Book Review: Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

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.

Today I’m here with a review on Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer. This story is about a girl named Jam who has to leave her school and boyfriend for a school dedicated to people with “special needs.” Jam is mentally unstable after everything that has happened to her. When she is put into an advanced English class, she wonders how she got there. Then she realises that the class isn’t for the talented English students after all. Their teacher exposes them to Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and asks them to write in a journal. Of course, the journal isn’t as it seems. Belzhar is an extremely unique story that captures the essence of change. If it sounds familiar but doesn’t look familiar, the Aussie cover is different to the US one below:

In short, this book was basically perfect. The writing was spectacular. I love the author’s idea of incorporating Bell Jar. It’s an amazing story that should be shared more often. Jam and all the characters in the story were very true to character. The new ‘love interest’, Griffin, didn’t overwhelm the story and instead enhanced it. Throughout the majority of the book, I was able to empathise with Jam very well. I could understand her on a very strong level. I stayed up until 2am just to read this book because it was one of those amazing stories. I literally could not close the book.

But then. Everything went to shit. Literally, if I’d ripped out the last 10-20 pages before I read it, I probably would’ve given this book 5 stars. *Slightly spoilery ahead* Literally, the ending was so stupid. This story had the chance to express the importance of moving on. It had the chance to portray a story full of hurt and pain being turned into fullness. But then, when the reason for the hurt and pain isn’t something that people can relate to, what can that do? (View post to see spoiler)

Ultimately, this story was 90% perfect. If you’re the type of person who can deal with an ending that’s a little different then I say, go for it. The problem for me was that at the end, you find out about the beginning and it changed a lot for me. I honestly think that most people would still be able to love this though. Definitely check it out if you have some time! It’s a rather short book as well.

Which cover do you prefer? Do you think you would/did you enjoy this book?

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