Kat and Meg Conquer the World

Kat and Meg Conquer the World by Anna Priemaza       Audio Book:  9 hours 15 minutes   Paperback Book: 384 pages            

Kat has severe Anxiety Disorder and is pretty much stressed out by just about everything except staying in her room and studying.   Interacting with other people is incredibly nerve-wracking for her and she can only barely tolerate her immediate family and even then there are times when her worries about their health are more than she can take.   Meg has severe ADHD.   Meg cannot stay focused on any one thing for very long and is constantly getting into hassles with her Math teacher and then her Mom over not doing her homework.    She bounces from one thing to the next and her conversations are kind of like being shell-shocked if you are the one she is having a conversation with because she flies from one thing to the next so fast it is hard to keep up.    She has a really hard time making and keeping friends because most of the people that know her can’t deal with her erratic here and there and over the moon manner of speaking, thinking and often acting too soon to have all of the details formulated for consequences not to occur.    She is a whirlwind of activity ALWAYS.    She does not have an off-button and the word CHILL does not exist in her vocabulary.   Her behavior is very off-putting because it is so frenzied all the time.    Both Kat and Meg are in highschool and have been assigned to be partners to come up with a science project for the semester.   It is like HOT and COLD forced together.   While Kat is meticulous in coming up with lists and steps to do everything in life Meg is a little silver ball in the pinball machine of life bouncing here and there running across and into ideas then fleetly avoiding them as long as possible because there are so many other things popping up that take her mind in other directions.    Kat tries to nail her down to doing the project but Kat is bouncing around and can’t calm her thoughts long enough to settle down and get the work done, although, she does come up with a brilliant idea for their project.    The book is all about the friendship that develops from both the introvert perspective and the over the top outgoing extrovert personality.   Both girls are kind and good and dealing as best they can with the circumstances they find themselves in and both tend to bring out the best in each other (eventually after a rocky start).    The story is a good one with highs and lows, joy and sorrow, and coming of age in a world that is slightly askew for them but since that is their normal they prove the saying that there are many different paths to the same destination.    A kind of wild ride at times especially when Meg is on one of her jags the reader will feel as though they would like to rein her in and Kat, the reader will want to pull her out of her extreme fearfulness of everything but the story is a good one and other than the sometimes borderline annoying behavior of Meg (she has a lot of attributes of somebody on crack) once you make peace with her pixie-like ways it is all good and the author has an admirable handle on what these two disorders can be like and expertly shares this knowledge with her readers.   First effort is a tremendously good novel, Ms. Priemaza, I look forward to reading your next book.  Keem ‘em coming.   Yes, I do recommend this book for all ages, though there is a little profanity and a sex scene so be mindful – it is short and not particularly explicit but it is there.   Having said that, well done, Ms. Priemaza.  

 - Shirley J.