Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral
Razorbill (February 2, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1595144358
ISBN-13: 978-1595144355
304 pages
Ages 14+
Buy Here for $13.59
My Rating: 2/5
Summary from GoodReads: After her mother died, Glory retreated into herself and her music. Her single father raised her as a piano prodigy, with a rigid schedule and the goal of playing sold-out shows across the globe. Now, as a teenager, Glory has disappeared. As we flash back to the events leading up to her disappearance, we see a girl on the precipice of disaster. Brilliant and lonely, Glory is drawn to an artistic new boy, Frank, who moves in next door. The farther she falls, the deeper she spirals into madness. Before long, Glory is unable to play anything but the song "Chopsticks."
But nothing is what it seems, and Glory's reality is not reality at all. In this stunningly moving novel told in photographs, pictures, and words, it's up to the reader to decide what is real, what is imagined, and what has been madness all along....

The Verdict: I've always love mixed media novels like Cathy's Book or Hugo that tell unique captivating stories through pictures and hidden clues. While Chopsticks excelled in the visual department, the story felt lacking. Truth be told though, the more I think about it after reading, the more sense it makes.

The main problem I think Chopsticks suffers from is that it takes for granted what can be inferred visually. This is a case where "a picture is worth a 1000 words" doesn't hold true. And that's pretty much evident from all the conflicting interpretations found on GoodReads.
I kinda feel like the authors used the intro statement of "We must decide what is real, what is imagined, and what has been madness all along" as a copout to mask that they have constructed a completely incoherent story. Books are a medium where inference is hard and sometimes fewer words are not better. 
Now normally I don't try to divulge too much of the books I read but in this case I feel like I need to explain my interpretation of this story.
Spoiler Alert: For the first 9 chapters you think Gloria is an overworked child prodigy being pushed to insanity by a controlling, over-bearing father. Then you begin to realize she has an 8 year history of mental instability, having spent much time in a "rest home" with the same logo as the school Francisco supposedly attended. A school that in fact shares the same name as the administer of Gloria's "home". This is one of the first indications that Gloria was making things up.
Then you see a scene where she is sewing the boxing robe that was supposedly Frank's years before. It wasn't until the Police investigation of Glory's room where my suspicion was confirmed. Every art piece formally signed by Frank actually has her signature. These and many other clues lead to the conclusion that the whole relationship was figment of her imagination and inspired by her mother's wine collection.
But then things get really confusing in the the last few pages where a "happily ever after" is painted with Glory and Frank in Argentina. So what's the truth?
Well Lucy Clevenger points out in her review that the last letter from Francisco is really in Glory's handwriting. This is the last clue that he wasn't real and didn't invite her to Argentina. But here is where my opinion differs from most people. Many think she ran away to Argentina anyways to be with the guy she imagined. But I can't agree.
Glory is only 17. So as far as I am concerned no one is going to allow her to travel out of country without a parent's connect, even a cruise line like "Entertaining Seas." So I actually think this book pulls a "Virgin Suicides" twist and the end is just a metaphor for her mental peace in death. Earlier in the book Glory is reading Syvia Plath's The Bell Jar which chronicles a woman's decent into mental illness and whose writer committed suicide a month after publication. And for me the ticket stub to Ushuaia, Argentina is the last clue in the puzzle. Ushuaia is known as "The End of the World" since it is the southernmost city in the world. What is a more poetic way of saying someone has killed themselves than saying they have gone to the end of the world? End Spoiler
Even after all that, this book left me very dissatisfied :-/ I feel like it could have done so much more in clearly telling it's story. Maybe the app or movie will be better. I do not know. But for me the only "haunting" it will be doing is in how incomplete it felt. Fortunately it's only an hour read if you want to give it a try. But if you want a true haunting story with amazing writing, read Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now.