Belzhar

The writing itself is great! I recommend it for anyone wanting a good, quick read. I rarely ever find a book I'm interested in, but this one is definitely one of the few I've found. The book strayed a bit from I thought it would be, but in a good way.For the book, the quality is great! It looks, feels, and smells brand new! No pages have been bent, the spine doesn't even show the common creasing from reading soft cover books. However, there is a small area of sticky stuff, which looks to be some sort of tape residue. Honestly, it's barely noticeable and will likely come off after some use.Overall, just great!

I'd rate this 4.5 stars.You know, I thought this book was pretty fantastic. A little implausible? Sure, but I didn't feel like that lessened its appeal or emotional pull.Jamaica "Jam" Gallahue is reeling from the death of her boyfriend, English exchange student Reeve. Even though they were only together for 41 days, their feelings for each other were so intense, and Jam is unable to cope with her grief, which upsets her family and alienates her closest friends. All she wants to do is relive their moments together.With seemingly no other alternative, Jam's parents send her to The Wooden Barn, a boarding school in Vermont for "emotionally fragile" teenagers. Students are isolated from the outside world, without access to their cell phones or the internet, and are closely monitored for any signs of crisis.Unbeknownst to her, Jam is enrolled in an exclusive class, Special Topics in English. Each semester, the students in this class are mysteriously handpicked by the teacher with no rhyme or reason. It's a small class devoted to reading only one author the entire semester. While it may seem an odd choice for a school of students with emotional difficulties, this semester they'll be reading the work of Sylvia Plath.There are four other students in Jam's class, each quite different, but all share the emotional trauma of a particular event that pushed their lives off course. The teacher, Mrs. Quenell, gives them two important assignments—they must write in the antique journal she gives each of them and return it at the end of the semester, and they must look out for each other. Seems easy, and no one can understand why this class is seemingly so exclusive.But when Jam starts writing in her journal, she finds herself mysteriously transported back to her life with Reeve. She can relive their old memories, feel his arms around her again, and she finally feels safe and happy. Yet each time this happens, it is only for a short period of time, and when it ends, she finds pages of her journal have been inexplicably filled—with her handwriting. And this happens to each of her fellow students in the class—each is transported back to the moments before the trauma they suffered.Does Mrs. Quenell know about the journals? If they tell her, will she take them away? And what happens when the journals fill up? The five students form a close-knit bond to try and manage the situation to their best advantage, but they fear that their happiness will only last the semester. What happens afterward, are they doomed back to their lives of pain and anguish?As I've said numerous times before, I tend to love books that resonate for me emotionally (without being manipulative), and Belzhar definitely did. So many of us can identify with the feelings, if perhaps not the situations, that Jam and her classmates are dealing with. This is a sensitive, thought provoking, beautifully written book about having to make the choice between reliving past memories forever and moving on, and about the power of reading and writing to help us cope with and express our feelings.Mrs. Quenell says in the book, "Words matter." And Meg Wolitzer's words really do matter, because they're so well chosen, so well expressed. I enjoyed this book tremendously and can't stop thinking about it, and if it weren't for work, I would have read the entire book in one day. As I mentioned, it's certainly a little implausible, but if you can suspend your disbelief, you'll find Belzhar well worth your while.

Ugh, I so wanted to love this book, but just didn't... And it drives me crazy because it had so much going for it. Things I especially loved:1) Terrific writing. I still love Meg Wolitzer's writing. It's simple, yet powerful. One of my favorite quotes: "We're talking about a novel, right? But maybe we're not. We're talking about ourselves. And I guess that's what can start to happen when you talk about a book."2) An awesome cast of characters. Why oh why couldn't Griffin have been the star of this novel? Or even Sierra, or Casey, or Marc, or Mrs. Q? They were all such deep characters, struggling to work through something, and I would've loved to see more from them!3) The literary references to The Bell Jar. Having read The Bell Jar enriched my experience with this book. I really appreciated the Plath discussions and wordplay with the title, Belzhar.4) The unexpected and mysterious magic. I was under the impression that this was a straight-up contemporary with no fantastical elements, but wasn't disappointed when the magic came into play. It was interesting and kept me guessing.5) I read this book in one day because I couldn't put it down. It was so entertaining that I just had to see what happened next, not something to be dismissed.Okay, so I had two MAJOR problems with this book:1) The premise felt unreal and contrived. I just didn't buy that there exists a high school for emotionally fragile students AND within that school an elite English class that everyone wants to get into but can't because the teacher only selects a handful of students based on unknown merits. But I was willing to let this go until I read the ending.2) The big unveiling about what happened to Reeve made me really hate the main character, Jam. <spoiler!>I started wondering if Reeve really died about halfway through the book, but hoped it would be something like he had to return home to England, leaving Jam devastated and heartbroken. That would've been okay. But for Jam to have completely fabricated their relationship! To have lied to everyone about what happened?! I can't believe Mrs. Q wasted a magic notebook on her! It wouldn't have been so bad if Jam's 'trauma' wasn't contrasted with everyone else in her class who were all dealing with very real problems.Overall, this was a quick read and super entertaining, but unfortunately the ending let me down.

This was my third trip into the world of Meg Wolitzer--a wonderful writer with a keen eye for the issues of the younger set. This novel takes its cues from THE BELL JAR, in that it focuses on a group of high school age kids that have some issue troubling them. They're all enrolled in a class led by an about to retire English teacher that passes out red leather journals and suggests that the kids write in them. When they reluctantly do so, they end up...someplace else, and by the end of the story, all have faced down their demons and we get to witness each one's story, all so humanely told by Wolitzer. having spent my career teaching folks barely older than these, I found the book a delightful read...excellent.

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This book tells a nice story on growing up and facing our fears and debacles even when they try to drag us down.

It's very emotional and easy to love, I could really feel what the characters were going through. So worth the money. Also it's a bit twisted, so it made me love it more

The book is too long for a small climax and it gets to mak eyou over exited. You will hate it in the end