Four Weeks, Five People is an interesting YA contemporary novel following five characters who attend a wilderness therapy camp. Each of the teens have various mental health disorders that brought them here. There is a multitude of disorders covered from anorexia to OCD, narcissism to bi-polar. The characters are believable, while their disorders are portrayed realistically. I only wish that there was more to the story.

As a person who works with young people who come with all sorts of life stories, I was intrigued by the premise of this story. Five teenagers sent to deal with their issues at a summer camp specially designed for young people just like them. From eating disorders to living with OCD tendencies a range of problems are addressed as these five strangers, two girls and three boys, begin to build relationships and find a way through life.

Each character had their own voice and I have to admit I quite liked the writing style in places, particularly Ben, who in seeing the world as an observer, had his part written as a film script. I just couldn't quite see the point at times of the story - I felt like I was treading water getting nowhere fast. Perhaps this was the intention of the author but it didn't really appeal to me.

I'm sure that this book will have appeal to a young adult audience and certainly was not a sensationalized approach to dealing with some fairly serious issues. I just would have like to have felt there was overall final destination for the story and it just didn't quite get there for me.

I only liked one character, and then they ruined him! While I had hopes for this story, unfortunately the author didn't quite pull it off. The characters were a bit flat, and I felt that the disorders weren't quite accurately portrayed. The biggest flaw for me was that the book is a huge downer that also ultimately has a sad message - if you are screwed up, you will ALWAYS be screwed up. Some people will like this book, but I am not one of them.

To much going on with so many characters . I struggled to get into the story.

(I received an ARC of this book on NetGalley from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.)

This book delivered on its promise, and very little more. You get five characters (though I don’t understand Mason’s value to the book at all…) with five disorders, and they learn to love each other (mostly) and accept themselves (mostly), etc. There’s some laughter and some heartache and some hiking and some kissing and some public speaking. ;)

Very funny author whose work I’d definitely read again. Here’s a line that made me LOL:

<b>JOSH (fifties), as his nametag reads, looks like what would happen if Zach Galifianakies and Seth Rogen had a love child, and then that love child was raised in an Amish family that didn’t believe in things like haircuts, and hygiene, and shaving.</b>

Three stars for a perfectly recommendable book.

While the subject matter is intriguing and the characters are interesting and unique, the structure was poorly executed. Since it is told from a variety of perspectives I felt like I never really got clear descriptions to the events unfolding or definitive answers.

It's great to see a book which features characters with diverse mental health, but the basic premise has some issues for me and it fell flat.

This wilderness therapy camp has dozens of kids and what feels like 2 counsellors. We follow a group of 5 kids who seem to be randomly grouped together and they interact with no one else. They rarely do any activities related to therapy (a hike and a decorating project) so it's basically up to the mismatched kids to accidentally provide therapy for each other. They are remarkably insightful of each other, just not themselves. This camp seems rather irresponsible and, yeah, this premise didn't work for me.

It's great that the characters have a variety of conditions (anorexia, OCD, manic-depression, narcissism) and the book makes a point of saying they are staying away from some chiches, but that's not enough for me to recommend this book.