Get Well Soon is a fiction book written by Julie Halpern. Julie is a middle school librarian in Chicago. She lives with her husband, Matthew Cordell, and her Siamese cat, Tobin. Her inspiration for Get Well Soon came from her own experiences as a high-schooler (she promises she’s better now). It was written for young adults and talks about the challenges facing teens who are “outsiders”.


Anna Bloom is a depressed high-schooler who has panic attacks and apparently Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Her parents don’t know what to do with her so they send her to a mental hospital. Anna doesn’t have a clue why she’s there, but she’s making friends and even has a love interest. She never wants to leave, but will she ever even have the option to get out of the hospital? One of the people Anna befriends is Sandy. Sandy tells Anna that she doesn’t get along with her parents and tried to run away to live with her grandparents (which is why she’s at the mental hospital). She also has a super buff boyfriend and has put pictures of him up all over the room. Oh yea, and she’s supposedly pregnant. Matt O. is another one of Anna’s friends. Matt has been in the hospital for months now because his family’s insurance can pay for it. Matt just happens to be friends with Anna’s love interest, Justin, also. Justin seems like the perfect match for Anna. They are interested in the same type of music, mostly the same artists, and share many of the same ideas and viewpoints. Justin also seems to like Anna back (the first person to ever like Anna). Obviously this excites her and scares her at the same time. She doesn’t know how having a boyfriend works and she also doesn’t know how to kiss right. Despite her worries, they look forward to spending all of the “free time” together that they can.
With Julie Halpern’s writing the story in guaranteed to be easy to understand and relatable to those of us who are “outsiders”. I personally am not a fan of the way Julie Halpern writes. While it’s easy to understand, it’s too simple. I like to read books that are more adult level writing. I’d imagine the storyline is at least somewhat realistic. Considering the story takes place in a mental hospital I could see most of the events actually happening.
I don’t really feel the book is worth reading if you’re not a middle-schooler. The ideas are in the writing, but the word choice used to express them seems too simple for anyone older to really appreciate them.