Name: Definitions of Indefinable Things
ISBN: 9781328498014

Whitney Taylor

All the Bright Places meets Juno in this heartbreaking, humorous novel that School Library Journal praised as "an emotionally engrossing and powerful exploration of depression and healing." Follow three teens as they learn that there are no one-size-fits-all definitions of depression, friendship, and love.

Definitions of Indefinable Things

Raven 

this is singlehandedly one of my favorite books. literally everything about it is just..yes.

Reggie isn’t really a romantic: she’s been hurt too often, and doesn’t let people in as a rule. Plus, when you’re dealing with the Three Stages of Depression, it’s hard to feel warm and fuzzy. When Reggie meets Snake, though, he doesn’t give her much of a choice. Snake has a neck tattoo, a Twizzler habit, and a fair share of arrogance, but he’s funny, charming, and interested in Reggie. Snake also has an ex-girlfriend who's seven months pregnant. Good thing Reggie isn’t a romantic. Definitions of Indefinable Things follows three teens as they struggle to comprehend love, friendship, and depression—and realize one definition doesn’t always cover it.

celene

-wow,,, i mean :((( uhm,,, this made me cry like a baby like what the fudge :((( i may not agree w how the mcs sometimes do or say stuff but yeah wow the author really depicted depression in like a raw and deep way wc just makes cry more and make me aware how depression impacts people differently and at the same time quite the same,,, (idk i just relate to these teens who has depression and made me realize a lot about it) 

-i love reggie and snake love my bbs :(( and seeing (reading) how they grew up, how they progress and just makes me cry like a mom proud of their children 

-i really the climax the part,,, wow like im- i cant even articulate how like-

-girl friendships are awesome <3

-POLKA my babie :((( hes such precious bean love his friendship w reggie esp their last part w each other it made me bawl my eyes out :(( 

-the precious moments towards the end <3 carla x reggie x snake

jess

I received this ARC from Chapters Indigo. 

While I think that this book was good in some ways, it was also very, very, frustrating to read. First of all, I didn't like Reggie that much. I feel like she was far too aggressive, disrespectful, and rude most of the time for me to like reading from her perspective. It seemed kind of unrealistic how she acted towards most people, actually, and how they still liked her, because when I'm pissy towards people Because Depression, people tend to never speak to me again. She was incredibly relatable, though, especially her mom. Because. That's my mom. Except whiter. 

I did like how depression was portrayed as different between people and within people. Sometimes you have a trigger and sometimes you don't. There are good days and there are bad days. And the mood swings were also really realistic. What I didn't like about this portrayal is how Reggie was excusing her bad behaviour with "it's depression," because, yeah, depression can make you an asshole, but that's not an excuse for being an asshole. I also liked that it was, on the whole, pretty light and that there wasn't talk about suicidal thoughts, because as much as Suicidal Thoughts is a huge part of depression, depression without suicidal ideation is important and definitely not talked about as much as it should be. I'd say the portrayal of depression was really well-done. 

I felt, partially, like the "love is a cure for depression" was happening a bit. I didn't particularly care for Snake, or Carla, or any of the characters, really. And I'm not a fan of the "happy people are just stupid" mentality, which is all over this book. (view spoiler)[And while it's a happy ending it came on too fast because, gee, it was too happy. (hide spoiler)]

Paige Green

Rating: 5/5

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 15+ (strong language, mature scenes, and trigger warnings for depression.)

I received a free copy of this book from KidLitExchange. All opinions are my own. Want to join? Check them out on their new website!

Reggie isn’t really a romantic: she’s been hurt too often, and doesn’t let people in as a rule. Plus, when you’re dealing with the Three Stages of Depression, it’s hard to feel warm and fuzzy. When Reggie meets Snake, though, he doesn’t give her much of a choice. Snake has a neck tattoo, a Twizzler habit, and a fair share of arrogance, but he’s funny, charming, and interested in Reggie.

Snake also has an ex-girlfriend who's seven months pregnant. Good thing Reggie isn’t a romantic.

Definitions of Indefinable Things follows three teens as they struggle to comprehend love, friendship, and depression—and realize one definition doesn’t always
cover it. – Amazon.com



I have never had a book that I received for free that I’ve pressed the “Add To My Wishlist” button on so fast! From the very beginning this book grabs you by your t-shirt collar and forces you to listen to it. It’s a beautiful book, but more of an open letter, to readers about what true depression and mental illness looks like. I thought the character development was amazingly well done and the plot developed amazingly well. The pacing wasn’t too fast or too slow, and flowed very well. The writing also flows very nicely and the writing is very easy to understand. For a book that seeks to be different than other contemporaries out there, it certainly does so. 

The only complaint I have is a spoiler in the book. I will say that I do not like how the author wrote that scene and I don’t like how that scene was handled (and how that character was wrote, but hey she was very realistic to how some people feel about mental illness sadly enough). I also was not a big fan of the twist and the appearance of one of my most hated clichés in the YA genre, I did like how that was handled and how it was so strikingly different then other YA novels in that regard. Yes I realize how much this paragraph does not make sense, but I do NOT want to spoil this novel for you!

Verdict: I thought this book was amazingly well done and was so inspiring to someone who has struggled with depression and could be equally or more for younger readers who have went or are going through what Reggie is. The book also was very realistic and while some of the moments in the book might be too mature for younger readers, it deserves to be read. I also want to praise this book for its inclusion of diverse LGBT characters and in different families. I don’t often read books which have wide variety in what a family is and to read one that has different examples of how families can look like is very refreshing and real. I can’t tell you enough to read this book, so I’ll do it again: READ THIS BOOK!!!!!

zaynah

jini

genie !!

"Follows three teens in a small town whose lives intersect in ways they never expected, teaching them that there are no one-size-fits-all definitions of depression, friendship, and love"--

Definitions of Indefinable Things

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