Living on Impulse

by Cara Haycak

Mia Morrow is impulsive, plain and simple. While her friends are concerned with grades and colleges, Mia would rather focus on the things that make her happy - like chasing boys or snatching something off a department store shelf. No big deal, right? But then Mia gets caught shoplifting, and her thoughtless behavior doesn't just push her friends away, it gets her into a lot of trouble, too. In this eye-opening tale of friendships, family, and negative impulses, Cara Haycak subtly shows that the power to heal is within all of us, and it almost always starts with forgiveness.

Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Fiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2009

Reviews

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mia Morrow is a troubled high school sophomore. She lives with her mom and grandfather. She likes to shoplift. This is a good read for Jr. High and High School. In the first Ch. she is caught shoplifting, which she vehemently denies. When she views the tape, she quickly fabricates a story to vindicate herself. So her honesty issues are of 2 natures, telling the truth, and stealing. She does not get along with her mom and now her preppy friends are distancing themselves because of her compulsive shoplifting and lying to them. Things are looking pretty bleak!! The only place she finds unconcitional love is with Grampa. He was a pretty smart Biology Professor at the local college until his traffic accident. The car crash left him with frequent memory lapses as well as lucid moments. In his present state, Mia, looks after him. Her mom, is always working and fights with Grampa when she is home. Mia is the soothing salve for both of them.

As the plot deepens, Mia has to earn money to pay for her crime, meets new people because of her job search, care for Grampa as his health deteriorates, and watch her mom become an alcoholic. Somehow by the end of the book, Mia becomes a character you will not forget.

[Monica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring characters, barely disguised moral (I'm sorry but you can find another way to say "impulsive behavior" that would be more true to a teenager's vocabulary), too-easy character development--honestly, had to skim through the last half to get an idea of how this would be wrapped up, yet a few chapters before the end stopped caring enough to even do that. Obviously won't be placing on recommendation lists anytime soon!

[Victoria H · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great book. At first I didn't think I would like it because it was a random pick but towards the end of the book it was amazing as everything came together!! Really happy how it all ended!!

[Carol Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel caught my interest when I read that it was a story about a kleptomaniac. It is actually so much more than that. Among the important topics rolled into this story are alcoholism of a parent, a missing parent, shoplifting, friendships, grief, boyfriends, art, under-age drinking, jewelry. Set in a small college town, Mia lives with her mother, who works in the college cafeteria, and Grandpa Andy, who hopes she will not turn out to be the disappointment his daughter was. More than shoplifting, Mia's problem is acting impulsively. She also lies, injures her friend, cheats, destroys her boss's experiment, meets an older man (she is 15) at a bar, and more. She loses her friends over all these things. When Mia is caught shoplifting an expensive shoe, she has to get a job to pay back the store. She finds her job at the college entymology lab. It's odd what a difference flies can make in a person's life! Everything is tied up neatly and satisfactorily at the end.

[Molly Molitor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it was a good book. it was really interesting to read.

[Brandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to come. First (and subsequent) impressions, though: meh. It was okay.

***

finally drafted my review. This isn't final, mostly because finding a polite way to say "blaaaaaaaaaaaaah" is hard to do.

Mia thinks her life is hitting bottom when she gets busted for shoplifting, but it’s about to get much worse: her two best friends announce that they’re tired of dealing with her and don’t want to be her friends anymore. Her grandfather--the person she’s closest to in the world--is in poor health. And to pay the cost of the shoes she stole from the department store, Mia has to find herself a job--and the one she finds involves feeding flies and monitoring their breeding habits.

Her new employment provides a bit of discipline, giving Mia a stable environment to learn to control her impulses. Not that she reins them in completely--she still flirts with college boys she knows she shouldn’t date, and eventually gets herself fired for freeing the flies she’s found beauty in--but she’s trying. While Mia never really gets her impulses totally under control, she does come to terms with her life and the people in it, and how she can better react to and deal with them.

The book has some positive messages and a reasonably-likeable narrator, but it never leaps off the page. Mia’s ups and downs all happen in quick succession chronologically, but the story still limps along without a compelling hook. Both the plot and character arcs are predictable and steady. Teens may pick this up, but are not likely to be compelled to finish.

[Destiny]

I have recently read a book called “Living on Impulse”. It was a very good book with great characters. It had a great plot as well. I will now tell you about this enjoyable book.
The plot of this book was a very good plot. It included interesting characters. It also had a satisfying ending. Some parts made me want to cry, while other parts made me want to laugh. The author was able to control the emotions the reader feels, which is always nice.
The book itself teaches a lesson. It starts the book with a girl stealing something. When she gets caught, she must pay for it. The book tells the reader that when you steal, everything falls apart. It also shows that family is there for everything, even when you fall.
In my opinion, certain people would be able to enjoy the book. Teenagers would like it if they like to read about other teens getting in trouble. It would be great for anyone that likes to see the main character evolve, since Mia, the main character, changes throughout the book. It is also good for anyone that wants to read about a teen that learns a lesson.
In conclusion, this book was a beautiful book. The book was written by a great author, Cara Haycack. In the future, I intend to read more of her books. This was the best book I’ve read in a long time.

[Dayna Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mia is a high school student who loves to live dangerously. When she gets caught shoplifting, her mother insists she get a job to pay back the store. Mia is forced to confront the impulses in her life and look at why she does the things she does. She gets a job studying flies at the local university and starts re-building her life. Now she must also confront her beloved grandfather's impending death, her mother's alcoholism, and the possible discovery of the identity of her father. A wonderful story of the pain and joy involved in turning your life around. This book does contain some mature thematic content and profanity.

[Millenna Zographou]

The book Living on Impulse was amazing! This book conveys that without loving people in your life you will do crazy things. The problems of stealing and having to suffer her concequinces. This book is amazing because the problem, setting, and characters made the problem so realistic which is great. I just love that the problem is so realistic. This is a problem that everyone should learn from and learn not to do and how you have to suffer your consequinces.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book teaches you a lesson on not to to steal. The girl in this book doesn't have a care in the world of what will happen to her future. She just wants to have fun, check out boys and party all the time. Well, that all changes for her when she gets caught shoplifting. Mia Morrow learns a life lesson the hard way by having to work her butt off. In the end she realizes how things can go wrong pretty fast and not to steal.

[Brynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite possibly one of the best books I've read. The character development was absolutely flawless, life lessons in the book were completely relevant and worthwhile for the younger people in our generation and the fact that the characters dealt with hardships and had to figure them out on their own was something that books no longer have or teach and I loved every page. I couldn't put it down. I definitely recommend this book to anyone

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started out slow, but it started to get more interesting. The book really delved into the character of Mia and why she started acting out. When you finally learn that Mia's mom is an alcoholic, things start to make more sense. You understand the urge Mia gets. I'm not sure a change in a person can happen that quickly, but the ending seemed to tie things all together.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3. 5 stars

Mia is a shoplifter; she loves the excitement and the rush from stealing things. Then she gets caught and has to find a job in order to pay back the store for a $300 pair of shoes. She ends up working in a science lab on the college campus. In addition, She is dealing with an alcoholic mother and a dying grandfather. Lots of issues in this but it all ties together well enough.

[Chantal · Rating 4 out of 5]

She steals. She is failing school. She dosen't have a job.
Sounds so familiar. Her mom is a perfect replica of her daughter and there is many problems with that. She was caught on tape one day, stealing a shoe and then yelling and cussing at the guard that it was her shoe.
Join her on her journey, step by step, to making her life better.

[Ilovereading · Rating 4 out of 5]

An emotionally eye opening story of a teenage shoplifter. To see my full review, visit:

http://icysweetness.webs.com/apps/blo...

I review preteen, teen, young adult, and adult fiction all on the same website.

[Brandi Sporleder · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed this book a lot. i liked the mystery of what was going to happen and what she would do. i also felt like i would take her problem and really get how she was feeling. i will read this book again sometime.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually think that this book is a 4.5, but there is no way to do that.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the first twenty pages or so and was almost immediatly lulled into a boredom-induced stupor. Gag, no thanks.

[Estefani Chavez]

this book is about this girl that is a thief and steal stuff that she cant afford once her mom knows what kind of girl she is she lets her pay the charge of a stealer on her own!

[♬Sami☮]

its is a v ery good book abiut what happened to her life and about acholics and aa meetings and with this book i got to conect to some of it

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I found the characters kind of wooden, but in the end I liked the fact that it was very different from most realistic fiction. Interesting message.

[Dedria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out really slow and I must be honest when I say that I really didn't get into it at all.

[Ichigo · Rating 2 out of 5]

this wasn't as good as i thought it would be but it wasn't bad either

[Renee]

Definetly one of my favorite books.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unremarkable book, but the time she spent working at the lab was interesting.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really like the story until the second half of the book

[Kaitlyn Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book it was amazing!!!

[Julia Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I personally had to push myself through to finish the book, wouldn't recommend to anyone.