Claire Legrand

Finley Hart is sent to her grandparents' house for the summer, but her anxiety and overwhelmingly sad days continue until she escapes into her writings which soon turn mysteriously real and she realizes she must save this magical world in order to save herself.

Some Kind of Happiness

Claire put into words what many children feel every day but weren't able to express:  

Depression and anxiety. Finley, an 11 year old girl, has to come to terms with these words while grown adults can't even admit it to themselves. Finley is a very important character for children to read about and see represented in their literature. 

Bianca

Spoilers ahead:  

 

 

Claire put into words what many children feel every day but weren't able to express:  

 

Depression and anxiety. Finley, an 11 year old girl, has to come to terms with these words while grown adults can't even admit it to themselves. Finley is a very important character for children to read about and see represented in their literature. 

Michaella 

Stef

I don't really like the main character here, but the author make the story interesting with revealing their secret layer by layer. It made me curious about the story more.

Kirsten Simkiss

This is a very specific brand of family trauma, and that specific brand was MY specific brand. Nothing like growing up in a large family where the head of the family is your grandparents on one side with a big house and where no one talks about the unpleasant problems that they should absolutely talk about, they just pretend they didn't happen and you have to glean it from others what details you can to put together a more complete story. That's my specific kind of family trauma. Now the book's circumstances are a lot more dramatic than what my family doesn't talk about, but the situation is damn familiar.

I thought the book handled the perspective of an eleven year old struggling with mental illness very well. The doubt that their sadness is valid in the face of others' struggles, the not wanting to talk about it yet, the feeling alone - it's a very real feeling that a lot of people, even children, go through. I think it's especially true of children worried about their parents' impending divorces.

It's not a book I can see myself rereading, but it's a very well crafted story and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I would happily recommend this to others, but with a few content warnings.

Mary Horton

I knew this was going to be a very feelsy book, but I had no idea that it was going to be one of the most emotionally touching stories I've ever read. PLEASE EXCUSE ME WHILE I CRY IN A CORNER FOR 1,382 YEARS.

Okay, first off, THE CHARACTERS. This is one of the most important factors of a book for me, and gosh, did this author outdo herself with these charries. I just want to hug Finley forever and let her know it's okay. (And Jack...don't even get me started on Jack.) 

Another thing that absolutely blew me out of the water was the writing. SERIOUSLY. It's absolutely brilliant, and I may or may not be in shock from it all. I never thought it would be possible for me to actually like first person present tense...but this book proved me wrong, and I love it for that.

Then there were the themes. Deep, powerful themes that punch you in the gut. The main character Finley struggles with anxiety and depression, and I felt so connected to her, even though I don't personally have either one. But this book's themes resonated in my heart. It tells you that it's okay to feel sad. And it's okay to ask people for help. Sometimes it's just easier to shove our problems under the door and pretend they don't exist. It's less painful that way. Less vulnerable. But hiding our problems doesn't make them go away. We have to realize that it's okay to experience sadness, and it's okay to not be the "perfect person."

As far as content is concerned, I was a bit surprised that there was actually a curse word used, as well as multiple uses of God's name in vain. It's labeled as a middle-grade book so I guess I wasn't expecting anything like that? (Though I guess most people think taking God's name in vain is acceptable in today's society. I personally don't believe that. *shrugs*) I have a really low tolerance for language, and I don't condone it all. Buuuuut I can't help loving this book anyway. So yes, there's a little bit of stuff that I could do without, but this book is absolutely amazing besides that. <3

Some Kind of Happiness made me sob. It touched me more than a book has in I-don't-know-how-long. And I'm so glad that it started off my year, reminding me that life is a beautiful thing: a blended painting of sadness and happiness.

Emily

Emily S

~grab your tissues, because we’ve just come across the biggest surprise of the year with this one~ 

Brief synopsis: Finley Hart has never met her extended family, for reasons she has never known. However, in the midst of a difficult season for her parents, she’s dropped off with her grandparents for the summer, and it changes everything.

I legitimately knew a grand total of NOTHING before going into this book (besides how beautiful the cover is, because HELLO STUNNING). It took a little bit to get started for me, but once it did, I was an emotional wreck for the whole weekend. 

This book is *heavy* and *heartbreaking* and deals with broken families, broken individuals, and anxiety/depression (but also beautiful families, lovable individuals, and a necessary focus on mental health). All I’m saying is, don’t go into it lightly. 

Recommended for:
- seasonal readers, because does this feel like summer meets CLOUDS, or what?
- lovers of fairy tales
- those looking for a combination of Summer of Salt, Turtles All the Way Down, Bridge to Terabithia, and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, but for a middle grade audience
- those needing a good cry or to feel continually gut punched for days on end

Seriously, incredible. Hard. Exceedingly sad. And incredible. 

4.5 ⭐️

Reality and fantasy collide in this “beautiful and reflective tale” (Booklist, starred review) for fans of Counting by 7s and Bridge to Terabithia, about a girl who must save a magical make-believe world in order to save herself. Things Finley Hart doesn’t want to talk about: -Her parents, who are having problems. (But they pretend like they’re not.) -Being sent to her grandparents’ house for the summer. -Never having met said grandparents. -Her blue days—when life feels overwhelming, and it’s hard to keep her head up. (This happens a lot.) Finley’s only retreat is the Everwood, a forest kingdom that exists in the pages of her notebook. Until she discovers the endless woods behind her grandparents’ house and realizes the Everwood is real—and holds more mysteries than she’d ever imagined, including a family of pirates that she isn’t allowed to talk to, trees covered in ash, and a strange old wizard living in a house made of bones. With the help of her cousins, Finley sets out on a mission to save the dying Everwood and uncover its secrets. But as the mysteries pile up and the frightening sadness inside her grows, Finley realizes that if she wants to save the Everwood, she’ll first have to save herself.

Martha Wildman

It's very good, but also super depressing. Definitely not a light read. It didn't make me cry, but it did make me just sort of sit there for a while. Gets even more depressing when you realise how old she is.

Jessica Nottingham

Can I give this book 10 stars? This makes me want to go back and change my review system so that there's something higher than every other book that I've rated as a 5 this year, because that's how much this story affected me. Some Kind of Happiness was one of the toughest books I've read this year. Although the story was absolutely breathtaking, I kept having to put it down and take a breather. It's not easy to read about yourself in a book. To find that the author understands what you're going through so intimately that you feel like your insides are being exposed to the world. I felt for Finley, I loved Finley, because I was Finley, and that made me feel raw.
 
I know that you're probably all tired of hearing my spiel on how amazing the world of Middle Grade books can be. It's something that I say a lot, but the truth of the matter is that it hasn't gotten any less accurate as a statement. Claire Legrand could have chosen to write an adult book about depression and anxiety. She could have chosen to write a Young Adult book. Somehow though, they wouldn't have worked as well as Finley's story does. Seeing a 10 year old girl who is dealing with these feelings, who feels like she has to lock them up inside so that no one knows she's broken, just hits home so damn hard. I don't know if I ever felt like Finley when I was 10, or if I just ignored it because it wasn't "normal", or if I just blocked it out of my memory. What I do know is that now, even as an adult, I can see myself as that 10 year old girl. Struggling with the blue days, trying to motivate myself to get up and do the things that you're supposed to do. It's all the more real because she's so young, and not afraid to be honest with the reader.
 
There's this gorgeous balance here between fantasy and reality. Much like we escape into our books to forget the world, Finley escapes into her writing about the Everwood. These excerpts from Finley's writing, the moments when she would stop talking about herself and start talking about the "orphan queen" just stuck with me. To deal with the emotions, to deal with the pain, she poured all of that into her alter ego. Into her fiction. I read a lot of Fantasy to this day, for that very reason. To hide in another world. To find myself in someone else for a while so that I can stop being me. Claire Legrand's character was so rich, so honest, so real, that she had my whole heart this entire novel. She ripped it to shreds, and pasted it back together. I sobbed, I sniffled, and I kept reading because sometimes you need that.
 
I guess this isn't really a review anymore at this point. It's more me letting you know that this book has become deeply personal to me. It's well-written, yes. Claire Legrand has a way with words that is hard to explain. It's also full of all kinds of people who are real people. Flawed, liars, secret-keepers, with pasted on smiles to make other people feel comfortable. Structurally this book is fairly perfect, but that's not what I was focusing on. It was the emotion poured into this book. It was the characters who I understood on such a deep level that it was like I was right there with them. It was the moments of lighthearted childhood, mixed in with the blue days and the sadness. It's like this book was written just for me.
 
It'll be a long time before I'm able to read this again, but that's okay. I think it's burned into my memory and it's not going anywhere. Finley is a part of me, and I'm a part of her, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Dani C

A combination of The Chronicles of Narnia and a middle grade version of The Magicians. An adventurous tale that explores the meaning of family and realistically portrays depression and anxiety. I will likely recommend Some Kind of Happiness to quite a few friends.

Some Kind of Happiness

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