seeing boys. Carrie literally dissociates when people around her start talking about sex and how universal and powerful it is. This is just my own subjective reading of the story, but I can’t help seeing Carrie as an autistic and/or aspec child struggling with the very real difficulties of living under the weight of alltistic/allosexual expectations.
Because of that, I find the ending bittersweet, emphasis on the bitter. It’s a realistic conclusion that fits within the framework of the story, but it’s a sad ending to me.
December 16, 2022
I first read this book when I was 14 and found it easy to relate to. Like Carrie, I was awkward and not ready to explore the world of dances and other boy-girl activities, while my peers seemed to find it effortless. Oneal writes beautifully and makes me feel as if I were right there with Carrie, as she experiences anxiety, isolation from others, and finally a breakdown. Carrie, 13, is a talented artist who doesn't relate to her peers, and worse, she has outgoing parents, a popular older sister, and a younger brother who makes friends through sports. None of them understand what she's going through, and her father, who is a doctor, thinks that Carrie's episodes are caused by anemia. The tension builds as Carrie starts to get dizzy, hallucinate, and then become disoriented, not knowing how she got lost on the way to her brother's hockey game. Finally, she does something so drastic that her family is forced to get help for her.
This book is sensitively written, showing a loving family who nonetheless do not understand their daughter and seem afraid of her instability. The most sympathetic adults are Mrs. Ramsay, Carrie's art teacher, and Dr. Ross, her psychiatrist. There are realistic snippets of school life and family interactions, and while the tension isn't quite as taut in the second half of the book, I will never forget this story. I've read it so many times that the cover is about to fall off. :)
This book is sensitively written, showing a loving family who nonetheless do not understand their daughter and seem afraid of her instability. The most sympathetic adults are Mrs. Ramsay, Carrie's art teacher, and Dr. Ross, her psychiatrist. There are realistic snippets of school life and family interactions, and while the tension isn't quite as taut in the second half of the book, I will never forget this story. I've read it so many times that the cover is about to fall off. :)
April 13, 2020
Ce fut une lecture sur un coup de tête, plutôt jeunesse mais qui sort complètement de ce que j'ai l'habitude de lire. Il n'y a rien de fantastique et on parle du passage à l'adolescence (c'est assez drôle que je lise ça alors que je viens de devenir adulte, oui oui). L'écriture est très poétique, j'ai beaucoup aimé. Mais en même temps j'avais du mal à recommencer ma lecture car tout le long du livre on parle de sujets compliqués tels que la folie ou le suicide, des sujets un peu tabous que l'on ressent bien dans ce livre. Cependant, une fois plongée dans l'histoire je ne m'arrêtais plus, c'est très prenant et l'écriture fluide fait qu'on ne voit pas le temps passer.
October 23, 2018
This book was an excellent example for students to explore mental illness issues. It didn't get bogged down with labels, but focussed on the emotions that go along with feeling different and confused. The main character had to face change in location along with the issues of growing up. It was a quick read and kept the interest/conflict high. I will recommend this to my students that may feel different.
August 29, 2020
I would recommend this book to those who enjoy a quick but meaningful read. Carrie is a highly sympathetic character who is easy to root for as she goes along her coming of age journey. The pacing throughout the novel is very fast and at times jarring, but the book overall is fantastic. Every character is well thought out and complex. All in all, The Language of Goldfish is a spectacular novel.
March 24, 2017
It was was kind of ggod but a little confusing and boring.
January 9, 2022
It was a amazing book! My problem wasn't the way it was written or anything else, my problem was simply that I was not in the mode for this kinda book.
October 31, 2022
Gets everything, everything right and is SO beautifully written.
June 10, 2025
Very good read.
August 6, 2011
Oneal describes the life of a middle school girl who has a hard time growing up. The main character, Carrie, talks about the Language of Goldfish with her sister, though her sister thinks they've outgrown it. Carrie starts to hallucinate and when she tries to talk to her family about it, they ignore her and make up excuses, unwilling to face reality. With the help of a good psychiatrist, Carrie makes meaning of her mental illness and goes on to live her teenage life.
May 22, 2012
"With a taut thread that winds ever tighter, Oneal pulls readers into the mind of 13-year-old Carrie Stokes, a sensitive artist and talented mathematician who is suffering a mental breakdown . . . A kaleidoscope of shifting emotions come tumbling out as Carrie retreats little by little into her head."
--Booklist. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults."
Okay Booklist. I'll give you this one. If you call growing up a mental breakdown. So sort of.
--Booklist. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults."
Okay Booklist. I'll give you this one. If you call growing up a mental breakdown. So sort of.
June 27, 2022
Another "Electronic Bookshelf" quiz book. I read this in sixth grade and had a little trouble understanding all of it. The main character is having some problems with her mental health, which is something I really knew nothing about at that time in my life. I reread it as an adult and understood it more fully, but the story and characters just didn't click with me.
September 3, 2009
Fifteen year old Carrie Stokes is smart and artistically gifted, with a loving family and a beautiful home. However, since her family moved she has not been able to adjust to the changes going on in her life, with new school, new “friends,” her sister’s growing up, and pressured on her to leave childhood security behind. So she escapes--into mental illness. Positive.
November 17, 2015
Thirteen-year-old Carrie begins having dizzy spells and thinks longingly of years past when she and her sister spent hours by their goldfish pond. Her sister now plays records and dates boys, but all Carrie wants to do is draw. She doesn't like change and isn't ready to grow up, and her parents pretend everything is fine. Similar in themes to the anorexia novels of the same era.
April 5, 2008
A startling and personal look at how frightening mental illness can be. As Carrie fell deeper into herself, her family and friends found it harder to accept what was happening, and I could see how alone someone who is dealing with such trials must feel.
August 10, 2008
One of the best books of my young life. I read this at least four times, really identifying with the protagonist in some ways and feeling secretly horrified with her panic attacks at the same time. What a beautifully written novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2010
reading bridge to terabithia reminded me of this book. it was one of my favorites as a kid. i remember checking it out of the middle school library several times :) i own it now and still read it every now and then.
January 1, 2017
Would have been better if Oneal didn't shoehorn in Carrie's "cure" and closure. Some of the scenes are written beautifully, especially the ones during her "episodes", but the book starts going downhill the "better" she got, losing the charm it had during Carrie's worst moments.
November 25, 2009
(first read March 1989)
February 11, 2008
depressing
November 24, 2008
Too bad "Fine Lines" on jezebel.com has gone on an extended hiatus. The "Language of Goldfish" should totally be given the treatment.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews