Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer | Review

Source: Goole Books

I picked up Belzhar after hearing about it on Book Riot’s Youtube channel and a million other places on the internet book world -  I couldn’t get away from it as an anticipated new release for the fall.  I promptly put it on my library request list and forgot about it.  I already own two other books by Wolitzer, The Wife and The Position, that I haven't read yet.  But with endless recommendations for her writing style and story crafting, and the kick in the pants YA has on my reading habits, I jumped in headfirst and finished Belzhar within 72 hours of picking it up. 

Belzhar is about Jam, a 15 year old girl who is sent to The Wooden Barn boarding school for “highly intelligent and emotionally fragile” teenagers after the trauma of losing her British exchange student boyfriend, Reeve.  At the Wooden Barn, Jam is placed in the Special Topics in English class with four other students hand picked (for mysterious reasons) by Mrs. Quennell.  Mrs. Q helps these five teens heal over the course of one semester by teaching The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and requiring students to journal about themselves.  What happens when the students journal allow them to become a close knit group of friends (almost like a secret society) and overcome the hardships that brought them to The Wooden Barn.

I liked this book for several reasons.  Personally, my entire undergraduate degree was focused on the psychology of school-aged students so this hit home to me on an academic level.  I think mental health is a very important topic that should be taught to young adults in schools, at home, in the media, etc., but doesn’t receive much attention.  Meg Wolitzer creates characters with backgrounds that are relatable enough for people who have not experienced trauma to remain sympathetic and empathetic to the experiences the characters have had.  She brings attention to their mental health issues (depression, binge eating, withdrawal) and emotions (fear, anger, resentment, remorse) without making the issue or emotion the sole defining trait of the character. 

Secondly, the emphasis that Wolitzer put on introspection and journaling was constructive and realistic and generally awesome even though not every character had a happy ending.  At the end of the 260ish page book, despite making growth in their personal journeys to overcome their experiences, every character was not fully healed.  But they were able to function better in their daily lives and form relationships with new people because of their journals.  I think this is a great message for the teens that are going to read this book.

The main drawback I felt while reading this book was the lack of depth with the characters.  Even though every character had a reason to be at the The Wooden Barn, none were explained or explored in a below the surface context.  As a young adult reader, that much depth might not be necessary to pull you into the book, but I think that would have added a lot more for adult readers.  There was also a lot of telling instead of experiencing about the healing each character experienced, specifically at the conclusion of the novel when the characters wrote in their journals for the last time.

Overall I enjoyed Belzhar book for the value it will provide to young adult readers and the contribution to mental health literature but I wouldn't recommend this to everyone.  I think young adults, teachers, and parents would get the most out of this book.  It brings emotional growth and development of adolescents into the forefront of your mind and makes you think about the validity of emotional experiences adolescents have instead of writing them off as hormonal or growing pains.

Waiting on Wednesday - YA Edition

Waiting on Wednesday is a book blog meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, where we discuss the upcoming book releases we're anticipating.

Over the past few months I have started a few different YA series that are unfinished and I am patiently hanging out in book purgatory with cliffhangers and open endings until these books are released.





Allegiant - Veronica Roth
Book #3 in the Divergent trilogy.  Ok, this is the one and only "cheat" I have on this list.  I read Divergent in the beginning of 2012 and then waited until this summer to read Insurgent on a borrowed copy from the library.  The time between reading the first and second books in the series left me pretty confused about what was going on and I was kind of disappointed because Insurgent didn't seem very interesting or worth reading to me.  However, now that the third book has been released I want to read it to bring closure to the characters and story line of Divergent - but not enough to buy it.  I put a hold on this book at the library and I am only #26 on the list so I will hopefully get to read it by the end of the year.
Release Date: October 22, 2013

Cress by Marissa Meyer
Lunar Chronicles #3.  I mistakenly read the first chapter of this book after finishing Cinder and Scarlett this year and you guys? It's gonna be awesome.  I really enjoyed to innovative take on fairy tales that Meyer brought to the table and I am really excited to see what she does next.
Release Date: February 4, 2014

Dreams of Gods and Monsters - Laini Taylor
Book #3 in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy (can you sense a theme to these books I'm posting about yet?).  I loved the first book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, until the last 100 pages or so but was compelled to pick up the second installment, Days of Blood and Starlight which ended on a really intense plot line that promises to make a great third book.  I have the first two books on Kindle and I will be pre ordering the third book so I can read it as soon as it is released.
Release Date: April 8, 2014

The One - Kiera Cass
Book #3 in The Selection series.  I devoured The Selection on audiobook in September thinking it was a stand alone - and incredibly disappointed when I learned that it was a trilogy and that I would have to wait almost an entire year until the third book is released.  I read The Elite immediately after reading The Selection and we were left on an unpleasant cliffhanger.  I will be acquiring this book as soon as it is released.
Release Date: May 6, 2014

City of Heavenly Fire - Cassandra Clare
The Mortal Instruments #6.  Cassandra Clare has been  pretty popular for a while but I never had any interest in her books (the series is so long! too much of an investment!) until I became aware of and fell in love with the Infernal Devices trilogy this year. The story, characters, and world building in that trilogy made me take the leap into the Mortal Instruments, and that leap took me over the edge.  I have read all of Clare's books in one sitting, sometimes two or three in a weekend.  There is something so indulgent and attractive about the characters that I stay up all night reading about them.  I consider them one of my ultimate guilty pleasures because I know when I pick up one of these books I am checking out of the world for a couple of hours with no thought other than what is happening in the book.  I have not read City of Lost Souls (#5) yet because I need a buffer between now and book six to keep me going.
Release Date: May 2014

The Selection - A Review

Image Credit:Amazon.com

Over the weekend, on a whim, I downloaded the audiobook version of Kiera Cass's The Selection. I had a lot of chores to get done and I wanted something light yet engaging to listen to while working around the house and this seemed to fit the bill perfectly.  The Selection is a wonderfully predictable poor girl meets rich prince and falls in love story.  But wait! In typical YA fashion we throw a love triangle into the mix, along with familial obligation and an opportunity to earn money for your poor family and we have The Selection.

I highly recommend this book! I ate it up and even gave it 5/5 stars on Goodreads because I enjoyed it so much.



I listened to all 8 hours of the audiobook in a row because I could not get enough of America's story and what would happen next.  I found myself enraged at some of the decisions America made, the blindness to Maxon's affections towards her and the cruelty of the other girls involved in the hunt for Maxon's hand in marriage.  I haven't been emotionally connected to a book like this in a very long time, even though the premise is silly and conventional overdone in YA.

This is not the most well written, complex, or through provoking book that I had ever read.  But it was an all around good time and I already have the second book in the series, The Elite, waiting for me on my kindle.  I sometimes feel guilty about reading YA books because they aren't widely critically acclaimed or because my colleagues and friends would frown if I recommended them.  However. reading is my hobby and hobby should be fun.  I haven't had so much fun with a book in a long time.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - A Review

I purchased The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente  when it was on the Kindle Daily Deal earlier this year.  I previously read Valente's Deathless, which is a Russian fairy tale retelling and the language, characters and depth of her stories made me an instant fan.

Image Credit: Goodreads

Fairyland is the story of 12 year old September who is plucked out of her life in Omaha, Nebraska and whisked away to Fairyland by the Green Wind to confront and defeat the current Marquess. Along the way she meets a rich variety of whimsical characters and learns how to depend on herself physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I found September to be a great role model for younger audiences because she is a strong female lead who is successful because she relies on herself.  There are many times when she has to decide what is right and what is easy, and she questions her values often while in Fairyland.

Overall, this was a highly engaging novel that I would recommend to anyone who likes fantasy or coming of age stories.  It was heartwarming, adventurous, and nostalgic.


The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is the first in a series of Fairyland books.  The a prequel, second & third books are also available.

Legend Book Review

I recently finished reading Legend by Marie Lu as part of my Bout of Books 8.0 read-a-thon.  There has been a lot of praise for Lu's writing over the past few months, and with the final book being released in November I figured it was time to see what all of the hype was about.  I gave this book three out of five stars on Goodreads.


Legend is the first in the dystopian trilogy chronicling the lives of Day and June who live in the Republic (formerly the west coast of the United States).  At first, Day and June's geographic locations are the only thing drawing them together.  Day is the poor, vagabond enemy of the Republic and June is their prodigy military student from a prominent family.  Legend details the personal and political circumstances that bring the two protagonists together.

Overall, this was a good book and I have already placed a hold at my library for the second book in the series, Prodigy.  Legend didn't blow me away, probably because I have read so many YA dystopian series since the genre was popularized by the Hunger Games in early 2012, but I did enjoy reading it.  I was hesitant when I first heard it was written from two different character perspectives.  Neil Schusterman used this format in Unwind and I really disliked it because it was so repetitive.  But Lu did an excellent job using the two person perspective to create a whole picture of life in the Republic and  gave an equal footing to both protagonists perspectives. The developing relationship between Day and June, and the plot in general,  was a little predictable but there were a few scenes that shocked me (ending of Part 1 in particular) that made the book just different enough to hold my attention.

The lack of exposition regarding the Republic vs. Colony world both Day and June live in was the main flaw of the book.  I did not read any previous reviews or the actual synopsis on the book jacket so I had no idea why the Republic and the Colonies were at war, or how long the war had lasted.  Without the background information of the world that Day and June live in I had very little sympathy toward the Republic their military dictatorship.

Legend was published in 2013 by Speak.

The Jessica Darling Series - Books 1-3

During my participation in Bout of Books 8.0 and the Dog Days of Summer Marathon, I decided to revisit Jessica Darling in the series of books written by Megan McCafferty in the early 2000s – a reread of the first three installments Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, Charmed Thirds, and finishing out the series with Fourth Comings and Perfect Fifths.

The first two books chronicle Jessica Darling’s life in Pineville, NJ during her sophomore and junior years of high school.  The books start immediately after her best friend Hope moved across country to Tennessee due to a tragic event due to the death of her older brother, Heath.   Now best friend-less, Jessica is trying to navigate the waters of a high school where she feels like an outsider and fit in with a family that all seem to get along without her.  During her post-Hope depression, Jessica encounters Marcus Flutie in seemingly harmless episodes until an event that occurs at the end of book one, which forges an awkward and unspoken relationship between them.   The first two books wouldn't be complete without the cast of characters that inhabits Pineville: The Clueless Crew, Scotty, Len Levy (Jessica’s first heartbreak), Paul Parlipiano, Jessica’s parents and much older sister Bethany.

Rereading Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings was like stepping back into my own 15 year old body.  The wear and tear imparted on my copies of these books clearly show I have read them more than 2 or 3 times and I revisited them frequently throughout high school. Jessica is an extremely flawed character – hyper observant to the point of judgmental, her friends cannot escape the mental stereotypes she applies to them (and herself).  She blames her inability to fit in with friends/family on everyone when her own malaise and anxiety are what causes the separation.  Jessica’s honest portrayal of high school made her seem so real, her emotions were tangible and the confusion of where she fit in with school, friends, and family made her relate-able in a way that most authors cannot communicate with their readers.  These qualities made me pick the book up time and time again.

Another portion of the books that I loved, more for nostalgia than anything else, are the pop culture references McCafferty makes during the time period (2000-2003).  Mentions of TRL and MTV’s Spring Break specials instantly time warped me back to middle and high school and watching these programs play out on TV.

Compared to the first two books, Charmed Thirds was a let down for me.  This books chronicles Jessica's senior year of high school through all four years of college at Columbia University.  It's written in season blocks, rather than months, so it was like a drive by of her college years rather than the daily insights and issues Jessica faced in high school.  While this allowed the book to span five years in just under 400 pages, it also disconnected Jessica from the reader.  The witty banter that made the first two books was still present in Charmed Thirds, so the reading experience was enjoyable, but other elements of the book made it a flop.
 The worst part of the book was the lack of personal growth.  There was no discernible difference in Jessica's personality or outlook on life, peers, school or family from the first two books.  Now, Jessica's negative disposition on life ends up being annoying rather than angst-y.  This, coupled with the bizarre on again-off again relationship with Marcus, made the book disappointed. I felt like this book was a bridge between adolescent and adult life for Jessica and I would have been thoroughly disappointed if I had known there were not two more books to potentially redeem the story line.

Sloppy Firsts was published in 2001 by Broadway Books, Second Helpings was published in 2003 by Three Rivers Press, and Charmed Thirds was published in 2007 by Broadway Books.