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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
To say this was underwhelming would be an overstatement. Full review to come.
The weird twist on top of a twist at the end.... I nearly stopped reading, so I need to think this review through....
Read as an audiobook (great VA!)
Edit: Where to begin...
Well, first off, this is a story of 5 teens suffering from individual traumas. Jam, our protagonist, had her charming British exchange boyfriend die, and, in grieving, her life upended itself until she was sent to the Wooden Barn for highly intelligent and emotional unstable youth and was selected as one of five students in the mysterious Special Topics in English class, where they read Sylvia Plath and write in their journals. Simple enough, right? Well, when they write in their journals, they are transported to a place where their trauma and problems disappear, a place where all of them want to be. Jam even gets her precious Reeve back, but what will she lose if she chooses this magical Belzhar with her Reeve over the real world?
Now, how does this story of grief, depression and mental health, and magic follow through? In some parts, well. In other parts, not good and very bad.
Grief/bereavement (get it? Her boyfriend’s name is Reeve? Ok, I don’t actually think that was intentional, but come on!) is indeed scientifically different from depression (although the DSM currently pulls them all under the Major Depressive Disorder umbrella). It produces the same symptoms, but the etiology is different. Not that I am giving the author credit for potentially knowing this, but it is why I personally was not necessarily against the idea of what outcomes the journals produce. When we are dealing with grief, you have to often face it to heal. Now, when they later talked about it helping on some other groups it lost me a bit (I could see anxiety working if their Belzhar was geared to that), but I don’t know about a cure-all being “just deal with it.” To be fair, it turned out to not be a cure-all, but anyway. The point is that, theoretically, this did not actually simplify mental illness nor magically make people heal. It did so by doing what actual therapy might entail, but, again, I cannot give the author credit for actually knowing that.
Especially with her inclusion of obsessions and delusions. To start, it was wholly unnecessary. The twist was fine without that level to it, and so I just about returned the audiobook right there. It felt like something put in just to get you to read the book again just to “catch it.” I already had an inkling that something was off, but this went one level too far. And because of that, the story turned into a “true love heals all” trope, while also making us question everything to this point, so much that the conclusion that could have been hopeful and about the importance of support networks, communication, and getting involved during treatment for mental health problems turned into a questioning of whether any of that was true.
Other problems include the characters, some were good, others were overly dramatic and were like high school stage actors in their own lives. One character for instance has her relationship break because both of their moms found out, and she immediately descends into a binging episode, until her girlfriend shows up, and, with one hug, it’s all better! Binging episode forgotten and not important! Was this gay character’s gayness at least handled well? Yes, I can at least say, for her, it was respectful. But the dramatization of “SERIOUS SCARY MENTAL ILLNESS” like eating disorders and schizophrenia spectrum compared to anxiety and depression was so so so dumb, especially because treating those seems to be not even really considered other than in a hospital setting, but, if it continues outside the hospital, then I guess there is nothing they can do? I mean, they are cured by love, so... Oh, but ADHD is also something to just yell at enough and it will go away.
Side note: Love how the school purposefully says it is for “highly intelligent” youth.
All this and more are such unfortunate aspects because I was excited at the beginning, thinking, “Are we going to talk about the power of reading, writing, and stories?” And it did, but not before twisting it to talk about delusions, “stories we tell ourselves”. Perhaps the worst way it twisted this was to turn Plath into a character, rather than fully, respectfully consider her struggles throughout. We got some respect at the start and minimally at the end, where she became a character in the life of one of the characters. I just don’t know how these were all meant to form the story into something truly meaningful about those themes, while being so disrespectful elsewhere.
2/2.5☆
Warnings for suicide and suicide attempts (descriptions can be relatively in-depth, but not all), suicidal ideation, delusions, binging episode, homophobia mentions, family blaming child for mental illness, mistreatment of mental illness, mentions of force-feeding, love healing mental illness, animal death, cheating
Read as an audiobook (great VA!)
Edit: Where to begin...
Well, first off, this is a story of 5 teens suffering from individual traumas. Jam, our protagonist, had her charming British exchange boyfriend die, and, in grieving, her life upended itself until she was sent to the Wooden Barn for highly intelligent and emotional unstable youth and was selected as one of five students in the mysterious Special Topics in English class, where they read Sylvia Plath and write in their journals. Simple enough, right? Well, when they write in their journals, they are transported to a place where their trauma and problems disappear, a place where all of them want to be. Jam even gets her precious Reeve back, but what will she lose if she chooses this magical Belzhar with her Reeve over the real world?
Now, how does this story of grief, depression and mental health, and magic follow through? In some parts, well. In other parts, not good and very bad.
Grief/bereavement (get it? Her boyfriend’s name is Reeve? Ok, I don’t actually think that was intentional, but come on!) is indeed scientifically different from depression (although the DSM currently pulls them all under the Major Depressive Disorder umbrella). It produces the same symptoms, but the etiology is different. Not that I am giving the author credit for potentially knowing this, but it is why I personally was not necessarily against the idea of what outcomes the journals produce. When we are dealing with grief, you have to often face it to heal. Now, when they later talked about it helping on some other groups it lost me a bit (I could see anxiety working if their Belzhar was geared to that), but I don’t know about a cure-all being “just deal with it.” To be fair, it turned out to not be a cure-all, but anyway. The point is that, theoretically, this did not actually simplify mental illness nor magically make people heal. It did so by doing what actual therapy might entail, but, again, I cannot give the author credit for actually knowing that.
Especially with her inclusion of obsessions and delusions. To start, it was wholly unnecessary. The twist was fine without that level to it, and so I just about returned the audiobook right there. It felt like something put in just to get you to read the book again just to “catch it.” I already had an inkling that something was off, but this went one level too far. And because of that, the story turned into a “true love heals all” trope, while also making us question everything to this point, so much that the conclusion that could have been hopeful and about the importance of support networks, communication, and getting involved during treatment for mental health problems turned into a questioning of whether any of that was true.
Other problems include the characters, some were good, others were overly dramatic and were like high school stage actors in their own lives. One character for instance has her relationship break because both of their moms found out, and she immediately descends into a binging episode, until her girlfriend shows up, and, with one hug, it’s all better! Binging episode forgotten and not important! Was this gay character’s gayness at least handled well? Yes, I can at least say, for her, it was respectful. But the dramatization of “SERIOUS SCARY MENTAL ILLNESS” like eating disorders and schizophrenia spectrum compared to anxiety and depression was so so so dumb, especially because treating those seems to be not even really considered other than in a hospital setting, but, if it continues outside the hospital, then I guess there is nothing they can do? I mean, they are cured by love, so... Oh, but ADHD is also something to just yell at enough and it will go away.
Side note: Love how the school purposefully says it is for “highly intelligent” youth.
All this and more are such unfortunate aspects because I was excited at the beginning, thinking, “Are we going to talk about the power of reading, writing, and stories?” And it did, but not before twisting it to talk about delusions, “stories we tell ourselves”. Perhaps the worst way it twisted this was to turn Plath into a character, rather than fully, respectfully consider her struggles throughout. We got some respect at the start and minimally at the end, where she became a character in the life of one of the characters. I just don’t know how these were all meant to form the story into something truly meaningful about those themes, while being so disrespectful elsewhere.
2/2.5☆
Warnings for suicide and suicide attempts (descriptions can be relatively in-depth, but not all), suicidal ideation, delusions, binging episode, homophobia mentions, family blaming child for mental illness, mistreatment of mental illness, mentions of force-feeding, love healing mental illness, animal death, cheating
I'll be honest, I wasn't as impressed with this work as I am by her adult novels. Something was lacking in this, some build up or mystery. I never really felt the tension growing as the story went forward, and the ending was very anticlimactic.
The concept was fairly originally crafted, but certain parts were too gimmicky for me. Honestly, I think my biggest issue was just that I was expecting a very different kind of story.
The concept was fairly originally crafted, but certain parts were too gimmicky for me. Honestly, I think my biggest issue was just that I was expecting a very different kind of story.
I READ THIS LIKE A MONTH AGO BUT IT PISSED ME OFF SO MUCH IT WAS MORE LIKE A 2.5 RRGGHHH I liked all the characters in the writing class Except the main one idk her name anymore but GOD everyone else had a valid reason to be there but she Really Didn't
FULL REVIEW ON MY BLOG: http://devinreadsbooks.com/2015/01/25/review-belzhar-by-meg-wolitzer/
That is, by far, the quickest I've ever blown through an audio book. I really don't get all the negative reviews. I found it to be a really good YA book (and a good listen).
dark
fast-paced
I was very hooked through the first two thirds, while the voice leaned a bit toward the inauthentic adult-writing-teenager perspective, I was nonetheless excited and engaged in the mystery that the story presented… but I didn't like the way it unfolded because it felt like certain explanations or plot points were unnecessarily added at the end which only made the book overall feel disconnected and lacking any logic.
For a further discussion of my thoughts, check out the next episode of my podcast: Books without Borders. https://anchor.fm/books-wo-borders
My scoring:
5.00 | = everyone in the world must read this book
4.75 | = between 4.5 and 5
4.50 | = dessert island book
4.25 | = between 4 and 4.5
4.00 | = great, solid, recommendable book
3.75 | = almost a 4, but not quite
3.50 | = not a 4, but I had a good time
3.25 | = rough patches, but not bad
3.00 | = meh, read-able but nothing to write home about
2.75 | = between a 2.5 and 3
2.50 | = there’s something I liked here but it wasn’t enough to be good
2.25 | = between a 2 and 2.5
2.00 | = not good and there was nothing I liked
1.00 | = bad
For a further discussion of my thoughts, check out the next episode of my podcast: Books without Borders. https://anchor.fm/books-wo-borders
My scoring:
5.00 | = everyone in the world must read this book
4.75 | = between 4.5 and 5
4.50 | = dessert island book
4.25 | = between 4 and 4.5
4.00 | = great, solid, recommendable book
3.75 | = almost a 4, but not quite
3.50 | = not a 4, but I had a good time
3.25 | = rough patches, but not bad
3.00 | = meh, read-able but nothing to write home about
2.75 | = between a 2.5 and 3
2.50 | = there’s something I liked here but it wasn’t enough to be good
2.25 | = between a 2 and 2.5
2.00 | = not good and there was nothing I liked
1.00 | = bad
I wasn't going to review, but when I saw the ferocity of some other users, I had to intervene. There's a twist a the end of this book that one could perceive as a portrayal. However, it occurred to me to be utterly realistic and brave. The writer navigates the complicated landscape of adolescent depression with a great deal of skill and integrity. I highly recommend this book.
Good plot twist, but really simplified Sylvia Plath’s writing
I really liked it,and I loved the ending,and I have a Plath phase now and the book has been on my list since I laid my eyes on the cover and fell in love with it. I was deciding between 4 and 5 stars,but in the end I realized that I don't have to take away the star just because I didn't like a small part in the book,so,yeah,the story deserves all the stars.