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A thoroughly enjoyable YA novel with a great twist and the whiff of romance.

 

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About the Book

Despondent after the death of her boyfriend Jam is sent to The Wooden Barn, a school for troubled kids. There she is chosen to take part in a special English class, raising envy from her fellow students. Jam couldn’t give a crap, about English or anything else. Yet she and her other ‘special’ classmates soon warm to the gentle, slightly melancholic teacher and to their task to study Sylvia Plath’s Bell Jar and keep a journal. And these are no ordinary journals. When Jam writes in hers she is transported to a place where her boyfriend is alive and eagerly awaits her visits; a place she and her classmates decide to call Belzhar. The experience is different for all of them, but each time they visit Belzhar it becomes harder to return to reality. And then one of them decides never to return.

 

My Thoughts

It was impossible to go past a novel with the premise of troubled teens studying Sylvia Plath. I haven’t read Bell Jar, but I’m certainly familiar with Sylvia Plath’s life and writings, so I was intrigued to see how the author wove this into a YA novel.

Wolitzer stays true to Jam’s point of view, including her romanticised view of relationships and the flowery way she describes her feelings, and though we are allowed access to her innermost thoughts, there is a sense that Jam is holding back. Just what she’s holding back is central to how you experience this novel. Belzhar does touch on some darker themes. It uses mental health as a vehicle to create an intriguing piece of fiction, so how you feel about that as a device may colour your experience of this as a novel. As a writer I had some issues with Jam’s flowery language (do kids talk like that today?), but I could certainly tap into myself at Jam’s age and the longing to escape reality.

Belzhar definitely intrigues. I was captivated by the mystery around Belzhar and the journals. As a device, the journals and the student’s journeys to their own version of Belzhar is an innovative way to reveal the character’s backstory and deepest desires. When Jam’s secret is finally revealed it lifts Belzhar above the usual YA fare.

Both magical and very grounded, Belzhar is a memorable novel that captures the complexity of longing to escape while needing to belong and wraps it in an intriguing mystery.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster Australia for my ARC

 

About the Author

Find out more about Meg Wolitzer here

 

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