Belzhar

ONE OF TIME AND NPR’S TEN BEST YA BOOKS OF THE YEAR • From the New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion comes a “smart and engrossing” (School Library Journal) story of a young girl who finds solace after the tragic loss of her boyfriend at a boarding school in Vermont.

“Expect depth and razor sharp wit in this [young adult] novel from the author of The Interestings.”—Entertainment Weekly

“A prep school tale with a supernatural-romance touch.”—Glamour

There’s a place where the lost go to be found.

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, signed up for an exclusive, supposedly life-changing class called Special Topics in English that focuses—only and entirely—on the works of Sylvia Plath.

But life isn’t fair. Reeve has been gone for almost a year, and Jam is still mourning.

When a journal-writing assignment leads Jam into a mysterious other-world she and her classmates call Belzhar, she discovers a realm where the untainted past is restored, and she can feel Reeve’s arms around her once again. But, as the pages of her journal begin to fill up, Jam must confront hidden truths and ultimately decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to reclaim her loss.