The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland
Summary:
According to sixteen-year-old Zander Osborne, nowhere is an actual place—and she’s just fine there. But her parents insist that she get out of her head—and her home state—and attend Camp Padua, a summer camp for at-risk teens.
Zander does not fit in—or so she thinks. She has only one word for her fellow campers: crazy. In fact, the whole camp population exists somewhere between disaster and diagnosis. There’s her cabinmate Cassie, a self-described manic-depressive-bipolar-anorexic. Grover Cleveland (yes, like the president), a cute but confrontational boy who expects to be schizophrenic someday, odds being what they are. And Bek, a charmingly confounding pathological liar.
But amid group “share-apy” sessions and forbidden late-night outings, unlikely friendships form, and as the Michigan summer heats up, the four teens begin to reveal their tragic secrets. Zander finds herself inextricably drawn to Grover’s earnest charms, and she begins to wonder if she could be happy. But first she must come completely unraveled to have any hope of putting herself back together again. (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)
Review:
This book was one that I had been sitting on for a while, but decided to pick up when I wanted something on the lighter end of the spectrum. The book is more about the dynamic between Cassie and Zander and I was glad that it didn’t fall into too much of a predictable pattern. Some of the reviews I saw thought the end was expected, but to be honest I was surprised by it and really loved it.
The one thing that gave me one hesitation was that I was cognizant some aspects of the mental health was simplified. But what I did love was that Crane set up characters who were willing to accept each other completely without trying to necessarily “fix” each other. They gave each other room to grow as they were willing and then didn’t judge if they didn’t take that step. Ultimately this book was much better than I expected it to be and definitely would recommend!
Warning: Contains simplified introductions to multiple mental health challenges.
Rating: 4 stars!
Who should read it? Folks willing to taking on some heavier topics, but also understand this wouldn’t be the end-all be-all solution in reality.