This was a tricky one for me. I enjoyed it while I was reading it, even though I had an inkling right from the start that there would be a twist at the end, and what that twist might be. And I was right.
And unfortunately, that twist ruined the whole book for me. I won’t tell you what it is because that’s not fair.
The book takes place in a school for disturbed teens. There doesn’t seem to be any therapy or anything to help the kids with their various problems, but it’s small, out in the woods and perhaps has less pressure than a regular school.
On her first day of classes, Jam discovers she has been assigned a class called Special Topic in English. Her roommate who has been at the school for a while is jealous – apparently the kids who took the class the previous year found it life-changing. Jam doesn’t care that the class is exclusive and coveted. She just wants to go home.
But the class turns out to be more than just in-depth study of a single writer – Sylvia Plath. A journaling exercise opens up a whole new world to Jam and her classmates, a world in which they can rediscover their pasts and hopefully find a way to reconcile with the demons that lead them to the school in the first place.
Which is all a very cool idea. But somehow it isn’t executed as well as it should be. The other students’ issues seem so much larger than Jam’s, and there is an poorly executed, uninspired attempt at romance between Jam and a fellow student that just falls flat.
And then the ending… So while I thought this was a very interesting idea, as a whole the book didn’t work for me.
But don’t just believe me. Here’s the blurb:
If life were fair, Jam Gallahue would still be at home in New Jersey with her sweet British boyfriend, Reeve Maxfield. She’d be watching old comedy sketches with him. She’d be kissing him in the library stacks.
She certainly wouldn’t be at The Wooden Barn, a therapeutic boarding school in rural Vermont, living with a weird roommate, and signed up for an exclusive, mysterious class called Special Topics in English.
But life isn’t fair, and Reeve Maxfield is dead.
Until a journal-writing assignment leads Jam to Belzhar, where the untainted past is restored, and Jam can feel Reeve’s arms around her once again. But there are hidden truths on Jam’s path to reclaim her loss.
From New York Times bestselling author Meg Wolitzer comes a breathtaking and surprising story about first love, deep sorrow, and the power of acceptance.
