Book Review Janet Fitch’s "White Oleander" Astrid Magnussen takes the reader with her as she journeys from her strange, but familiar world with her mother through her unpredictable, tragic teen life into womanhood. Janet Fitch’s first novel "White Oleander", follows the narrator, Astrid through the many twists and turns her life takes after an enormously life-altering event. Accompanying Astrid through the heartbreaking episodes that are her life, enables the reader to understand why someone who has the life Astrid has, would make the decisions that she does. Without the context of the book, Astrid may seem like an unlikely character, however, the situations she finds herself having to survive explains how she develops into the person she becomes. This aspect of the novel expands beyond the book into the real world. With "White Oleander", Fitch is able to do two important things for different kinds of readers. For people, particularly females, who have