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Belzhar
If life were fair, Jam Gallahue would still be at home in New Jersey with her sweet British boyfriend, Reeve Maxfield. She’d be watching old comedy sketches with him. She’d be kissing him in the library stacks. She certainly wouldn’t be at The Wooden Barn, a therapeutic boarding school in rural Vermont, living with a weird roommate, and signed up for an exclusive, mysterious class called Special Topics in English.
But life isn’t fair, and Reeve Maxfield is dead. Until a journal-writing assignment leads Jam to Belzhar, where the untainted past is restored, and Jam can feel Reeve’s arms around her once again. But there are hidden truths on Jam’s path to reclaim her loss.
But life isn’t fair, and Reeve Maxfield is dead. Until a journal-writing assignment leads Jam to Belzhar, where the untainted past is restored, and Jam can feel Reeve’s arms around her once again. But there are hidden truths on Jam’s path to reclaim her loss.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
236 people are currently reading
15199 people want to read
About the author
Meg Wolitzer
49 books3,024 followersMeg Wolitzer is the New York Times–bestselling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, The Wife, and Sleepwalking. She is also the author of the young adult novel Belzhar. Wolitzer lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,596 reviews
February 4, 2016
<.<
This story makes a mockery of love, emotional integrity, and mental illness, and it's glamoured by unmagical magical realism, a "sophisticated" literary style, and a twist upon which everything else hinges. I despise feeling manipulated (much as many of the characters in this book would if they had any sense), especially when the plot and writing are not particularly remarkable, and when the characters and relationships are so incredibly shallow and meaningless.
There's an attempt to interject a point to the story in the end, I suppose, but it's only a footnote to this elaborate, heartless exercise in writing technique.
An advance copy was provided by the publisher.
---------------------------------------------------------------
PS--our own Kim wrote a thorough, real review with spoilers detailing why the twist is so very problematic here: http://www.themidnightgarden.net/2014...
I also very much like karen's more balanced--and very kind--review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This story makes a mockery of love, emotional integrity, and mental illness, and it's glamoured by unmagical magical realism, a "sophisticated" literary style, and a twist upon which everything else hinges. I despise feeling manipulated (much as many of the characters in this book would if they had any sense), especially when the plot and writing are not particularly remarkable, and when the characters and relationships are so incredibly shallow and meaningless.
There's an attempt to interject a point to the story in the end, I suppose, but it's only a footnote to this elaborate, heartless exercise in writing technique.
An advance copy was provided by the publisher.
---------------------------------------------------------------
PS--our own Kim wrote a thorough, real review with spoilers detailing why the twist is so very problematic here: http://www.themidnightgarden.net/2014...
I also very much like karen's more balanced--and very kind--review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
September 6, 2018
i had a very medium response to this book. i'm conflicted about a number of its different elements, annoyed/perplexed by others, but also pretty impressed by the big reveal's ability to genuinely surprise me. however, that initial "pleasantly surprised" feeling morphed into additionally conflicted feelings once i processed the turn, so it's all a jumble of contradictory and confusing feelings.
which means i am in the same emotional state as all the characters in this book, so let's call it a 3.5 for that.
this book has several components that are real karen-grabbers: smart troubled kids at boarding school, secret historyish situation, magical elements creeping into the everyday - this is ordinarily the way to my heart. and since, after reading How To Be a Heroine, i'd decided to give The Bell Jar another chance to win me over, it seemed timely to read this. (since the title of this book is meant to be pronounced like "bell jar," it led to a couple of confusing conversations: "oh, you're reading The Bell Jar?" "no, i'm reading "bellzzjjjhhar" "that's what i said!" oh, the hilarity of miscommunication.)(here's another fun conversation i had about this book, this one with greg. upon looking closely at the cover:
"so, this is about sad kids?"
DING DING DING!! greg wins the "summarize a book by its cover game!)
and i liked it a lot at the beginning. jam (short for "jamaica") is a sixteen-year-old girl whose boyfriend, the british exchange student reeve maxfield (sooo not in love with the names of characters in this book), died forty-one days after they met, where roughly only half of those days constituted the span of their "relationship." a year has passed, and jam is in no way over her grief. she fetishizes this tiny jar of jam (get it??) he gave her, she mopes around the house, staying in bed for days, wearing the same clothes, avoiding her friends, skipping school, and making gloomy pronouncements, like this one in a conversation with her twelve-year-old brother.
"It'll suck without you in the house."
"You'd better get used to it," I said to him. "Our childhood together is pretty much over."
"That's mean," he said.
"But it's true. And then eventually," I went on, "one of us will die. And the other one will have to go to the funeral. And give a speech."
dude, bleak.
the reason she's moving out of the house is that she is being sent to vermont to attend "the wooden barn," a therapeutic boarding school for "emotionally fragile, highly intelligent" students where they can recover from "the lingering effects of trauma." jam is one of five students chosen to be in a class called "special topics in english;" an extremely selective course taught periodically by the formidable mrs. quenell, around which (and whom) mysterious rumors have always swirled. former students have claimed the class was "life-changing," but have always been very secretive about why or how, or what the class even studied.
and jam's about to find out.
but first, she's going to moon on and on about her dead boyfriend and her pain. actually, although i snark, i didn't mind this part. i thought it was a very authentic description of a teenager losing their first love, as brief as it was. time is different for teenagers, and the length of a relationship is in no way commensurate to the emotions it inspires.
and her attraction to reeve made sense; a shy and quiet "good girl" being seduced by no more than an accent, a slouch, and some skinny black jeans. i loved that she described his voice as having a "scrape" to it. i loved this paragraph:
He looked like a member of one of those British punk bands from the eighties that my dad still loves, and whose albums he keeps in special plastic sleeves because he's positive they're going to be worth a lot of money someday. Once I looked up one of my dad's most prized albums on eBay and saw that someone had bid sixteen cents for it, which for some reason made me want to cry.
i thought that was a great detail, because jam is at that age where she is transitioning from a child's whole-world love for her parents to feeling sorry for them, and protective of them.
but back to reeve. always back to reeve. she spends her time remembering each and every conversation they ever had, greedily sucking the marrow from each precious memory. but she never talks about the day he died. or how it happened. in a school full of emotionally-fraught teenagers (i mean, more than your run-of-the-mill emotionally-fraught teenagers), everyone is very respectful of each others' pasts and secrets, and some are more open than others about disclosing how they ended up at the wooden barn.
jam is friendly with her roommate dj, but once she begins attending her special topics in english class, and its mysterious life-changing experiences begin to manifest, she bonds in a much more cultish way with the other students in the class: marc, casey, griffin, and sierra. as the year goes on, extraordinary things begin to happen to them, things that can only be discussed with each other. on the first day of class, mrs. quenell enigmatically requests that they "look out for one another," and that's exactly what they do - sharing their past and current experiences and being there for each other in that always (to me) effective breakfast club scenario.
some of the difficulties i had were with the disparity of the characters' trauma. now, i know grief operates on a sliding scale, and everyone has different emotional responses to their experiences, but pitting casey's history against marc's - it's not even in the same ballpark. it's not even the same sport. and when jam's REVEAL is REVEALED - at first, it's kind of awesome, i gotta say - just because of the shock of it all. and there's that wonderful experience of readjusting your reader-thinking and doing that whole, "okay, so where does that leave us?" reevaluation, but once i was steadied, i gotta admit, i was much less sympathetic to jam. and that might make me a monster, but rereading the earlier parts of the book, i find that my bafflement perfectly aligns with the bafflement of jam's former friends, so i think i'm okay.
most of my other niggles were minor, and involve too many plot-specifics to be useful here.
one more positive note:
and one more utterly useless observation - i loved how much dj reminded me of my beloved claudia of baby-sitter's club fame. she's japanese (okay, half), she hides snacks all over, she dresses cool…
how i LONGED for those overalls!
and since she was one of my very first book-crushes, claudia - i still pine for you!!! and your snacks!! which is not a euphemism - i just get the hungries sometimes.
i completely understand why other people had problems with this book. i have problems with it myself. but since it gives such a genuinely aching (and occasionally wincing) portrayal of all-consuming, obsessive young love, and since it totally "gotcha'd" me with that twist, i can overlook its flaws. 'cuz we all have flaws. even claudia kishi couldn't spell for shit.
come to my blog!
which means i am in the same emotional state as all the characters in this book, so let's call it a 3.5 for that.
this book has several components that are real karen-grabbers: smart troubled kids at boarding school, secret historyish situation, magical elements creeping into the everyday - this is ordinarily the way to my heart. and since, after reading How To Be a Heroine, i'd decided to give The Bell Jar another chance to win me over, it seemed timely to read this. (since the title of this book is meant to be pronounced like "bell jar," it led to a couple of confusing conversations: "oh, you're reading The Bell Jar?" "no, i'm reading "bellzzjjjhhar" "that's what i said!" oh, the hilarity of miscommunication.)(here's another fun conversation i had about this book, this one with greg. upon looking closely at the cover:
"so, this is about sad kids?"
DING DING DING!! greg wins the "summarize a book by its cover game!)
and i liked it a lot at the beginning. jam (short for "jamaica") is a sixteen-year-old girl whose boyfriend, the british exchange student reeve maxfield (sooo not in love with the names of characters in this book), died forty-one days after they met, where roughly only half of those days constituted the span of their "relationship." a year has passed, and jam is in no way over her grief. she fetishizes this tiny jar of jam (get it??) he gave her, she mopes around the house, staying in bed for days, wearing the same clothes, avoiding her friends, skipping school, and making gloomy pronouncements, like this one in a conversation with her twelve-year-old brother.
"It'll suck without you in the house."
"You'd better get used to it," I said to him. "Our childhood together is pretty much over."
"That's mean," he said.
"But it's true. And then eventually," I went on, "one of us will die. And the other one will have to go to the funeral. And give a speech."
dude, bleak.
the reason she's moving out of the house is that she is being sent to vermont to attend "the wooden barn," a therapeutic boarding school for "emotionally fragile, highly intelligent" students where they can recover from "the lingering effects of trauma." jam is one of five students chosen to be in a class called "special topics in english;" an extremely selective course taught periodically by the formidable mrs. quenell, around which (and whom) mysterious rumors have always swirled. former students have claimed the class was "life-changing," but have always been very secretive about why or how, or what the class even studied.
and jam's about to find out.
but first, she's going to moon on and on about her dead boyfriend and her pain. actually, although i snark, i didn't mind this part. i thought it was a very authentic description of a teenager losing their first love, as brief as it was. time is different for teenagers, and the length of a relationship is in no way commensurate to the emotions it inspires.
and her attraction to reeve made sense; a shy and quiet "good girl" being seduced by no more than an accent, a slouch, and some skinny black jeans. i loved that she described his voice as having a "scrape" to it. i loved this paragraph:
He looked like a member of one of those British punk bands from the eighties that my dad still loves, and whose albums he keeps in special plastic sleeves because he's positive they're going to be worth a lot of money someday. Once I looked up one of my dad's most prized albums on eBay and saw that someone had bid sixteen cents for it, which for some reason made me want to cry.
i thought that was a great detail, because jam is at that age where she is transitioning from a child's whole-world love for her parents to feeling sorry for them, and protective of them.
but back to reeve. always back to reeve. she spends her time remembering each and every conversation they ever had, greedily sucking the marrow from each precious memory. but she never talks about the day he died. or how it happened. in a school full of emotionally-fraught teenagers (i mean, more than your run-of-the-mill emotionally-fraught teenagers), everyone is very respectful of each others' pasts and secrets, and some are more open than others about disclosing how they ended up at the wooden barn.
jam is friendly with her roommate dj, but once she begins attending her special topics in english class, and its mysterious life-changing experiences begin to manifest, she bonds in a much more cultish way with the other students in the class: marc, casey, griffin, and sierra. as the year goes on, extraordinary things begin to happen to them, things that can only be discussed with each other. on the first day of class, mrs. quenell enigmatically requests that they "look out for one another," and that's exactly what they do - sharing their past and current experiences and being there for each other in that always (to me) effective breakfast club scenario.
some of the difficulties i had were with the disparity of the characters' trauma. now, i know grief operates on a sliding scale, and everyone has different emotional responses to their experiences, but pitting casey's history against marc's - it's not even in the same ballpark. it's not even the same sport. and when jam's REVEAL is REVEALED - at first, it's kind of awesome, i gotta say - just because of the shock of it all. and there's that wonderful experience of readjusting your reader-thinking and doing that whole, "okay, so where does that leave us?" reevaluation, but once i was steadied, i gotta admit, i was much less sympathetic to jam. and that might make me a monster, but rereading the earlier parts of the book, i find that my bafflement perfectly aligns with the bafflement of jam's former friends, so i think i'm okay.
most of my other niggles were minor, and involve too many plot-specifics to be useful here.
one more positive note:
and one more utterly useless observation - i loved how much dj reminded me of my beloved claudia of baby-sitter's club fame. she's japanese (okay, half), she hides snacks all over, she dresses cool…
how i LONGED for those overalls!
and since she was one of my very first book-crushes, claudia - i still pine for you!!! and your snacks!! which is not a euphemism - i just get the hungries sometimes.
i completely understand why other people had problems with this book. i have problems with it myself. but since it gives such a genuinely aching (and occasionally wincing) portrayal of all-consuming, obsessive young love, and since it totally "gotcha'd" me with that twist, i can overlook its flaws. 'cuz we all have flaws. even claudia kishi couldn't spell for shit.
come to my blog!
August 29, 2014
It is astonishing how mediocre and immature this book is. Wolitzer is supposedly a writer of some critical acclaim, so how could she write something so poor?
The plot itself is ok I guess - a bunch of students with various psychological problems are learning to deal with them by experiencing their issues in a sort of hypnotic world of Belzhar (really?)
But EVERYTHING about this story is superficial - exploration of grief and guilt, portrayal of first love/obsession and mental illness, even teaching and critical reading of Plath is extremely simplistic!
Barely managed to skim through this.
The plot itself is ok I guess - a bunch of students with various psychological problems are learning to deal with them by experiencing their issues in a sort of hypnotic world of Belzhar (really?)
But EVERYTHING about this story is superficial - exploration of grief and guilt, portrayal of first love/obsession and mental illness, even teaching and critical reading of Plath is extremely simplistic!
Barely managed to skim through this.
March 1, 2015
See more reviews at YA Midnight Reads
I originally rated this 2.5 stars but screw it, it's been almost 2 months since I read this and I'm still majorly pissed off. Lowered to 2 stars.
Belzhar is a very difficult book for me to review. I've been sitting here in front of my laptop for more than half an hour just fuming and raging inside because of this book. Because I cannot talk about the cons just yet, let me just tell you guys what this book is about.
This book is about Jam. Jam's full name is Jamaica; and yep, her parents named her after the place where she was conceived. As amusing as that is, Belzhar is not an amusing book. It is a dark and profound, for one of the first things we find out about our main character is that she was in love with Reeve Maxfield, and he died. Jam soon becomes inconsolable and her parents end up sending her to The Wooden Barn which is a school for teens who are "emotionally fragile, highly intelligent". At The Wooden Barn, Jam finds out that she's been chosen to be part of Mrs. Quenell's Special Topics in English class. This is an extremely selective and arguably elite course where only a handful of students (around 5) are selected to partake each year. Jam's roommate, DJ, tells her that all the students who took Mrs. Quenell's course in the previous years came out claiming that their lives had been changed forever, but no one outside the class really knows how; and those who were in the class never seemed to divulge much. So on the first day of her class, Jam is skeptical. Soon, she and the other students in her small class are handed a red leather notebook, and what they don't know is how much that notebook will change their lives.
Let's talk about the prose because it was one of the things I loved most here. Meg Wolitzer's writing skills are clearly not lacking. While I didn't have the best experience with this novel of her's, I am definitely going to check out her previous books. Her writing, though rather simplistic, was coated in honesty and bleakness and some of these moments in this novel hit really close to home for me.
One of my two issues I had this book was the superficiality of the characters and their relationships. I didn't manage to gain any emotional bond with any of the characters. Sure, I felt incredibly sorry for them and I was thoroughly intrigued by their pasts and what led them to end up at The Wooden Barn, but if they died randomly, I wouldn't have blinked any eye. What was more of a problem, for me, were the relationships--romantic and platonic. I totally didn't get why Jam and Griffin ended up smooching during this book. I mean, it was completely unnecessary and only took up pages when it shouldn't have. Jam was trying to deal with the repercussions of her boyfriend's death, for god's sake. This is just another classic example in YA books where someone meets someone else to help them move on. As for Jam and Sierra's friendship, it felt incredibly abrupt. One minute Sierra is completely closed off; the next minute they're BFFs. Please, just no.
If I hadn't read the ending of this novel, I would give this book around 3 stars. While I had issues with the characters and relationships, I loved the writing and the plot line (especially the Belzhar otherworld aspect). Unfortunately, the ending to Belzhar exists and I read it. And now, I fully regret it. I'm hiding this following part in spoiler tags to discuss why I hated the ending so much.
"From New York Times bestselling author Meg Wolitzer comes a breathtaking and surprising story about first love, deep sorrow, and the power of acceptance." This is what the blurb says, and let me tell you now; this is not a story about first love, deep sorrow, and the power of acceptance. This is anything but those three things; this was an incredibly shallow story for one that first felt profound, and it really is a shame for me to say. I will say that this book was surprising, like the blurb notes, though. I did not see that ending coming, but that doesn't mean I liked it any more for that reason.
I originally rated this 2.5 stars but screw it, it's been almost 2 months since I read this and I'm still majorly pissed off. Lowered to 2 stars.
Belzhar is a very difficult book for me to review. I've been sitting here in front of my laptop for more than half an hour just fuming and raging inside because of this book. Because I cannot talk about the cons just yet, let me just tell you guys what this book is about.
This book is about Jam. Jam's full name is Jamaica; and yep, her parents named her after the place where she was conceived. As amusing as that is, Belzhar is not an amusing book. It is a dark and profound, for one of the first things we find out about our main character is that she was in love with Reeve Maxfield, and he died. Jam soon becomes inconsolable and her parents end up sending her to The Wooden Barn which is a school for teens who are "emotionally fragile, highly intelligent". At The Wooden Barn, Jam finds out that she's been chosen to be part of Mrs. Quenell's Special Topics in English class. This is an extremely selective and arguably elite course where only a handful of students (around 5) are selected to partake each year. Jam's roommate, DJ, tells her that all the students who took Mrs. Quenell's course in the previous years came out claiming that their lives had been changed forever, but no one outside the class really knows how; and those who were in the class never seemed to divulge much. So on the first day of her class, Jam is skeptical. Soon, she and the other students in her small class are handed a red leather notebook, and what they don't know is how much that notebook will change their lives.
Let's talk about the prose because it was one of the things I loved most here. Meg Wolitzer's writing skills are clearly not lacking. While I didn't have the best experience with this novel of her's, I am definitely going to check out her previous books. Her writing, though rather simplistic, was coated in honesty and bleakness and some of these moments in this novel hit really close to home for me.
And I also know that pain can seem like an endless ribbon. You pull it and you pull it. You keep gathering it toward you, and as it collects, you really can’t believe that there’s something else at the end of it. Something that isn’t just more pain.
One of my two issues I had this book was the superficiality of the characters and their relationships. I didn't manage to gain any emotional bond with any of the characters. Sure, I felt incredibly sorry for them and I was thoroughly intrigued by their pasts and what led them to end up at The Wooden Barn, but if they died randomly, I wouldn't have blinked any eye. What was more of a problem, for me, were the relationships--romantic and platonic. I totally didn't get why Jam and Griffin ended up smooching during this book. I mean, it was completely unnecessary and only took up pages when it shouldn't have. Jam was trying to deal with the repercussions of her boyfriend's death, for god's sake. This is just another classic example in YA books where someone meets someone else to help them move on. As for Jam and Sierra's friendship, it felt incredibly abrupt. One minute Sierra is completely closed off; the next minute they're BFFs. Please, just no.
If I hadn't read the ending of this novel, I would give this book around 3 stars. While I had issues with the characters and relationships, I loved the writing and the plot line (especially the Belzhar otherworld aspect). Unfortunately, the ending to Belzhar exists and I read it. And now, I fully regret it. I'm hiding this following part in spoiler tags to discuss why I hated the ending so much.
"From New York Times bestselling author Meg Wolitzer comes a breathtaking and surprising story about first love, deep sorrow, and the power of acceptance." This is what the blurb says, and let me tell you now; this is not a story about first love, deep sorrow, and the power of acceptance. This is anything but those three things; this was an incredibly shallow story for one that first felt profound, and it really is a shame for me to say. I will say that this book was surprising, like the blurb notes, though. I did not see that ending coming, but that doesn't mean I liked it any more for that reason.
~Thank you Simon and Schuster Australia for sending me this copy!~
August 9, 2016
3.5 stars Reading this so soon after having read Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar for the first time was an interesting experience. If you can't tell from the title, Wolitzer pulls heavily from Plath's novel, but I wouldn't say this story is necessarily a remake or rip-off of the original.
In Belzhar, we follow Jam Gallahue, a sixteen year old girl who is sent to a school for students with 'issues,' whether they suffer from emotional, physical or psychological trauma. On her first day at The Wooden Barn (the school), Jam finds out she's in a class called Special Topics in English--a class that is only taught when the professor, Mrs. Q, feels like teaching it, and only for a select group of students. Jam, along with four other students at the school, is selected to participate and read Plath's novel and poetry over the course of one semester.
Throughout the course of the novel and the students' semester, we come to learn more about each character, to see them deal with their trauma, and grow close to one another. Alongside that is a plot surrounding something called Belzhar which I won't disclose in this review. But it's a unique and satisfying premise that relies enough on Plath's original work to introduce the themes but does most of the heavy lifting itself to develop each character, their growth and ultimately their conclusions.
I found Jam's situation to be the least compelling from the outside compared to the other students in her class, but because we see everything through her eyes, I came to really enjoy her narrative. It could've easily become something off-putting, but Wolitzer manages to create a vivid character that you can root for.
It's not the most mind-blowing book ever, but if you're a fan of Plath or at least have read The Bell Jar before, I can definitely recommend this one. It's got a great diverse cast of characters without feeling like it's checking off boxes, and they each have an important story to tell—perhaps you'll find one that you can relate to.
In Belzhar, we follow Jam Gallahue, a sixteen year old girl who is sent to a school for students with 'issues,' whether they suffer from emotional, physical or psychological trauma. On her first day at The Wooden Barn (the school), Jam finds out she's in a class called Special Topics in English--a class that is only taught when the professor, Mrs. Q, feels like teaching it, and only for a select group of students. Jam, along with four other students at the school, is selected to participate and read Plath's novel and poetry over the course of one semester.
Throughout the course of the novel and the students' semester, we come to learn more about each character, to see them deal with their trauma, and grow close to one another. Alongside that is a plot surrounding something called Belzhar which I won't disclose in this review. But it's a unique and satisfying premise that relies enough on Plath's original work to introduce the themes but does most of the heavy lifting itself to develop each character, their growth and ultimately their conclusions.
I found Jam's situation to be the least compelling from the outside compared to the other students in her class, but because we see everything through her eyes, I came to really enjoy her narrative. It could've easily become something off-putting, but Wolitzer manages to create a vivid character that you can root for.
It's not the most mind-blowing book ever, but if you're a fan of Plath or at least have read The Bell Jar before, I can definitely recommend this one. It's got a great diverse cast of characters without feeling like it's checking off boxes, and they each have an important story to tell—perhaps you'll find one that you can relate to.
June 14, 2014
Forced, predictable, patronizing, trite. Just no. I have never been so disappointed in an author. I kept reading, hoping she would redeem herself. Nope.
November 6, 2014
It took me months to get through this one, I kept forgetting I was even reading it, so let's just say it wasn't a memorable read for me. It is unique, don't get me wrong, but I just didn't really care about any of these characters. Then when the magical element got introduced, it made the book even less interesting, not more as I had hoped.
Ok so let's start with this premise. After her boyfriend dies, Jam gets sent to boarding school for troubled teens, and in one of her classes she's given a journal that, to her surprise, sends her to a magical place whenever she writes in it. This place is free of pain and heartache: it's a world where the tragedy that brought them to this school has not happened. Although this might sound cheesy, I thought it was a really creative premise with tons of potential. I expected a lot of depth and soul searching, but instead I found myself getting bored while we did nothing but skim the surface, emotionally. The characters themselves were not bad, but they weren't especially interesting either. This "deep bond" that apparently connected them was brought up so much it only made it feel forced. So in turn, I quickly grew frustrated with it all.
This might just be my being used to extreme emotional situations in the books I read, but I couldn't stop from rolling my eyes at a few aspect in this story. Look at this class of people, for instance: a handful of teens selected from a pool of damaged kids because the teacher thought they needed special help to get through this difficult time. One is there because she was in an accident and got paralyzed, another is there because she's blaming herself for her brother's disappearance, and then we have this guy who's there because he found out his father cheated. Oh and also, because he's now getting Cs instead of As. Umm ok. That sucks and everything, but that hardly makes you a tragedy. Another instance that made me roll my eyes until they hurt, I unfortunately can't talk about. It's the "big reveal" of what really happened during the last day of Jam's boyfriend's life. And oh my freaking word you are not freaking kidding me! Kudos for being unpredictable, at least.
Then there were added details and sub plots in the book that were not really necessary and only distracted from the main storyline. The a cappella thing, the whole deal with her brother's snarky/changed behaviour, a freaking doe giving birth?? Why? I get that it can help to develop characters and give them a realistic life with family dynamics and such, but it just felt like pointless plot additions in this case.
All in all, Belzhar is an intriguing read, one that uses anticipation and curiosity in a way that makes you want to keep reading to find out the truth. With that said, despite my problems with it I do think it deserves 3 stars. It simply falls short emotionally and failed to live up to my expectations at the end.
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
Ok so let's start with this premise. After her boyfriend dies, Jam gets sent to boarding school for troubled teens, and in one of her classes she's given a journal that, to her surprise, sends her to a magical place whenever she writes in it. This place is free of pain and heartache: it's a world where the tragedy that brought them to this school has not happened. Although this might sound cheesy, I thought it was a really creative premise with tons of potential. I expected a lot of depth and soul searching, but instead I found myself getting bored while we did nothing but skim the surface, emotionally. The characters themselves were not bad, but they weren't especially interesting either. This "deep bond" that apparently connected them was brought up so much it only made it feel forced. So in turn, I quickly grew frustrated with it all.
This might just be my being used to extreme emotional situations in the books I read, but I couldn't stop from rolling my eyes at a few aspect in this story. Look at this class of people, for instance: a handful of teens selected from a pool of damaged kids because the teacher thought they needed special help to get through this difficult time. One is there because she was in an accident and got paralyzed, another is there because she's blaming herself for her brother's disappearance, and then we have this guy who's there because he found out his father cheated. Oh and also, because he's now getting Cs instead of As. Umm ok. That sucks and everything, but that hardly makes you a tragedy. Another instance that made me roll my eyes until they hurt, I unfortunately can't talk about. It's the "big reveal" of what really happened during the last day of Jam's boyfriend's life. And oh my freaking word you are not freaking kidding me! Kudos for being unpredictable, at least.
Then there were added details and sub plots in the book that were not really necessary and only distracted from the main storyline. The a cappella thing, the whole deal with her brother's snarky/changed behaviour, a freaking doe giving birth?? Why? I get that it can help to develop characters and give them a realistic life with family dynamics and such, but it just felt like pointless plot additions in this case.
All in all, Belzhar is an intriguing read, one that uses anticipation and curiosity in a way that makes you want to keep reading to find out the truth. With that said, despite my problems with it I do think it deserves 3 stars. It simply falls short emotionally and failed to live up to my expectations at the end.
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
March 19, 2014
Incredible. I inhaled this. It is like a dream. It is LITERALLY like a dream, and like a dream you cannot put it down. Sad, fascinating, funny, profound, real.
September 18, 2014
If you’re already skeptical about a person someone being in deep, dark mourning lasting a year over someone they knew for only a few weeks then this is definitely not going to be a book for you. Although normally that would put me off I really, really wanted this book to work. Considering Wolitzer is well established in adult literary fiction, I suppose I figured she was likely to have a shot at creating a truly wrenching story of lost love even if that love was so brief. There were a couple of clear ways this scenario could work and I was curious to see if Wolitzer would pull it off. She didn’t. Everything about this story is surface level only. There is no depth of emotion, no character development, limited growth, stunted pacing, and one hell of an obnoxious ending that had me going, “Seriously?!”
Full review at The Midnight Garden.
Full review at The Midnight Garden.
November 2, 2015
4.5! I was sent this book by Penguinteen in exchange for an honest review.
You know those books where you just go into them expecting ehhh, but come out of them like "holy heck this was amazing, and changed my mind set," yeah, well this was one of those books for me.
I found out this novel is greatly inspired by Sylvia Plath's book Bell Jar, which I have not read, but now really really want to.
We follow, Jam, a young girl whose first love died. She’s struggling with her situation, and is put in a boarding school for fragile, highly intelligent teens. In her english class they’re given journals to write in, and when they begin to write in them, they’re transported to Belzhar, ("an idyllic world”)
At first I was not liking the main character because it seemed like she was one of the many YA main characters who feel like they’re nothing without a boy, but there’s actual reasoning behind why she feels this way.
I enjoyed all the side characters and their stories. The author did such an amazing job with showing the many different types of loses.
I loved the setting of the english class and how close all the students got through writing and sharing their experiences.
Belzhar was truly magical. It’s definitely a book that I’ll be thinking about for sometime.
CANT WAIT TO MEET MEG WOLITZER FRIDAY.
You know those books where you just go into them expecting ehhh, but come out of them like "holy heck this was amazing, and changed my mind set," yeah, well this was one of those books for me.
I found out this novel is greatly inspired by Sylvia Plath's book Bell Jar, which I have not read, but now really really want to.
We follow, Jam, a young girl whose first love died. She’s struggling with her situation, and is put in a boarding school for fragile, highly intelligent teens. In her english class they’re given journals to write in, and when they begin to write in them, they’re transported to Belzhar, ("an idyllic world”)
At first I was not liking the main character because it seemed like she was one of the many YA main characters who feel like they’re nothing without a boy, but there’s actual reasoning behind why she feels this way.
I enjoyed all the side characters and their stories. The author did such an amazing job with showing the many different types of loses.
I loved the setting of the english class and how close all the students got through writing and sharing their experiences.
Belzhar was truly magical. It’s definitely a book that I’ll be thinking about for sometime.
CANT WAIT TO MEET MEG WOLITZER FRIDAY.
November 25, 2020
Belzhar is a not so well cloaked code name invented by a small group of high school students attending a boarding school for traumatized teens. The writer chosen for this group to study is Sylvia Plath. The students are in a special class together where one must be personally selected by the teacher to attend. It’s an English class that focuses on only one author per semester, and is only a semester long. Each student is given an antique journal to write in twice a week as part of the requirements. And they are required to return them to their teacher at the end, who says she won’t be reading them. They soon discover that the journals transport each student to their moment of trauma, the moment that started their spiral downward, and landed them at this school.
I think this would have been one of my favorite books as a teen. Maybe the trauma part would’ve resonated with me in my 20s, too. It is a YA book, which I didn’t realize when I chose it on audible, and it’s read by the lovely Jorjeana Marie. I enjoyed it very much, but do feel I need to try a Meg Wolitzer for adults.
I think this would have been one of my favorite books as a teen. Maybe the trauma part would’ve resonated with me in my 20s, too. It is a YA book, which I didn’t realize when I chose it on audible, and it’s read by the lovely Jorjeana Marie. I enjoyed it very much, but do feel I need to try a Meg Wolitzer for adults.
November 1, 2014
Meg Wolitzer is one of my favorite authors. I’ve loved every book she’s scribed except this one. Perhaps it’s the YA genre; perhaps it’s the break from reality fiction in which she reigns superior. She does tell a story and writes well. I felt this novel was not only predictable; it was not very creative.
It’s a story about a boarding school for “emotionally fragile children”. The protagonist is sent there after an unsuccessful romance that carried her into depression. Jam, the protagonist, is placed into a special English Class with 4 other students. They study Sylvia Plath.
In a formulated way, the book group works out their individual issues. Within the first third of the book I suspected the real story behind Jam’s romantically induced depression, and by the second half of novel I was fairly convinced I knew the real story. And by the end, the story was very anticlimactic, for me. I hope Wolitzer goes back to writing realistic adult fiction.
It’s a story about a boarding school for “emotionally fragile children”. The protagonist is sent there after an unsuccessful romance that carried her into depression. Jam, the protagonist, is placed into a special English Class with 4 other students. They study Sylvia Plath.
In a formulated way, the book group works out their individual issues. Within the first third of the book I suspected the real story behind Jam’s romantically induced depression, and by the second half of novel I was fairly convinced I knew the real story. And by the end, the story was very anticlimactic, for me. I hope Wolitzer goes back to writing realistic adult fiction.
July 3, 2014
BELZHAR read like a book that someone who "thinks" YA sounds like. And what I mean by that is it's repetitive and there's a lot of unnecessary dialogue that tells rather than shows instead of believing in the intelligence of the reader, which offended me as a fan of the genre. I sped through this in one day as I didn't feel a particular connection to the narrator or other students, things got wrapped up way too nicely considering, and certain tropes happened as well as a "twist" inserted that seemed to weaken the narrator and made her unreliable but wasn't as effective as it could've been.
October 13, 2014
A terrific Teen story!
I inhaled it!
Realities we would prefer to avoid, or minimize, are a part of life.
In "Belzhar" we read about a group of kids who learn to face painful losses with courage, grace, clarity, and wisdom.
An exceptional teacher --and community, this story has heart-soul-and is deeply satisfying!
I inhaled it!
Realities we would prefer to avoid, or minimize, are a part of life.
In "Belzhar" we read about a group of kids who learn to face painful losses with courage, grace, clarity, and wisdom.
An exceptional teacher --and community, this story has heart-soul-and is deeply satisfying!
May 4, 2020
Pandemic rereads #2*
This is the story of the worst book I love.
The first time I started reading Belzhar, I didn't seriously intend to finish it. In fact, I was reading it as a joke, because I had heard a lot about how bad it was. I expected to read a sample, laugh at how terrible it was, and move on. Instead, I connected with it almost instantly. I found myself interested enough to keep reading. And I finished it, and I had to admit to myself that I'd really liked it. There were parts I'd read back over repeatedly and copied down into a notebook. When I recently read an adult novel (Catherine House) that captures some of the same feelings I got from Belzhar, I was compelled to go back and reread it, properly, again.
This is a YA novel about a girl called Jam. I love the way it begins: I was sent here because of a boy. His name was Reeve Maxfield, and I loved him and then he died, and almost a year passed and no one knew what to do with me. Jam is 15, and Reeve, a British exchange student, is her first love. But, as those first few sentences tell us, he dies suddenly and she enters a lengthy depressive episode, refusing to get out of bed or speak to anyone. After months of this, her parents decide to send her to The Wooden Barn, a school in Vermont which markets itself as a sort of retreat for 'emotionally fragile, highly intelligent' young people.
'Belzhar' is a play on the title of Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, which becomes a key text for Jam during her time at The Wooden Barn. But the most relevant Plath reference is her poem 'Mad Girl's Love Song', which is so pertinent that I feel like it might've been the inspiration for the whole thing. Meanwhile, the plot roughly resembles a junior version of The Secret History: Jam and four other students are recruited to the exclusive 'Special Topics in English' class; their mysterious, eccentric teacher encourages them to write about themselves in antique notebooks. They find that the act of doing so results in short, intense visions – or, possibly, supernatural experiences – in which they seem to return to life before their trauma.
I connected with Belzhar and Jam almost immediately. I was around Jam's age when I first experienced depression and suicidal ideation, and like her, these problems initially manifested around my feelings for a boy. Being 'in love' consumed my entire self and took me to some very dark places. So I found the power of her feelings and her sustained period of grief entirely believable. There's a large plot twist near the end of the book, one many readers hate and some find distasteful, since it reveals Jam's 'trauma' as trivial in comparison to her classmates'. My reaction was different: I find Jam's story emotionally powerful precisely because of this twist, and I felt more sorry and sad for her when it was revealed. The truth drags her loneliness into the light, and that's what packs the emotional punch for me.
I like the fact that the teenagers in Belzhar are realistic teenagers. Despite being chosen for an elite class, the Special Topics students don't behave like the precocious, emotionally mature, world-weary and cynical teens so often found in YA media. They're moody, uncooperative and awkward. Their discussion of Plath is basic and shallow, yet it helps them begin to understand themselves. They're fucked-up 15-year-olds, not postgrads, and they act like it.
There are still things about the story that I find silly. There's no explanation of how exactly The Wooden Barn operates as a school for 'troubled' teens when said teens receive no actual therapy or treatment. The supposedly 'typically British' details of Reeve's character are ridiculous (though, given the nature of the twist, I think an argument can be made that this is deliberate). But over time, even the edges of these things have been softened, and I can look at them from an affectionate distance, accepting that while they're maybe not very good choices, they don't actually make the book bad for me.
I love it, in spite of the flaws. I see my teen self reflected in it, and I find it recognisable and real both in a very general sense (memories are always a story we tell ourselves) and in ways extremely specific to me. It's a YA book that was published when I was 30, and it's a book lots of people dislike, but it's a part of me now, and I'll keep going back to it, I'm sure.
* Pandemic reread #1 was Based on a True Story, but as it's only a few years since I first read it, I don't have anything to add to my existing review.
TinyLetter
This is the story of the worst book I love.
The first time I started reading Belzhar, I didn't seriously intend to finish it. In fact, I was reading it as a joke, because I had heard a lot about how bad it was. I expected to read a sample, laugh at how terrible it was, and move on. Instead, I connected with it almost instantly. I found myself interested enough to keep reading. And I finished it, and I had to admit to myself that I'd really liked it. There were parts I'd read back over repeatedly and copied down into a notebook. When I recently read an adult novel (Catherine House) that captures some of the same feelings I got from Belzhar, I was compelled to go back and reread it, properly, again.
This is a YA novel about a girl called Jam. I love the way it begins: I was sent here because of a boy. His name was Reeve Maxfield, and I loved him and then he died, and almost a year passed and no one knew what to do with me. Jam is 15, and Reeve, a British exchange student, is her first love. But, as those first few sentences tell us, he dies suddenly and she enters a lengthy depressive episode, refusing to get out of bed or speak to anyone. After months of this, her parents decide to send her to The Wooden Barn, a school in Vermont which markets itself as a sort of retreat for 'emotionally fragile, highly intelligent' young people.
'Belzhar' is a play on the title of Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, which becomes a key text for Jam during her time at The Wooden Barn. But the most relevant Plath reference is her poem 'Mad Girl's Love Song', which is so pertinent that I feel like it might've been the inspiration for the whole thing. Meanwhile, the plot roughly resembles a junior version of The Secret History: Jam and four other students are recruited to the exclusive 'Special Topics in English' class; their mysterious, eccentric teacher encourages them to write about themselves in antique notebooks. They find that the act of doing so results in short, intense visions – or, possibly, supernatural experiences – in which they seem to return to life before their trauma.
I connected with Belzhar and Jam almost immediately. I was around Jam's age when I first experienced depression and suicidal ideation, and like her, these problems initially manifested around my feelings for a boy. Being 'in love' consumed my entire self and took me to some very dark places. So I found the power of her feelings and her sustained period of grief entirely believable. There's a large plot twist near the end of the book, one many readers hate and some find distasteful, since it reveals Jam's 'trauma' as trivial in comparison to her classmates'. My reaction was different: I find Jam's story emotionally powerful precisely because of this twist, and I felt more sorry and sad for her when it was revealed. The truth drags her loneliness into the light, and that's what packs the emotional punch for me.
I like the fact that the teenagers in Belzhar are realistic teenagers. Despite being chosen for an elite class, the Special Topics students don't behave like the precocious, emotionally mature, world-weary and cynical teens so often found in YA media. They're moody, uncooperative and awkward. Their discussion of Plath is basic and shallow, yet it helps them begin to understand themselves. They're fucked-up 15-year-olds, not postgrads, and they act like it.
There are still things about the story that I find silly. There's no explanation of how exactly The Wooden Barn operates as a school for 'troubled' teens when said teens receive no actual therapy or treatment. The supposedly 'typically British' details of Reeve's character are ridiculous (though, given the nature of the twist, I think an argument can be made that this is deliberate). But over time, even the edges of these things have been softened, and I can look at them from an affectionate distance, accepting that while they're maybe not very good choices, they don't actually make the book bad for me.
I love it, in spite of the flaws. I see my teen self reflected in it, and I find it recognisable and real both in a very general sense (memories are always a story we tell ourselves) and in ways extremely specific to me. It's a YA book that was published when I was 30, and it's a book lots of people dislike, but it's a part of me now, and I'll keep going back to it, I'm sure.
* Pandemic reread #1 was Based on a True Story, but as it's only a few years since I first read it, I don't have anything to add to my existing review.
TinyLetter
September 2, 2018
http://www.writingis.fun/%D0%B1%D0%B5...
Преди няколко дни приключих „Белжар“ и мисля, че ми трябваше малко време докато се съвзема и напиша това ревю. Книгата ме накара да изпитам толкова много различни чувства докато я четях и жадно попивах всяка една дума и така чак до самия й край.
Някъде прочетох, че книгата била избрана от „Амазон“ за една от 100-те книги за тийнейджъри, които всеки човек трябва да прочете независимо от възрастта си. Може да не съм споменавала до сега – но аз не обичам да препрочитам книги (освен Хари Потър – той е моето малко изключение). Мисля, че тази книга ще мине към изключенията – много ми хареса – великолепно написана, историята е така завладяваща, определено авторката успява да накара читатели да се чувстват като част от историята.
Преди няколко дни приключих „Белжар“ и мисля, че ми трябваше малко време докато се съвзема и напиша това ревю. Книгата ме накара да изпитам толкова много различни чувства докато я четях и жадно попивах всяка една дума и така чак до самия й край.
Някъде прочетох, че книгата била избрана от „Амазон“ за една от 100-те книги за тийнейджъри, които всеки човек трябва да прочете независимо от възрастта си. Може да не съм споменавала до сега – но аз не обичам да препрочитам книги (освен Хари Потър – той е моето малко изключение). Мисля, че тази книга ще мине към изключенията – много ми хареса – великолепно написана, историята е така завладяваща, определено авторката успява да накара читатели да се чувстват като част от историята.
March 4, 2016
3.75 stars. For some reason I thought I had heard bad things about this so I didn't think I was going to like it, but I actually ended up rather enjoying it! Plus it may be just me, but I didn't see the ending coming at all. I'll definitely read more things by Meg Wolitzer in the future.
October 10, 2014
I'd rate this 4.5 stars.
You know, I thought this book was pretty fantastic. A little implausible? Sure, but I didn't feel like that lessened its appeal or emotional pull.
Jamaica "Jam" Gallahue is reeling from the death of her boyfriend, English exchange student Reeve. Even though they were only together for 41 days, their feelings for each other were so intense, and Jam is unable to cope with her grief, which upsets her family and alienates her closest friends. All she wants to do is relive their moments together.
With seemingly no other alternative, Jam's parents send her to The Wooden Barn, a boarding school in Vermont for "emotionally fragile" teenagers. Students are isolated from the outside world, without access to their cell phones or the internet, and are closely monitored for any signs of crisis.
Unbeknownst to her, Jam is enrolled in an exclusive class, Special Topics in English. Each semester, the students in this class are mysteriously handpicked by the teacher with no rhyme or reason. It's a small class devoted to reading only one author the entire semester. While it may seem an odd choice for a school of students with emotional difficulties, this semester they'll be reading the work of Sylvia Plath.
There are four other students in Jam's class, each quite different, but all share the emotional trauma of a particular event that pushed their lives off course. The teacher, Mrs. Quenell, gives them two important assignments—they must write in the antique journal she gives each of them and return it at the end of the semester, and they must look out for each other. Seems easy, and no one can understand why this class is seemingly so exclusive.
But when Jam starts writing in her journal, she finds herself mysteriously transported back to her life with Reeve. She can relive their old memories, feel his arms around her again, and she finally feels safe and happy. Yet each time this happens, it is only for a short period of time, and when it ends, she finds pages of her journal have been inexplicably filled—with her handwriting. And this happens to each of her fellow students in the class—each is transported back to the moments before the trauma they suffered.
Does Mrs. Quenell know about the journals? If they tell her, will she take them away? And what happens when the journals fill up? The five students form a close-knit bond to try and manage the situation to their best advantage, but they fear that their happiness will only last the semester. What happens afterward, are they doomed back to their lives of pain and anguish?
As I've said numerous times before, I tend to love books that resonate for me emotionally (without being manipulative), and Belzhar definitely did. So many of us can identify with the feelings, if perhaps not the situations, that Jam and her classmates are dealing with. This is a sensitive, thought provoking, beautifully written book about having to make the choice between reliving past memories forever and moving on, and about the power of reading and writing to help us cope with and express our feelings.
Mrs. Quenell says in the book, "Words matter." And Meg Wolitzer's words really do matter, because they're so well chosen, so well expressed. I enjoyed this book tremendously and can't stop thinking about it, and if it weren't for work, I would have read the entire book in one day. As I mentioned, it's certainly a little implausible, but if you can suspend your disbelief, you'll find Belzhar well worth your while.
You know, I thought this book was pretty fantastic. A little implausible? Sure, but I didn't feel like that lessened its appeal or emotional pull.
Jamaica "Jam" Gallahue is reeling from the death of her boyfriend, English exchange student Reeve. Even though they were only together for 41 days, their feelings for each other were so intense, and Jam is unable to cope with her grief, which upsets her family and alienates her closest friends. All she wants to do is relive their moments together.
With seemingly no other alternative, Jam's parents send her to The Wooden Barn, a boarding school in Vermont for "emotionally fragile" teenagers. Students are isolated from the outside world, without access to their cell phones or the internet, and are closely monitored for any signs of crisis.
Unbeknownst to her, Jam is enrolled in an exclusive class, Special Topics in English. Each semester, the students in this class are mysteriously handpicked by the teacher with no rhyme or reason. It's a small class devoted to reading only one author the entire semester. While it may seem an odd choice for a school of students with emotional difficulties, this semester they'll be reading the work of Sylvia Plath.
There are four other students in Jam's class, each quite different, but all share the emotional trauma of a particular event that pushed their lives off course. The teacher, Mrs. Quenell, gives them two important assignments—they must write in the antique journal she gives each of them and return it at the end of the semester, and they must look out for each other. Seems easy, and no one can understand why this class is seemingly so exclusive.
But when Jam starts writing in her journal, she finds herself mysteriously transported back to her life with Reeve. She can relive their old memories, feel his arms around her again, and she finally feels safe and happy. Yet each time this happens, it is only for a short period of time, and when it ends, she finds pages of her journal have been inexplicably filled—with her handwriting. And this happens to each of her fellow students in the class—each is transported back to the moments before the trauma they suffered.
Does Mrs. Quenell know about the journals? If they tell her, will she take them away? And what happens when the journals fill up? The five students form a close-knit bond to try and manage the situation to their best advantage, but they fear that their happiness will only last the semester. What happens afterward, are they doomed back to their lives of pain and anguish?
As I've said numerous times before, I tend to love books that resonate for me emotionally (without being manipulative), and Belzhar definitely did. So many of us can identify with the feelings, if perhaps not the situations, that Jam and her classmates are dealing with. This is a sensitive, thought provoking, beautifully written book about having to make the choice between reliving past memories forever and moving on, and about the power of reading and writing to help us cope with and express our feelings.
Mrs. Quenell says in the book, "Words matter." And Meg Wolitzer's words really do matter, because they're so well chosen, so well expressed. I enjoyed this book tremendously and can't stop thinking about it, and if it weren't for work, I would have read the entire book in one day. As I mentioned, it's certainly a little implausible, but if you can suspend your disbelief, you'll find Belzhar well worth your while.
December 3, 2014
This book was bad. Just so so bad. Originally I was going to give it 3 stars, even though it was a solid 2.5 but then that ending in which you find out THE MAIN CHARACTER'S BOYFRIEND NEVER DIED EVEN THOUGH SHE PRETENDED HE HAD THROUGH THE ENTIRE BOOK. I mean, fine, I love a good twist. But this one destroyed the credibility of the protagonist, and the author too, because the whole point was Jam's involvement with a group of kids who had experienced such tremendously horrible and heartbreaking things. She got dumped. That's it. Oh yeah, and by a guy SHE WAS NEVER IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH. In my mind, that really trivialized all of the other characters' legitimate tragedies, because Jam and the author held her tragedy (which was a breakup, that's it) to the same level. Trust me, I get it. Break ups can suck. But it is NOT appropriate to pretend your boyfriend (WHO WAS NEVER YOUR BOYFRIEND, YOU MADE THAT UP TOO) died so that you can be in this group of friends who've all experienced LEGITIMATE trials in their lives. Seriously, fuck you.
I'm not going to waste any more time on reviewing this awful book, but if you run into me on the street, don't EVEN get me started on how terrible the "romance" was. I mean, Jam essentially falls in love with what's-his-stupid-name-I-can't-be-bothered-to-remember because she LIKES THE FEELING OF WEARING HIS HOODIE. I can't. And I won't.
I'm not going to waste any more time on reviewing this awful book, but if you run into me on the street, don't EVEN get me started on how terrible the "romance" was. I mean, Jam essentially falls in love with what's-his-stupid-name-I-can't-be-bothered-to-remember because she LIKES THE FEELING OF WEARING HIS HOODIE. I can't. And I won't.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2015
Gonna hafta put my Meg-crush aside for this one...
Though the core story (five troubled teens who attend a school in rural Vermont are hand selected for a "Special Topics in English" class focusing on Sylvia Plath, and find out truths about themselves thanks to the efforts of an enigmatic matronly teacher and her trippy journal-writing assignment) is at times super engaging and fun to read, Ms. Wolitzer really only hits her narrative stride 2/3rds of the way through; thus I found myself repeatedly rolling my eyes at really clunky dialogue. I've (up until now) loved nearly every sentence she's constructed. Not this time. Lots of watered-down Meg on display here. (Even more strange: though this was her first novel written specifically for a YA audience, at least two of her previous novels {particularly The Uncoupling) were written and marketed to adults but many complained that the dialogue and story lines seemed much more suited for YA audiences, yet when she actually tries to write a YA novel (like Belzhar). it often strains credulity to imagine modern-day kids speaking the way Wolitzer's young characters do.
Still, I enjoyed the fantasy element of the book. I hope though to resume my Meg-crush soon: hoping she's gotten this YA-jones out of her system so she can return to what endears me to her: whip-smart sentences and adult whimsy.
Though the core story (five troubled teens who attend a school in rural Vermont are hand selected for a "Special Topics in English" class focusing on Sylvia Plath, and find out truths about themselves thanks to the efforts of an enigmatic matronly teacher and her trippy journal-writing assignment) is at times super engaging and fun to read, Ms. Wolitzer really only hits her narrative stride 2/3rds of the way through; thus I found myself repeatedly rolling my eyes at really clunky dialogue. I've (up until now) loved nearly every sentence she's constructed. Not this time. Lots of watered-down Meg on display here. (Even more strange: though this was her first novel written specifically for a YA audience, at least two of her previous novels {particularly The Uncoupling) were written and marketed to adults but many complained that the dialogue and story lines seemed much more suited for YA audiences, yet when she actually tries to write a YA novel (like Belzhar). it often strains credulity to imagine modern-day kids speaking the way Wolitzer's young characters do.
Still, I enjoyed the fantasy element of the book. I hope though to resume my Meg-crush soon: hoping she's gotten this YA-jones out of her system so she can return to what endears me to her: whip-smart sentences and adult whimsy.
July 7, 2014
I just finished reading Belzhar, and I am devastated. Not because of the ending, or the story itself, but because the book that was getting me through this hellish week, that spoke to me in so many different ways has come to an end. Let me give you some background. I am not a reader, and you will rarely see me reading… at least not in public or for fun. I'm a slow reader which makes me very insecure and less motivated to read. But, after being slightly reluctant to reading this book, I decided, why not, and from the first page, I was completely hooked. The story was so compelling, and from page one I found myself constantly questioning and wanting to know more and more. You could find me reading Belzhar anywhere. I've spend the last few days at the gym reading on the elliptical. Those last few minutes of class when everyones packing up were spent reading. Tonight I was babysitting 3 little girls next door, and I tried to put them to bed as fast as I could so I could curl up and read a bunch before their parents came home. I read AT THE DINNER TABLE the other night, walking into and out of school…anywhere I could, really. My love for reading has been discovered.
I was so moved by this story. There were times where Wolitzer wrote something that was so relatable it brought me chills, or to tears, and other times where I laughed out loud at some very real and sarcastic remark. The range of emotion was wide. I loved the rawness of each of the teenage characters, and how beautifully and truthfully she described loss and heartbreak and first times and mistakes and everything teenagers deal with, but also how to recover…even if that means quietly going to some alternate universe in your head. I was also deeply inspired, much like the kids of Special Topics, by Mrs. Q and her wisdom, and was stunned at the end when we find out she (kind of) knew Sylvia Plath! Loved that. I could go on and on about how much I loved this book, but all I can say is THANK YOU for this intriguing, heartbreaking, hilarious, profound, REAL book. All I want to do now is give a copy to each of my friends, who I'm positive would become hooked like I did. I was thinking recently how this could one day make an amazing movie…
I have a feeling I will be thinking about this book and these characters in the weeks ahead. THANK YOU- WORDS MATTER.
October 5, 2014
Funny - I just looked at a bunch of reviews about this book on Goodreads - and was actually surprised to find so many people that DIDN'T like it!!!!!!
I loved this book! Especially knowing that it was written for teens. The ending was probably a bit too neat and tidy to be a great ending for a similar adult book....but it is often a relief to have a neat and tidy ending! Sometimes, little things that would kind of bother me in a different book, I made allowances for because this book wasn't actually aimed at me. But, I loved the premise of this book, and think that many teens would probably get a lot out of it, too.
Jam is a teenager who has been sent to a special school because of a traumatic experience she went through. This school is The Wooden Barn - a place that only accepts "special" students, and doesn't control the students with drugs. there is little contact with the outside world. Jam has been grieving the death of her boyfriend of 41 days, Reeve. She gets assigned to a Special Topics in English class, that is only taught once in a while by Mrs. Q. She selects her students and they only read one author a semester. This semester, the author they study is Sylvia Plath, who wrote the Bell jar. There are only five students in the class, each with their own traumatic experience. Mrs. Q gives them a journal that they are to write in twice a week. They soon find out that when they begin to write in the journal, they are transported back to BEFORE their traumatic experience occurred. And when they "wake" up from that experience, they find that they have written exactly five pages in their journal.
I had no idea how the stories would turn out - if there would even be a satisfying ending. But what an interesting concept - being transported back to the "good old days" before something bad happened. Jam soon finds out, though, that as nice as it is to be back together with Reeve, nothing new can happen - only the same old stuff that had already happened. So - would it be better to stay in a safe, comfortable place like that, or to confront the "real" world and learn to adapt, to change, to experience new things? Good question!
This was a quick read and very enjoyable and thought provoking. I think I would have loved it as a teenager, too!
I loved this book! Especially knowing that it was written for teens. The ending was probably a bit too neat and tidy to be a great ending for a similar adult book....but it is often a relief to have a neat and tidy ending! Sometimes, little things that would kind of bother me in a different book, I made allowances for because this book wasn't actually aimed at me. But, I loved the premise of this book, and think that many teens would probably get a lot out of it, too.
Jam is a teenager who has been sent to a special school because of a traumatic experience she went through. This school is The Wooden Barn - a place that only accepts "special" students, and doesn't control the students with drugs. there is little contact with the outside world. Jam has been grieving the death of her boyfriend of 41 days, Reeve. She gets assigned to a Special Topics in English class, that is only taught once in a while by Mrs. Q. She selects her students and they only read one author a semester. This semester, the author they study is Sylvia Plath, who wrote the Bell jar. There are only five students in the class, each with their own traumatic experience. Mrs. Q gives them a journal that they are to write in twice a week. They soon find out that when they begin to write in the journal, they are transported back to BEFORE their traumatic experience occurred. And when they "wake" up from that experience, they find that they have written exactly five pages in their journal.
I had no idea how the stories would turn out - if there would even be a satisfying ending. But what an interesting concept - being transported back to the "good old days" before something bad happened. Jam soon finds out, though, that as nice as it is to be back together with Reeve, nothing new can happen - only the same old stuff that had already happened. So - would it be better to stay in a safe, comfortable place like that, or to confront the "real" world and learn to adapt, to change, to experience new things? Good question!
This was a quick read and very enjoyable and thought provoking. I think I would have loved it as a teenager, too!
December 13, 2016
I can’t quite decide how I feel about Belzhar. I was excited about the boarding school/Sylvia Plath themes and was looking forward to seeing how Meg Wolitzer handled her first YA novel, but for the first half I was frustrated and bored. Our heroine, unforgivably named “Jam,” is about as colorless and personality-free as it’s possible for a character to be, and most of her fellow students aren’t much better. The book keeps telling us how smart and complex they all are, but I just wasn’t seeing it. I was uninspired and had difficulty believing Meg Wolitzer would create such a gang of crap characters (although, as my review of The Interestings makes clear, it’s not the first time I’ve had trouble with a Wolitzer heroine). Bumming me out even further was the fact that the Sylvia Plath angle was really superficial. I’d been hoping The Bell Jar would play a larger role in the story, but honestly you could have substituted just about any book and the plot would have worked exactly the same.
Fortunately, Belzhar did improve some in the second half; the action picked up quite a bit, and I found myself eager to find out what was going to happen. I was mostly satisfied with the conclusion, although there was an odd twist that I found fascinating but at the same time almost wholly unconvincing, and honestly kind of lame. (Don’t ask me how a twist can be both fascinating and lame, because I don’t know. It just is. I guess it was a fascinating idea with lame implications.) I struggled with my rating; I lean toward three stars rather than two because I had lower expectations for Belzhar than I would have had for a Wolitzer novel written for adults—but at the same time I don’t think the fact that a book is YA means the author should be phoning it in, either. Ultimately I’ll stick with three stars because this was clearly a page-turner for me; I read it in about two days. But sadly, I really didn’t enjoy it all that much.
Fortunately, Belzhar did improve some in the second half; the action picked up quite a bit, and I found myself eager to find out what was going to happen. I was mostly satisfied with the conclusion, although there was an odd twist that I found fascinating but at the same time almost wholly unconvincing, and honestly kind of lame. (Don’t ask me how a twist can be both fascinating and lame, because I don’t know. It just is. I guess it was a fascinating idea with lame implications.) I struggled with my rating; I lean toward three stars rather than two because I had lower expectations for Belzhar than I would have had for a Wolitzer novel written for adults—but at the same time I don’t think the fact that a book is YA means the author should be phoning it in, either. Ultimately I’ll stick with three stars because this was clearly a page-turner for me; I read it in about two days. But sadly, I really didn’t enjoy it all that much.
July 5, 2014
This wasn't difficult to read or anything; I moved through it pretty quickly. I thought it would at the very least end up being just an okay book. But I feel like I got nothing out of this. I can't see teens enjoying this. I really disliked what it was when we find out really happened. And oddly, I could actually relate to some of what Jam experiences, but then she ruined it with the "twist" - which I had already guessed. And again - just so much telling, all the way through. Maybe this could have been a compelling story with some potential, but instead of tapping into a teenager's mind, Wolitzer instead seems to have forgotten what adolescence actually feels like and instead sketches out some vague stock teens interspersed with vague cool references that she thinks teens are into. I don't know. I'm not very happy with this. I kept waiting for something to click, for something more, for something to feel. The last few pages were just too much, in case I was stupid and didn't get it. This is the second book of hers I've read, it was also weirdly similar with the ending, and I don't think I'm going to be trying any more in the future.
Read
April 12, 2014I devoured this in one day after being fortunate enough to pick up an ARC at the Texas Librarian Association Conference. It's impossible to put down. I hesitate to give much information about it for fear of spoiling it, but Wolitzer has created a profoundly moving story that will live on in my mind for a long, long time. The characters are fully developed and believable misfit teens, and the plot's twists and turns had me breathless. Just a delicious, wonderful read about trauma and recovery, friendship and love. Put it on your list.
August 4, 2016
No, se que onda, pero estaba por un poco mas de la mitad del libro y me parecio muy meh. PERO ESE FINAAAAAAAAAL, FUE PERFECTO. No se, lo ame.
July 1, 2020
Въпреки че това е тийн роман и стилът, на който е написан, ми се стори леко детински, все пак се насладих на историята. Напълно нормално и правдоподобно е книгата да е така наивна щом главните герои са тийнейджъри на по 15-16 години. Намирам книгата за доста леко и кротко четиво, но и някак силно и ободряващо.
Никой не е застрахован срещу ударите на живота, но ако с нас или някой близък се случи трагедия, нямаме друг избор освен да приемем нещата такива каквито са. Макар и удавени в мъката си, да продължим напред с живота си, защото животът няма да ни чака.
Никой не е застрахован срещу ударите на живота, но ако с нас или някой близък се случи трагедия, нямаме друг избор освен да приемем нещата такива каквито са. Макар и удавени в мъката си, да продължим напред с живота си, защото животът няма да ни чака.
Read
October 8, 2015I appreciate what Wolitzer has to say about the past, how holding on to a memory or an event and not moving on keeps us from fully living. The premise is interesting, and I quickly turned the pages to discover the big secret of the novel (I guessed incorrectly. ). However, the story didn't delve as deeply into character development as I would've liked, especially considering how close the friends were supposed to have become.
July 15, 2021
I have faith that Santa Claus exists. Too much joy-o-genic magic for him not to.
Can’t prove a negative, and we don’t have a clue if our reality jives with anyone else’s. It’s tidy and convenient to think it does.
Maybe a tangential relationship with “real” is beneficial, even healing.
Perhaps all we need is a very old journal to create our happy endings, or rewrite our beginnings….instead of ‘shrooms.
Can’t prove a negative, and we don’t have a clue if our reality jives with anyone else’s. It’s tidy and convenient to think it does.
Maybe a tangential relationship with “real” is beneficial, even healing.
Perhaps all we need is a very old journal to create our happy endings, or rewrite our beginnings….instead of ‘shrooms.
September 12, 2017
Das Buch hat mir sehr überrascht, ich hätte nicht gedacht, dass es mich so fesseln kann. Der Anfang war genial, ich war nur etwas enttäuscht, als sich eine Prise magischen Realismus dazugesellt hat, außerdem hat mich eine Stelle sehr (wirklich sehr) wütend gemacht. Fernab davon war es aber ein sehr tolles, gut durchdachtes Werk, sodass ich ihm noch 4 Sterne geben will. Das muss ich auch definitiv irgendwann nochmal lesen.
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