In Julie Halpern’s Get Well Soon, Anna Bloom has a serious case of depression. She is put into a mental hospital because there is a chance she has PSI2 (Possible Self Injury 2). She is put through a lot from the beginning of the novel, like how she has to sleep next to the front desk or being separated from her friends. It just so happens that she gets better not from the treatment, but from being around people like her and talking to them.

Anna is the main character of the novel she has recently been admitted into a mental institution. She is sixteen and is not too happy with her weight. She is very funny and has a very dark sense of humor. She is writing to her best friend Tracy, so the novel is all past tense because of the fact that she is writing this down to her friend after the things she writes about her life. Justin is her love interest in the novel he is very shy and does not have much self-esteem.

There are minor characters like Matt O., Tracy, Callie, Troy, Morgan, Sandy, Doctor A-hole, and a few others that come into therapy. The minor characters are not so minor they play big parts in their sections they only appear for so long and then they don’t get as much screen time as Anna or Justin would. Morgan is my favorite character she is not actually a person she is more of a toy baby. Morgan, who is Sandy’s favorite thing that she has to with her at all time. She knows that Sandy is not real, but doesn’t admit it until Anna says something, then Sandy just throws Morgan on a nightstand at night and she doesn’t sit her up next to her when she does her homework anymore.

Anna has depression, she is not very happy with herself, but throughout the novel, she is put through a lot. She shares the story of her friends and she tells them though teenage mind and she doesn’t like it in the mental hospital, but she learns to love it. She grows close to all of the characters from Justin to Morgan (the plastic baby doll). She grows learns people so well they get nicknames like Doctor A-hole, who helps her talk out her problems in therapy.

Although the book uses words not suitable for children I give this outstanding novel four and a half stars. It gets to a great message about things getting better and it is always worth trying to work things out. The author writes very creatively like when she writes scripts from her time in therapy or her list of Morgan’s favorite games Julie Halpern is a great YA novel writer and I encourage to go pick up one of her novels.