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A review by hilaryistired
Four Weeks, Five People by Jennifer Yu
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.