MINI-REVIEW: Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

Title: Belzhar
Author: Meg Wolitzer
Genre: Young Adult, Magical Realism.
Publication Date: October 1st 2014
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Format: Paperback

Pages: 266

Rating: 4/5

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.

This book was provided to me by the publisher but this in no way alters my opinions.

Belzhar was different than I was expecting. I knew it was magical realism and that it was had elements of The Bell Jar/Sylvia Plath, but that was it. I enjoyed the story – I’ve never read anything like it and I thought it was very beautiful and unique. It was also just really easy to plough through – it’s only a short book, but it’s also just one of those books that you can read in a number of hours. I think the only thing that stopped me from being a 5 star book was that I didn’t feel there was a lot of Plath in there – I would have liked to see a bit more, but that’s just because I’ve recently become a Plath fangirl. I’d definitely suggest Belzhar to anyone who’s looking for a quick, fun read.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for providing me with a copy of this book.

MOST ANTICIPATED READS: September 2014

Welcome to Most Anticipated Reads! At the start of every month (I'm sorry this month is late!), we'll be showing three of our most anticipated reads for that particular month. Pretty straight forward, right? Without further ado, our most anticipated reads for September 2014.

The Infinite Sea (The Fifth Wave #2) by Rick Yancey
Out September 16th | Goodreads

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.

Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.

Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

Out September 30th | Goodreads

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.

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Out September 16th | Goodreads

A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell

Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

This radiant novel from the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.