Zelah Green (Review)

Zelah Green – Vanessa Curtis
(7 stars)

‘My name is Zelah Green and I’m a cleanaholic.’

I spend most of my day running away from germs. And dirt. And people. And I’m just about doing OK and then my stepmother packs me off to some kind of hospital to live with a load of strangers. It’s stuck in the middle of nowhere. Great.

There’s Alice who’s anorexic. Caro who cuts herself. Silent Sol who has the cutest smile.
And then there’s me.

Let me start by admitting that I didn’t expect to enjoy Zelah Green very much. I went into reading it expecting it to be somewhat forgettable.

So, of course, I loved it.

The teenagers that Zelah encounters at the hospital (which is actually a house with two live-in doctors) were diverse, and they all had well put-together backstories. As the main character, Zelah was naturally the most developed of them all, but my other favourites were Caro and Lib. Lib especially fascinated me; and I would have loved to know more about her (though I’ve been told there’s a sequel, hopefully she’ll be in it). 

Unfortunately, despite the appeal of the main characters, I thought that some of the secondary characters were a little two-dimensional. The stepmother in particular was a stereotype; I mean come on, an evil stepmother? Need I say more?

For a book about a girl with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, living in a house full of teenagers with mental sicknesses, it was unexpectedly light-hearted. Yes, it had its sad moments, and it had its serious moments, but for the most part, Zelah narrated her story with a refreshing sort of cheery neuroticism (isn’t that a nice sort of contrast, cheery neuroticism? Don’t you agree?). Having said that, I sometimes got the feeling that the story was too light for its subject matter. There were a few points in the book where I wished Zelah would struggle more with overcoming her disorder; she seemed to improve too much, too fast.

The other thing I wasn’t entirely sold on was the concept of a house that held multiple teenagers, all with different problems, but only two supervising doctors. I admittedly have no idea what the many procedures for curing these kinds of things are, but the whole ‘house’ idea seemed a bit too…fun. Again, I thought the situation was handled too lightly for the subject matter.

Despite this, I genuinely enjoyed the story. It was a quick read, not particularly demanding in language or in length. I think it would be perfectly acceptable for most teens.

As for the sequel, I really don’t know. I enjoyed the first one, but I don’t really see how it would progress from where it ended (I’m trying desperately not to ruin the ending – it’s hard!), and I really hate sequels that lessen the quality of the first book. Having said that, I was reluctant to pick up this one; maybe Vanessa Curtis will impress me again. 

Have a great day everyone
- Kore