This book is something.

I picked Meg Wolitzer's Belzhar up because the gist sounds promising and when I searched the book on Goodreads, the bookish community have mixed opinions on this one hence I braved the storm and try to give my own take on this book.

In my opinion, this book has good intention to represent but lacked in clever execution. I know I may sound bias with this but this one was published way before the world became awake with many societal issues that were being considered nowadays. The story revolved on five teens who were at a recovery facility called The Wooden Barn and enrolled at a mysterious class called Special Topics on English under the supervision of Mrs. Q. With their involvement with each other's 'fragile' lives comes a bigger responsibility for every one which is to always look out for each other. But their class will never be branded special without a reason and the mystery unravel right before their eyes with a huge dilemma involving their past and their future.

As I said before, I expected this one to be an astounding #ownvoices gem yet there were some goods that were not clearly delivered well. I love the entirety of the gist but the storyline focused on Jam Gallaghue and Reeve Maxfield's relationship rather than exploring the character development of both which would be way better than the former. Though the ending made the Jam-Reeve emotional dispute way clearer, the mystery of the Belzhar fell off and so the rest of the story.

Overall, I enjoyed the first 200 pages of the book (which is 80% of it) so I'll still give this one a decent rating. Ciao.

RATING: 3stars