The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane (Epub)

Description

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.

User’s Reviews

One of Bustle’s 8 Best YA Books of December 2016 “It is a great read for teens, especially girls, and a strong candidate for cross-generation discussion.” —VOYA “Now that the title has captured our attention, I have even better news: No, this book isn’t a history lesson about a president. Much more wonderfully, it centers on teenager Zander Osborne, who meets a boy named Grover Cleveland at a camp for at-risk youth. Together, the two and other kids who face bipolar disorder, anorexia, pathological lying, schizophrenia, and other obstacles use their group therapy sessions to break down and build themselves back up. And as Zander gets closer to Grover, she wonders if happiness is actually a possibility for her after all.” —Bustle“The true beauty of Crane’s book lies in the way she handles the ugly, painful details of real life, showing the glimmering humanity beneath the façades of even her most troubled characters. As these characterizations deepen, and the sweetly strange romance between the heroine and her hero develops, readers will only be pulled deeper into this addictive, readable journey. Crane shows, with enormous heart and wisdom, how even the unlikeliest of friendships can give us the strength we need to keep on fighting.” —RT Book

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ As I make my way through my library of First Reads that I have accumulated, I landed on this one and wish I had read it sooner. It was really good and it read very fast. I felt invested in all the characters and their stories, even though you still feel parts are missing in a way. I will say the therapist part had to cringe a bit at times, mostly about lack of supervision at night and forming romantic relationships while in crisis, but I still enjoyed the story and the overall message. I would also say I would believe the growth more if the camp lasted longer, rarely does the growth come that fast. I will say that it can if you are really ready though. I’ve known many Cassies, and I hope for them too.

⭐ I don’t know how a young adult will feel about this book, as I’m 60.This is better written than a lot of YA books that I’ve read. I appreciate that it wasn’t overly obsessed with sex (yes, they’re teenagers so it’s definitely on their minds, but it doesn’t overwhelm). The ultimate crisis left me guessing as it could have gone so many ways from there. And perhaps it all cleaned up too nicely to be realistic, but what do you want in a few pages?I do think it’s important that teenagers (and everyone else trying to find themselves), have peer support as well as loving parental (or surrogate) support, as each is different and both are necessary. Broken people can help each other. Healthy people can provide love and hope. Time to build trust is critical, but sometimes a little bullying is appropriate. Could this really happen at summer camp? Perhaps. Or perhaps the second year or the third year. Can everyone be saved? Maybe not. But people will insist on surprising you.

⭐ This book started out great. Zander (a girl) is sent to a summer camp for teens in emotionally heightened states. The camp is 5 themed weeks to help the kids deal with their problems. The different characters are unique enough that the story feels like its about the whole group of characters, not just Zander. The story takes on a tone which is both serious and lighthearted at the same time. It was executed so well for the first part of the group that I was immediately engrossed with the read.By about halfway, however, the tone started to change a little bit. The romance that wasn’t the forefront of the story up until this point became the forefront for awhile. The serious tone that I loved so much started to be touched on more lightly than before instead of becoming more serious (like I had anticipated). As I got closer to the end, the book became more and more of a fluffy, feel-good read and started to become even more unrealistic. The beginning was so believable, but by the end it was just another everything-works-out, happily ever after kind of novel that was trying a bit too hard.That’s not to say it wasn’t a good read. It was an easy, fast paced read that was very compelling. I loved the even mix of tone at the beginning. I still enjoyed the book; I was just a little disappointed by the end when it started with such great potential.RatingI would give this book a 3 out of 5. If you like a light contemporary that’s got more going on than just a romance, then this is a great book. If it looks like your kind of book, then I would definitely recommend. It’s worth a read through, but it’s nothing amazing that I’ll have the desire to give a second read.

⭐ This book was entertaining, but I had a lot of problems with it. What is with this summer camp? Why do there not seem to be any qualified mental health counselors there but only college students majoring in psychology? Does anyone there have an MSW or an LCSW? Why do they not require a diagnosis to enroll? Why do they not specialize in a particular diagnosis but instead focus on the vaguely described “kids with a heightened mental or emotional state”? This camp seems completely illegitimate for kids with real mental health issues—a scam. Also, the book really seems to cheapen and even mock mental health treatment. The things the counselors say to the kids in group therapy sessions seem to be poorly researched and cliché. Ultimately the message seems to be that getting laid at camp is a better treatment for mental health issues than treatment by qualified professionals.

⭐ I am not a young adult, not for some 50 years now, but I found the book quite enjoyable. The characters were intriguing and more complex than I’d thought they would be after reading the overview. When I was a young adult, I attended a faith based summer camp and while I don’t remember it being a place expressly for troubled teens, I was one in some ways. Throughout the book, I found myself relating to the mix of personalities, the feelings of wanting to belong and at the same time wanting to be invisible, the slow but inevitable growth that takes place. It brought back strange but not unpleasant memories. The ending was predictable but sweet, appropriate for a book like this. While likely intended for a much younger audience, it was an entertaining read… one I will recommend.

⭐ Teen girls are the right audience for this one. Parents would approve of it except for the sex between the protagonist and the titled namesake character. It’s not too graphic, it’s that there is not even a hint that sex between two troubled teens might not be wise or moral. Okay I guess I’m a fuddy-duddy. The character growth and happy ending are predictable for adults, but probably not for young teens. Reminds me of books I read in junior high school in anticipation of becoming a high-schooler. The difference was those books culminated in a girls first kiss, not her first roll in the hay. Though the outline is still showing, it is a story nicely told in a wry teenager’s voice, that kept me interested enough to read the whole thing. I bet her next book is even better. She’s got a talent for plotting and I wish her well.

⭐ I wasn’t exactly swept away when I first started this book, but it did get better as it went along. I ended up being unable to put it down towards the end, though it was predictable.I felt like the story wasn’t actually about the protagonist, Zander, at all, and it sort of became a book about her roommate Cassie. Cassie in my opinion was the strongest and most believable character. I just wish the author would have put as much effort into her other characters as she did with Cassie. The others fell a little flat.The writing is decent, typical of a YA novel. I’ll give the author credit, I personally hate present tense writing but she did a pretty good job with it. It didn’t feel distracting to me like present tense writing normally does.Overall I was pleasantly surprised and happy to have stumbled on this book.

⭐ I am an adult that sometimes reads YA novels-no shame here. I definitely liked this book, but I think there is a YA audience that will love it more than I liked it. It’s like a modern day Breakfast Club at Summer Camp. Zander, a teenage girl whose parents send her to a camp that is geared towards at-risk teenagers. There she meets Grover Cleveland, Alex Trebek and Cassie (yes those are their names). I found Grover and Bek (Alex) to be quite endearing, but Cassie, well, she does not have an endearing bone in her body. But, she has her reasons. Zander sees that and tries to be there for Cassie even when the friendship is not always reciprocated. I actually liked the relationship between those two just as much, if not more than the one between Grover and Zander. It’s a predictable, but good and quick read. I can’t wait to read others by this author!

⭐ Welcome to Camp Padau—‘Crazy Camp’ or, as the brochure proclaims, a camp for “kids with heightened mental or emotional states.” This book is a journey through the emotional landscape of kids who see the rough side of life far too early. Kids who have endured things that can and do break most of us at any age. I think this book put me in a heightened emotional state as I went from fits of uncontrollable laughter to bouts of reading with tears rolling down my cheeks. And what an amazing experience it was.The author has a smooth and easygoing writing style that gently pulls us along for the ride, occasionally slinging us into a wall of teenage emotions. The story is told from Zander’s POV—the girl who isn’t there for depression, or cutting, or suicidal tendencies, or an eating disorder, but because “my parents signed me up.” The truth is that the kids are there for any number of reasons, some because they have to be and some because they want to be.There’s Grover Cleveland, a tall, lanky boy, named by a father who talks to dead presidents and who just so happens to have a fortuitous last name for christening his son appropriately. Grover is maddeningly captivating as a boy who lives his life by the odds… or maybe he’s just acknowledging them. And there’s Cassie, a girl who has spent her life shuffled from foster home to foster home who wears sarcasm and contempt like high tensile barbed wire to keep people from getting too close. And adorable Alex Trebek, the pudgy kid, who has a penchant for compulsive lying… except when it comes to love. It’s a wonderful cast of characters that will steal your heart, break it, and patch it back together again.I can’t say it enough—read this book. It’s a journey. It’s life. We’re all broken and that’s okay, because we survive… sometimes against the odds.

⭐ Are extremely high… I love the way Rebekah Crane write dialogue between her characters.. she’s quite witty. I’ve noticed this in another book of hers (the upside of falling down) the main character Zander finds herself in a camp for at risk teens and the cast of characters are the charming Grover Cleveland and his friend Alex Trebec. t’s a sweet story of misfits forming lasting friendships. But the story pivots around her roommate Cassie who Zander befriends. Through the process of caring for Cassie she gives Cassie hope and in return Zander finds herself being healed as well. What are the odds?

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