Summary

In the Prologue, Jamacia “Jam” Gallahue says that she was sent to The Wooden Barn, a school for “emotionally fragile, highly intelligent” teens, because her boyfriend Reeve Maxfield, an exchange student from London, died. She says she loved Reeve like she’d never loved anyone before. After Jam compares her love for Reeve to math and his personality to long beaker in chemistry class she tells her reader that it was her English class at The Wooden Barn that changed her life. She says that if she had not been in that class, she would never have known about a place called Belzhar.

In Chapter 1, Jam’s roommate, DJ Kawabata is jealous when she learns that Jam has been chosen for the class Special Topics in English. DJ has an eating disorder and has food stashed all over the room. The Wooden...