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apagetoturn 's review for:
Belzhar
by Meg Wolitzer
Rating: 5
"Sometimes it's easier to tell ourselves a story."
I picked this book up, started it and put it back down again 2 or 3 times during the first quarter of the book... I just couldn't decide if I liked it or not... or it I was into it at all. I'm glad I picked it back up again though (since it is technically a book club read), it's was an absolutely profound book! I really enjoyed the voice of this character, and how she developed it over the course of the book.
"The Wooden Barn is a halfway house between a hospital and a regular school. It's like a big lily pad where you can linger before you have to make the frog-leap back to ordinary life."
Jam is a girl with some deep-rooted emotions... Reeve, the love of her teenage life, has died... and she has to figure out how to move on. She's sunk into this depression that no one has been able to get her out of... so she's sent off to a school that's supposed to be better equipped to handle these teens with issues that go far beyond surface emotions. She meets some interesting people - Griffin and DJ are my favorites!! Oh, and Sierra!
"Sometimes an alternative world is much better than the real one."
The journals. That was my favorite part of the story, the best aspect by far! Belzhar. It's a place. A destination. Jam ends up in this special English class at her new school - and the writer picked for the semester to study, is Sylvia Plath. Now, that's one screwed up broad with one effed up story... but it's the words she wrote that matters. It's the words they study in class that begin to take on new meanings...
"Words matter. All semester, we were looking for the words to say what we needed to say. We were all looking for our voice."
It's the words the students in that class write down in their journals that matter. It's the journeys they allow themselves to take to get where they need to be to survive this harsh world, and the bad things that happen in it. It's the discoveries made about themslves and their lives - it's the realizations that they can overcome the bad hands they've been dealt...
"I think having the knowledge, plus the experiences you've lived through, make you definitely not fragile. They make you brave."
Bravery. Ability to face your fears head on and survive, and move on. That's the beauty of this story. Just read it. You won't regret it.
"Sometimes it's easier to tell ourselves a story."
I picked this book up, started it and put it back down again 2 or 3 times during the first quarter of the book... I just couldn't decide if I liked it or not... or it I was into it at all. I'm glad I picked it back up again though (since it is technically a book club read), it's was an absolutely profound book! I really enjoyed the voice of this character, and how she developed it over the course of the book.
"The Wooden Barn is a halfway house between a hospital and a regular school. It's like a big lily pad where you can linger before you have to make the frog-leap back to ordinary life."
Jam is a girl with some deep-rooted emotions... Reeve, the love of her teenage life, has died... and she has to figure out how to move on. She's sunk into this depression that no one has been able to get her out of... so she's sent off to a school that's supposed to be better equipped to handle these teens with issues that go far beyond surface emotions. She meets some interesting people - Griffin and DJ are my favorites!! Oh, and Sierra!
"Sometimes an alternative world is much better than the real one."
The journals. That was my favorite part of the story, the best aspect by far! Belzhar. It's a place. A destination. Jam ends up in this special English class at her new school - and the writer picked for the semester to study, is Sylvia Plath. Now, that's one screwed up broad with one effed up story... but it's the words she wrote that matters. It's the words they study in class that begin to take on new meanings...
"Words matter. All semester, we were looking for the words to say what we needed to say. We were all looking for our voice."
It's the words the students in that class write down in their journals that matter. It's the journeys they allow themselves to take to get where they need to be to survive this harsh world, and the bad things that happen in it. It's the discoveries made about themslves and their lives - it's the realizations that they can overcome the bad hands they've been dealt...
"I think having the knowledge, plus the experiences you've lived through, make you definitely not fragile. They make you brave."
Bravery. Ability to face your fears head on and survive, and move on. That's the beauty of this story. Just read it. You won't regret it.