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emappel's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
xjackyx's review against another edition
5.0
I really loved this story. It's about five teens with various mental disorders that go to "crazy-people-camp".
The perspective the story is told from switches with every chapter.
Every character has a distinct personality and a unique style of speaking and thinking. I always knew who's chapter I was in even without looking at the chapter's title. I loved to see the events unfold from the perspective of every one of the characters and I could connect with all of them. (Well, except maybe for Mason. But I think that was kind of the point.) The different mental disorders were very well portrayed, as were the counselors/therapists.
There were quite some funny bits, e.g. "They haven't learned that expecting straight answers out of therapists is like standing in the middle of the Sahara with an empty bucket and waiting for rain."
There is a bit of a romance going on in the middle but it wasn't nearly as bad or cringe-worthy as I feared it would be.
The ending was super sad and uplifting at once and had me in tears the whole time.
I really want to know what happens to everyone (including Mason) after the camp, but especially Andrew. I want to know whether he gets better and whether his band makes it and becomes a success.
Favorite quote:
"'People like me'?" he says. "What does that even mean? Depressed people? People who have emotions? People who do stupid things? People like us, Ben. Now shut up and drink water."
The perspective the story is told from switches with every chapter.
Every character has a distinct personality and a unique style of speaking and thinking. I always knew who's chapter I was in even without looking at the chapter's title. I loved to see the events unfold from the perspective of every one of the characters and I could connect with all of them. (Well, except maybe for Mason. But I think that was kind of the point.) The different mental disorders were very well portrayed, as were the counselors/therapists.
There were quite some funny bits, e.g. "They haven't learned that expecting straight answers out of therapists is like standing in the middle of the Sahara with an empty bucket and waiting for rain."
There is a bit of a romance going on in the middle but it wasn't nearly as bad or cringe-worthy as I feared it would be.
The ending was super sad and uplifting at once and had me in tears the whole time.
I really want to know what happens to everyone (including Mason) after the camp, but especially Andrew. I want to know whether he gets better and whether his band makes it and becomes a success.
Favorite quote:
"'People like me'?" he says. "What does that even mean? Depressed people? People who have emotions? People who do stupid things? People like us, Ben. Now shut up and drink water."
hilaryistired's review
2.0
I came across a copy of this book a while ago, and was really intrigued by what synopsis. It seemed to cover a lot of different areas of mental health, and stories set at camps are always interesting. And I was also curious to see what the author was going to do with the recovery story, verses one where the characters are working up to that point.
While there were some good things about this book, I think it fell short of what it was intended to do. I got the impression throughout that this was intended to be a poignant story about mental health and recovery, and what I got instead was a semi-developed book with a lot of teen drama. There was less focus on recovery than on relationship drama and getting along, and there was an obnoxious amount of filler in this book, which just served to dilute the story they could have been telling.
The Good Points of Four Weeks, Five People:
I loved how many different areas of mental illness they tackled. This is the first time I've seen a character with narcissistic personality disorder, and it's one of the very few I've seen with a male anorexic. And there were some other great things too, which was nice to see finally get mentioned in a YA novel.
I loved that the author kept the cast to just seven people - our five main characters, and the two staff that worked with them. In a book where the characters are so important, having the restraint to leave out anything unnecessary really helped the book along, and made it easy to keep track of who was who and who was important.
The different points of view definitely worked for a novel like this, where it was important to understand what was going on in the various character's heads. While I didn't particularly like some of the perspectives from a reader's standpoint, I appreciated how it was done and thing it worked great.
The Downsides of Four Weeks, Five People:
For a book that is based in a therapy camp, there wasn't a lot of recovery happening, and as a therapist myself, I'd be super concerned with how the staff are doing 'therapy' with the kids if I worked with them. I'm not even sure that any of these kids made any progress over their weeks there. The parents of these kids should get their money back for ineffective programming.
Though I liked the diversity of mental illness, I also found many of the characters to be caracature-y, with maybe one exception. Everything you know about them is related back to their mental illness. And I understand that these things do take over your life, but it felt more like they were just underdeveloped, rather than overrun with their struggles. Giving them a bit more would have greatly enhanced this book.
There was so much filler in this book it actually got to the point of being annoying. This is perhaps linked to the fact that no one was making progress, but there were so many scenes that just took up space but gave no substance or take the characters anywhere. It probably could have been half the length and you wouldn't have missed anything.
All in all, I think it was a great idea that was poorly executed. This book could have been an incredible story for mental health in the YA world, but the characters were underdeveloped, there was too much fluff, and not even close to enough focus on recovery. It makes me sad that the word therapy is even tied to the programming shown in this book, because this isn't what therapists would do. It does have great representation though, and the formatting did work. So you can choose whether you want to read it, and take what I say with a grain of salt.
While there were some good things about this book, I think it fell short of what it was intended to do. I got the impression throughout that this was intended to be a poignant story about mental health and recovery, and what I got instead was a semi-developed book with a lot of teen drama. There was less focus on recovery than on relationship drama and getting along, and there was an obnoxious amount of filler in this book, which just served to dilute the story they could have been telling.
The Good Points of Four Weeks, Five People:
I loved how many different areas of mental illness they tackled. This is the first time I've seen a character with narcissistic personality disorder, and it's one of the very few I've seen with a male anorexic. And there were some other great things too, which was nice to see finally get mentioned in a YA novel.
I loved that the author kept the cast to just seven people - our five main characters, and the two staff that worked with them. In a book where the characters are so important, having the restraint to leave out anything unnecessary really helped the book along, and made it easy to keep track of who was who and who was important.
The different points of view definitely worked for a novel like this, where it was important to understand what was going on in the various character's heads. While I didn't particularly like some of the perspectives from a reader's standpoint, I appreciated how it was done and thing it worked great.
The Downsides of Four Weeks, Five People:
For a book that is based in a therapy camp, there wasn't a lot of recovery happening, and as a therapist myself, I'd be super concerned with how the staff are doing 'therapy' with the kids if I worked with them. I'm not even sure that any of these kids made any progress over their weeks there. The parents of these kids should get their money back for ineffective programming.
Though I liked the diversity of mental illness, I also found many of the characters to be caracature-y, with maybe one exception. Everything you know about them is related back to their mental illness. And I understand that these things do take over your life, but it felt more like they were just underdeveloped, rather than overrun with their struggles. Giving them a bit more would have greatly enhanced this book.
There was so much filler in this book it actually got to the point of being annoying. This is perhaps linked to the fact that no one was making progress, but there were so many scenes that just took up space but gave no substance or take the characters anywhere. It probably could have been half the length and you wouldn't have missed anything.
All in all, I think it was a great idea that was poorly executed. This book could have been an incredible story for mental health in the YA world, but the characters were underdeveloped, there was too much fluff, and not even close to enough focus on recovery. It makes me sad that the word therapy is even tied to the programming shown in this book, because this isn't what therapists would do. It does have great representation though, and the formatting did work. So you can choose whether you want to read it, and take what I say with a grain of salt.
ciennasuperstar's review
2.0
To start off this review: I have OCD (like Clarisa), I have a mood disorder (like Ben) and I have struggled with depression (like Stella). So you can understand I went into this book with high hopes. I had hoped to see myself in these characters.
The problem in this book wasn't the writing or the plot, it was the characters. They didn't grow or change as people. I had problems with every single character, so I will go into detail about the problems I had with them.
Clarisa. I had the lowest expectations for this girl, only because of how OCD is typically portrayed in mainstream media. The cliché symptoms of OCD are: cleaning, counting, compulsively checking things, ext. Now if you don't have OCD you probably don't know what the actual major symptoms are, so I will tell you. It's anxiety. Anxiety usually based around a certain subject, much like a phobia. 2 common OCD phobias are Emetophobia and Germophobia. Another common occurrence of OCD is obsessing. Much like a hyper fixation for ADHD or a special interest for Autism, people with OCD get obsessive about something (for me it's cartoons).
Clarisa is however, the only character to actually grew as a person, so I would rate Clarisa 3/5
The problem in this book wasn't the writing or the plot, it was the characters. They didn't grow or change as people. I had problems with every single character, so I will go into detail about the problems I had with them.
Clarisa. I had the lowest expectations for this girl, only because of how OCD is typically portrayed in mainstream media. The cliché symptoms of OCD are: cleaning, counting, compulsively checking things, ext. Now if you don't have OCD you probably don't know what the actual major symptoms are, so I will tell you. It's anxiety. Anxiety usually based around a certain subject, much like a phobia. 2 common OCD phobias are Emetophobia and Germophobia. Another common occurrence of OCD is obsessing. Much like a hyper fixation for ADHD or a special interest for Autism, people with OCD get obsessive about something (for me it's cartoons).
Clarisa is however, the only character to actually grew as a person, so I would rate Clarisa 3/5
cassidybrohl's review
5.0
This book is one of my all time favorites! I love how it focuses on people who are so different, but their situation is identical! I really connected with the characters in this book & I can’t wait to read again!
lmohhhh's review
1.0
Someone who has experience mental illness themselves and through other people I love to read a good mental health based fiction. I don't know what it is but generally the characters draw me in, I can usually see parts of myself in them or others.
But this book was so terrible, it was a book I begged for the end to come faster, it was straight up boring.
We get to hear about everyone's mental illness in depth but not Stella's, there is no closure, the characters don't go forward but generally go backwards in their mental health.
This book annoyed me, frustrated me and was poorly written.
Boring is the key takeaway.
But this book was so terrible, it was a book I begged for the end to come faster, it was straight up boring.
We get to hear about everyone's mental illness in depth but not Stella's, there is no closure, the characters don't go forward but generally go backwards in their mental health.
This book annoyed me, frustrated me and was poorly written.
Boring is the key takeaway.
ronron00's review
3.0
Got an ARC from a giveaway. This book was what is said it would be - 5 angsty teens at a 4 week camp for high schoolers with mental health issues. It read like any other YA book. Overall an okay read, just unremarkable.
let_therebebooks's review against another edition
5.0
Wow, is this really over?!
I ADORED this book. The characters were funny and relatable, the subject matter was important, and the story line was emotional. I laughed out loud at the banter and teared up near the end. The ending was well, but I wanted more! I fell in love with each of the characters and their mental illness, and just wanted to know how their lives continued after camp ended.
Each character is dealing with a different mental illness. One has anorexia (a male), one has Narcissist Personality Disorder, one has OCD, one has manic depression, and the other has depression and honestly, probably some PTSD. As someone who suffers from depression myself, I thought Jennifer Yu did a very good job representing and writing about depression and mental illness. This book easily made it's way into my heart and became one of my favorites of the year. These characters should be protected at all costs honestly.
Also - I loved how one of the character's POV was written as a movie script.. how cool!
"... and how she hopes we always remember that emotional health is something maintained, not simply won."
"You start Prozac. You go to wilderness therapy camp. You try to fall in love, and then you try to fall out of love. And you wait. You wait and you wait and you wait for the second when these things all come together in a flurry of sparks and sunlight and you magically transform into a happy, well-adjusted person who goes to school and has friends and doesn't spend half her days lying in bed trying to remember today's excuse to keep living. You wait so much that you forget that there are things that used to make you happy, that there are kinds of love that make you a better person, that life is worth living even if it really, really sucks."
"
I ADORED this book. The characters were funny and relatable, the subject matter was important, and the story line was emotional. I laughed out loud at the banter and teared up near the end. The ending was well, but I wanted more! I fell in love with each of the characters and their mental illness, and just wanted to know how their lives continued after camp ended.
Each character is dealing with a different mental illness. One has anorexia (a male), one has Narcissist Personality Disorder, one has OCD, one has manic depression, and the other has depression and honestly, probably some PTSD. As someone who suffers from depression myself, I thought Jennifer Yu did a very good job representing and writing about depression and mental illness. This book easily made it's way into my heart and became one of my favorites of the year. These characters should be protected at all costs honestly.
Also - I loved how one of the character's POV was written as a movie script.. how cool!
"... and how she hopes we always remember that emotional health is something maintained, not simply won."
"You start Prozac. You go to wilderness therapy camp. You try to fall in love, and then you try to fall out of love. And you wait. You wait and you wait and you wait for the second when these things all come together in a flurry of sparks and sunlight and you magically transform into a happy, well-adjusted person who goes to school and has friends and doesn't spend half her days lying in bed trying to remember today's excuse to keep living. You wait so much that you forget that there are things that used to make you happy, that there are kinds of love that make you a better person, that life is worth living even if it really, really sucks."
"