Four Weeks, Five People

by Jennifer Yu

Obsessive-compulsive teen Clarissa wants to get better, if only so her mother will stop asking her if she's okay. Andrew wants to overcome his eating disorder so he can get back to his band and their dreams of becoming famous. Film aficionado Ben would rather live in the movies than in reality. Gorgeous and overly confident Mason thinks everyone is an idiot. And Stella just doesn't want to be back for her second summer of wilderness therapy.

• ISBN10: 0373212305
• ISBN13: 9780373212309
• Publish Date: 2 May 2017 (first published 1 May 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Harlequin Teen
• Edition: Original ed.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Julie @ Struck by Stories]

Intro:

Okay, so before I get started, I would just like to establish a few things. One, no, I’m not just doing this for the sheer thrills. As a passionate book-lover, it literally *pains* me to trash on another book, no matter how much I’m not into it. But in this case (as you’ll see soon) I feel like it’s really necessary. Because Four Weeks, Five People, in addition to being a (regrettably) poorly written novel, is actually, quite frankly, kind of dangerous (and no, this is not an exaggeration!)

Two, for those of you wondering whether or not I will continue to write negative reviews like this, the answer is most likely going to be no unless I deem it necessary (sorry!) As someone who’s struggled with writing in the past, I know how much effort goes into writing a book, and I just can’t bring myself to do this unless the book crosses some serious lines, as this one clearly did.

Three, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THIS BOOK, so read at your own caution!

And finally, my apologies if at some point I start to dip into swearing, because I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to control my pure hatred of this book!

 

 

To begin, I just want to start by saying I had every intention of trying to enjoy this book when I started it. The cover, combined with the setting at a summer camp, just screamed like something I should dive into before the summertime ends. And that’s why I chose this book as one of the books for my Magical Readathon challenge. Honestly, if it wasn’t for that, I would’ve easily DNF’d it right from about the 15% mark. But I knew I had to push through it to get credit for the challenge, and I guess part of me just hoped that it would get better (spoiler: it didn’t). Anyways, here’s a list I’ve compiled of everything I’ve deemed wrong with the book.

Strike #1. The Mental Illness Portrayal Was Just HORRIBLE

Okay, so I’m not sure how many of you know this, but for some time, I’ve struggled a lot much with social anxiety and depression, in addition to ADD, autism spectrum, motor dyspraxia, and the slightest touch of OCD and mild body image issues (I know, a mouthful, am I right?). So well-written books about mental health tend to have a truly special place in my heart. And I won’t lie when I say that I got excited when I found out that this was going to center in large part around mental health. Maybe you can blame that on the fact that I just recently read Coral by Sara Ella which was just FANTASTIC with its mental health rep/handling.

However, it was fairly clear from the beginning that the author had literally no idea what she was doing. For one, the OCD character only expressed the stereotypical aspect of it that entails the excessive need to count numbers. And this alone wouldn’t have been too bad, except for the fact that the reader is given absolutely *no* context for why certain numbers are safe for this character, and others are not.

And actually, now that I’m on this train of thought, hardly any of the mental illnesses were given any context as to how they were developed. We really only get to hear the backstory of a male anorexic character (which actually, come to think about it, was probably the only moderately beneficial part of this whole book, showing a boy going through an eating disorder.)

I’m only going to say this once. When you write a mental health book, YOU NEED TO MENTION HOW THEY GOT TO THAT POINT IN THE FIRST PLACE. Honestly, it *bewilders* me how this book was able to get past countless people in the publishing process without making a point to address that.

And TBH, from the perspective of a member of the mental health community, I was very triggered by just how offensive and crass the author handled such an important topic in today’s society. Seriously. I beg you, if you happen to be reading this, please check out the introduction that Sara Ella wrote to Coral when it’s released this November. She wrote a beautiful note about how what she was writing could be triggering to some of her readers, in addition to addressing the delicate care in which she took while writing such a sensitive topic, which I feel like is especially necessary because people with mental health problems are (quite obviously, I might add) going to represent a significant percent of the sale/profit of a book centered around mental health.

Strike #2. The Characters Were Downright AWFUL

I’m sorry to say this was the first time in my life that I haven’t been able to find a single character that I enjoyed reading about. Stella was a total bitch, Mason was a total asshole, Ben was beyond-weird (a character á la John Green), Carissa was too much, and I only mildly tolerated Andrew because I could kind of see where he was coming from with his anorexia.

And to make it worse, by the end of the novel, none of the characters showed any true development. I kind of get where the author was trying to go with the whole “it’s okay not to be okay” ending, but that only works if the characters accept what they’re going through and try to strive to do better in the future.

Unfortunately, the only message I got was more along the lines of “if you have mental illness, GOOD LUCK GETTING OVER IT BECAUSE LIKE HELL IT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN” which is especially downright dangerous if you happen to get a suicidal person reading it. I mean, really. What good does Jennifer Yu think she’s doing sending a message like that?

Strike #3. The Camp Itself Should Have Been Condemned For SEVERE Malpractice and Neglect

This, right here, is what I think I hated the most about this novel. The camp, where each of these kids were supposed to find solace and redemption, was a downright ABOMINATION. I kid you not when I say that one of the MCs quoted this camp as being priced at a whopping $20,000. Which wouldn’t be bad in and of itself until you realize the COUNTLESS crimes that were committed by the staff, most of which revolve around severe neglect and malpractice in handling teens with associated mental health problems.

A.) Stella (aka the bitch character) was literally allowed to get away with bringing EVERY SINGLE ONE of the banned items on the list. This included, and I quote, “cell phones, other electronics, spiral-bound notebooks, hair straighteners and curlers, earrings, mechanical pencils, keys, blades, and knives,” mostly ALL of which could have been used as means of self harming and suicide. Like, what the hell??? Who in their right mind doesn’t perform a fucking quality bag check for kids that not only have mental health issues, but some of which have actually attempted to take their own lives?

B.) On literally Day 1, EVERY SINGLE ONE of the 5 MCs gets away with getting drunk in their rooms. It’s one thing to miss a few items in someone’s suitcase, but it’s a completely different ballgame when these characters are allowed to get away with the repeated and EXCESSIVE use of said items for the entire month.

Furthermore, since the night checks are only performed every 2 hours (and at the same exact times each day, to boot) the characters are basically allowed to get away with anything and everything (including walking into the wilderness in the middle of the night.)

C.) In no imaginable universe should it be possible for a fucking diagnosed anorexic to be able to get away with not eating AT the damned mental health camp. Since all the teens eat together in a communal space, it is BEYOND easy to get away with not eating. Andrew simply gets up and throws his meals in the trash.

If this was a normal camp, then they wouldn’t be at fault, but when you fucking ADVERTISE and PRIDE yourself on your handling of teens with mental health, that is just purely INEXCUSIBLE.

But wait, it gets worse. Said anorexic teen was forced to partake in a five-mile walk in the heat of day (in which he ultimately ends up passing out due to dangerously low blood sugar levels/dehydration.) That alone would be more than enough for his mother to file a lawsuit.

However, it didn’t end there. Towards the end of the novel, this character almost successfully committed fucking SUICIDE. He lands up in the hospital, and we never get to see him after that again.

But the worst part, even more so than the atrocities themselves, was that nothing (and I mean NOTHING) was said or done to address the critical fact that not only was this camp a terrible waste of money, but that it could also cause the teens attending to leave with more issues than they began with.

 

Strike 3, this book is out!

 

Overall rating: 1/5 stars (with .5 going to the book’s cover, which even in my current state of anger I can’t deny is a true work of art )

[Jo]

3.5 Stars.

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

Trigger Warning: This book features a suicide attempt - though not on page - and discussions of suicide. It also features the use of ableist language, and stigma surrounding mental illness - but this comes from a character whose own mental illness makes him think/say these things.

I was recommended Four Weeks, Five People by Jennifer Yu when I was looking for books featuring guys with eating disorders, and it sounded so good! A book about a therapeutic wilderness camp, in which five people with mental illnesses attend? What could be more perfect for Mental Illness in YA Month? However, although I enjoyed the story on the whole, I finished with mixed feelings.

Four Weeks, Five People has it's moments, but on the whole it felt like a nice, Summery read to me. It did feel kind of light on the whole - even though there are some really big, terrible moments - and I think that was down to the fact that there are five narrators. We don't get very much time with any of them before the book is over. Sure we get to know the characters from the other narrations, too, when they're hanging out, or doing group therapy together, or sneaking out at night, but I never felt I got to know the characters all that well. I definitely cared about them; it wasn't so bad that I felt so distanced that I wasn't affected by the things that happened. But it was a really quick read, too, and as well as not having much time with them, the four weeks went by really quickly - there were definitely days that we just didn't see, nor were we told anything that happened on those days. Sure, not every day is going to be interesting, but I do feel we didn't really see a huge amount overall. But I did enjoy what we did see, and getting to know the characters and what they experienced as much as I did.

Andrew has anorexia, and he's really struggling. He's not quite as bad as he was when the Incident happened, but he's still throwing his food away and panics whenever he has to be weighed. He's in a band, and feels he must look a certain way for the band to be successful; if he weighs over a certain amount, the band will fail, and it will be his fault, and his band mates will hate him. In group therapy, the way he feels is discussed, and it was so brilliant seeing the other campers - mainly Clarissa and Stella - talk to him about cognitive dissonance, where his thoughts are telling him something that isn't true. That was one moment that was really powerful; Andrew being so honest with everyone about what he's experiencing, and some of the other campers really trying to help, trying to get him to believe that what he thinks isn't true, and knowing this because they had experienced it themselves. Although the campers never really get to know each other hugely well, most of them do care about each other, and want each other to get better.

Ben experiences dissociation, and has bipolar. Or, rather, I assume he has bipolar, because when he's not dissociating, he is overwhelmingly emotional in one direction or the other; everything is beautiful and so wonderful, and there's so much joy, to the point where he could cry, or nothing could be worse. Stella says he has "manic depression" at one point, and Ben mentions mania, but it's otherwise never expressly said by him or the therapists that he has bipolar. Mainly, he talks about all the emotions he feels, and dissociation - and how dissociation is described is brilliant, in comparing it to watching a movie.

'The point is, you care about them as if they're real humans. But at the same time, you know, in your mind, that they're not actually real humans. You know that in half an hour, or an hour, or two hours, or  way too many hours (Michael Bay effect again here), the lights are going to come back on and the universe you've just been lost in for however long is going to disappear, and all of the people you just rooted for or cheered against or lusted after are going to vaporize, too. And so, while you care, there's always a part of you that's holding back. And sometimes, that part of you is strong enough to drown out everything else you're feeling in a sea of indifference.
That's what moments like this feel like. People always say that dissociation is when things don't feel "real," and I used to say that, too. But then I realized--that's not true. I know that I'm standing outside in the middle of a state park in upstate New York, and that I'm with four other people, and that we're all furiously avoiding eye contact with each other while waiting for the adults to start talking and tell us what to do, and that I would do anything to disappear and be somewhere else right now. Life doesn't get any realer than that.
What it does feel like is that, at any moment, the lights will come on and the credits will play, and I'll be put out of my troubled, awkward, unavoidably real misery. Sure, I'm so panicked that I can barely breathe right now, but just wait until the act-two turn! And yeah, I'm positive that everyone can already tell how terrified and pathetic I am, but I'm sure it'll all get sorted out in the closing pages of act three. Whatever mortifying thing I'm about to do or say, however much I feel like I'd rather be alone in a hole in the ground than have to talk to everyone standing here and make a total idiot of myself, even if it's so bad that I feel like I can never justify getting out of bed again--none of it matters, not really. That girl glowering in the grass will exist to the left [sic]; the boy to my right will disappear offscreen. It'll all be okay. Because that's just how movies are.' (p33-34)

And every time Ben dissociates, his narration is written like a movie script, whereas when he's not dissociating, his narration is written as prose. I thought this was such a clever device, because we automatically know whether he's dissociating or not, but we're also reminded of what that feels like for him. When he's experiencing his overwhelming joyous moments, when he talks, grammar goes out the window, and he talks in exceptionally long run-on sentences. This is probably realistic (though I couldn't say for sure), but these really long run-on sentences, where if you were to read out loud you'd barely get a chance to take a breath, you know, despite how happy he is, he is not ok right now. Sometimes even to the point of possibly being a danger to himself, because of the illogical thoughts he has where he feels like he could do anything. I really feel Ben's character was written so well.

Mason has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and he is the one character I had a real hard time with, because he is just a complete dick. I kept having to remind myself that it wasn't his fault, he has a disorder, but even then, I really, really struggled. Because he simply isn't a nice guy. He thinks everyone around him is literally so goddamn stupid, and so illogical, and always making stupid decisions or saying stupid things. He can't stand being around all these "insane" people, people who are so unintelligent, when there's absolutely nothing wrong with him. And he simply doesn't care about anyone. Really. He finds group therapy hell because he has to listen to these people while about their little problems, and he basically thinks they should just grow up and stop being so pathetic. When people are having really bad moments with their mental illness, he is annoyed at the inconvenience it causes him, and what he now has to deal with. He is just so rude, and doesn't give a damn about anybody else. And I really, really struggled with him, and I feel terrible for it, because he's ill, you know? But I hated reading his chapters and his thoughts. There were so many arguments between him and Stella, because Stella simply wouldn't take his crap, and while I felt good that someone would stand up to him, at the same time I would think, "Is this fair? He's ill. This isn't really his fault." I didn't like him, but there were moments when he tried, where he would try to act like he cared, even when he thought everything was stupid. He would try to do the right thing, even though it cost him, even though he didn't believe it, or feel it. And you've got to give him his due for trying, right? But god, I had such a hard time with him.

Clarissa has OCD, and it mostly manifests in numbers; certain numbers are safe, certain numbers aren't. She becomes overwhelmed when walking in the forest because she feels she has to count the trees, but she can't count the trees because there are so many, and what if there isn't a safe number, something bad will happen, and... you can see her panic and her thought-spirals, and it was done so well. But at the same time, out of the five, she seemed to be doing the most ok. She does talk about how she thinks the Zoloft she's recently been prescribed and the camp itself start to help, but most of the time it didn't really seem like she had much of a problem. Which is good, as it mean she's getting better. It's just her OCD isn't as prevalent as other characters' OCD in other books. Clarissa is also East Asian-American, which we only know from Ben referring to her as the Asian Girl before he knows her name, and the fact that there's an East Asian girl on the cover. Clarissa never mentions her ethnicity herself, though. Yu is herself East Asian-American, so Clarissa is possibly an #OwnVoices character.

Stella has depression, and this is the second time she's been to the camp. Stella's depression manifests in a way that I haven't seen before: anger. Had I not known already that she has depression, I would never have known. She has conversations about times when she felt like she can't get out of bed, and how she has attempted suicide, but there's nothing that happens or that she thinks during her narration that would have made me think she has depression, were it not already mentioned. I should point out here that I don't have nor have had depression, what I know about depression comes from conversations with and seeing loved ones with depression struggle with it, and from other books I've read where main characters/narrators have depression. Stella's depression doesn't "look like" how I expect depression to look. Had I not known, I would have said she was angry a lot of the time, but otherwise fine. We know that mental illness doesn't affect everyone in the same way, and Yu has had anxiety and depression herself, making this novel #OwnVoices, so she knows what she's talking about. I've just never seen depression that takes the form of anger before, and it was so interesting to see Stella's depression take this form.

Romances and friendships are formed over the course of the story, and it's not just being at the camp that has an effect on the characters, but the people they're at camp with. When it comes to the relationships made, and how most try to help each other, Four People, Five Weeks is a really lovely, moving story. And I've got to give a shout out to Josh, one of the camp counsellors, a hippie who's a little out there, but who does say some really profound things, that, while the characters were rolling their eyes, I found to be helpful for me. It was really quite beautiful watching as the characters discovered there was something to learn from Josh, and that he could actually help them. I loved him.

Four Weeks, Five People is a sweet story that I was moved by, with characters I mostly grew to really like. I do feel there should have been either fewer narrators, or the book should have been longer, for us to get to know them better, but still, a really good story I'd recommend.

This book is so important and everything I hoped it to be. I was hooked from the moment I first read the synopsis many months ago. It was one of my favorite and highly anticipated reads of 2017. I am a huge advocate for mental health and spreading awareness about the reality of the various afflictions. I loved this book because of the reality and diversity shown through the different voices and the different fonts used to distinguish and represent the characters (which is one of the best ideas/features I have ever come across). Each character portrayed a particular view of their affliction that may have other wise slipped through the cracks of society. I am so excited and grateful to Jennifer Yu for daring to write something so real and so compelling while also giving a voice to those who otherwise feel drowned out. I cannot fully articulate how this book makes me feel! I will recommend this book as a must read until I am blue in the face. One of my top books of all time! Great job Jennifer!