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 Sometimes a book just instantly clicks with you and Belzhar was just that book for me. I was immediately drawn into Jam's conflicts and her life at The Wooden Barn because of how organic and realistic it felt. Though Belzhar experiments with otherworldly elements, it never loses touch with reality and manages to be extremely touching and captivating. Meg Wolitzer understands teenagers and this translates into genuinely drawn out characters and relationships. 
 Jam is sent to The Wooden Barn after suffering through the traumatic loss of her British boyfriend. Jam doesn't think she will ever get through this bump in the road and she is surprised when she is chosen to be apart of an extremely exclusive class called Special Topics. Through this class, she manages to be apart of something far grander than she expected and is transported to a fantasy-like world. 
 Readers will definitely be divided on Jam's character, but I will quickly jump to her defense. Jam spends the beginning portion of this novel mourning the loss of her boyfriend and lamenting what could've been. It feels like the world is over for Jam and some readers may be annoyed with how her relationship seems to dominate her life. The thing is that Jam is only 16 and that it was her first relationship with a guy, plus she expected him to be the one. Losing the one you love is extremely difficult and I empathized with Jam right from the start. 
 The Special Topics class was an enigma that I loved to read about and it gave me Breakfast Club feels. Here in this class, misfits from different backgrounds and social standings are united because of a common unifying force. The teacher, Mrs. Quenell was a force to be reckoned with and I loved how Wolitzer shed light on her while still leaving much of her character a mystery. I would've loved to learned a bit more about Mrs. Q, but what we did learn about her was fascinating. 
 The relationships that form between the characters in the Special Topics class was one of my favorite aspects of the book. I always love when outsiders come together and defy society in their own way by just being themselves. Reading about the characters supporting each other and giving each other the courage to face their pasts was something special. Each character has their own unique story and it felt liberating to watch each character make themselves vulnerable in front of their class and face their thorny pasts. 
 Belzhar is a fantasy world in which the characters live in a state of ecstasy where the past no longer can haunt them. We all crave our own Belzhar and Wolitzer explores how people always want to live out a fantasy and hide from the real world. Though the journals are never fully explained, I think this was the best outcome for this novel. There was something so magical and fantastic about them that explaining them would help destroy their enchanting effect. 
 One of my sole issues with Belzhar lies in the way this novel is resolved because it felt too good to be true. Wolitzer ties up the loose ends in this novel so quickly that the ending feels like it isn't incomplete and that it was overly simplified. One of the major conflicts of this novel is solved almost effortlessly and it killed me to see such a clever plot-line being reduced to such ridiculousness. 
 Belzhar is a clever novel that explores what it takes to put ourselves back together after a tragedy. Meg Wolitzer has impressed me with her YA debut and I'll definitely be checking out her adult novels. Belzhar is a strange mix of fantasy and coming-of-age elements that surprisingly worked; it's rare for a novel to live up to my expectations, but Wolitzer's latest definitely didn't disappoint.