Fiction for Teens

After a year of grieving from the death of her boyfriend, Jam is sent off to The Wooden Barn, a specialist school for emotionally fragile, highly intelligent teenagers. Depressed, she is reluctant to join the school, but everything changes when she is mysteriously invited to join the elite English group, Special topics in English. Along with four other students, all with very different situations and problems, Mrs Quenell reveals that they will be reading The Bell jar, by Sylvia Plath, for the entire semester.

When the students are given a journal to complete by the end of the semester, Jam and her fellow classmates find out why everyone wants to be in the class. When Jam writes in the diary she gets transported to another world called Belzhar, where she can be with her boyfriend, Reeve Maxfield. Does Mrs Quenell know what happens when students write in the journals? Will Jam finally get over the tragic death of her boyfriend?

I thought that the book was well written, as there were some sensitive subjects involved. Some parts were repetitive, however, and sometimes it got a bit boring. In the end, I did not think it would turn out that way, but perhaps it was a little unrealistic. The story is only slightly “magical” so if you don’t like fantasy then you might not mind this book as much as other fantasy ones. Overall, I thought this was an OK book! What are your thoughts on my posts so far? What do you think?