Sorry - wasn't able to read this on a kindle. Will try to find a hardcopy!

I like that the premise of this book was more than your usual boy meets girl. The characters were strong and likable and you found yourself as a reader reading for them to conquer obstacles and find a happy ever after that they could live with.

Definitions of Indefinable Things (aside from having a terrible title) had potential, and even some surprises - the latter half of the book, the twists, the character stakes.. However, I read a lot of contemporaries, and its tone, as well as its writing style, didn't particularly work for me. There are also a lot of stereotypes, which does a total disservice to the teenagers it claims to be written for. Fans of Alice Oseman's Solitaire might have better luck with this.

For over half of my life, I've had consistent depression and a slew of other diagnoses. I know that books that tackle mental illness aren't everyone's cup of tea. But for me personally, I appreciate them. And unlike other books that have characters with depression, the topic isn't glossed over. Reggie and Snake very bluntly talk about their medication, their symptoms, and their suicide risk levels. They even called out their own "triggers," and trust me, as someone who's been in treatment multiple times, those are things that a while to A) acknowledge and B) share with other people.

There's dark humor abound. If you're self-deprecating about your mental illness, like me, you'll connect with the characters. Reggie and Snake were very relatable. My digital edition is full of highlights. Yes, it follows a cliched formula, but the take on mental illness is fresh.

Thank you NetGalley and HMH Books for my ARC.

“But every indefinable thing has a beginning, and the beginning of understanding depression is simply this: You’re never as alone as you think you are.”

This was a surprisingly refreshing story about depression. I feel like the story was uniquely presented and had a fresh take on such an important topic. We follow Reggie Mason and Snake Eliot, two teens with depression, as they meet and develop an unusual and compelling relationship.

Things I Liked :
I really enjoyed the humor that was all throughout the story. I found it to be self-deprecating and candid, which I personally enjoyed. Both Reggie and Snake were very open about their depression and lonliness, how it’s unique to them. They have different histories and reactions to their illness. The humor really helped this feel unique as a story that focuses on mental illness and depression.

Besides the humor, I felt that this story was a unique take on depression and mental illness in YA. While both Reggie and Snake constantly talk about their depression, medication, therapy, neither ever mentions suicide. I thought it was nice to showcase that the two terms aren’t interchangeable - you can be depressed without being suicidal. I also appreciated how Snake said he couldn’t identify his triggers, there wasn’t a specific event that he can identify as the start or cause of his depression. While acknowledging triggers and understanding them can be very important in managing your depression, it was another unique and valid perspective to see that a tragic event or accident is not the only precursor to depression.

The story also challenges the love-cures-mental illness trope that we’ve unfortunately seen in other YA books. While Reggie admits to feeling happier and more alive while with Snake, they both recognizes that they are not each other’s cure. It is not the other person’s responsibility to ‘fix’ them; they can survive on their own.

There were so many great and unexpected dynamics in this book! Snake and Reggie are a humorous and entertaining pair, not afraid to poke fun at each other and speak their mind. Reggie and Carla, Snake’s pregnant girlfriend but not girlfriend, was a highlight for me because there was absolutely NO boy drama between them and that was fantastic. Snake, Reggie, and Carla develop the quasi trio of reluctant friends that is actually incredibly supportive and caring. I also loved the little glimpses we got of Reggie and Polka, her tutor/partner/friend. It was nice to see Reggie’s life apart from Snake.

Things I Didn’t Like :
I feel like it took too long to get answers about the phone number Reggie was calling. I appreciate the buildup and the tension it created, but it felt a little drawn out.

This was a surprisingly great read! I honestly wasn’t expecting much but I got a story with great characters, fantastic relationship, incredible humor, and an honest look at the lives of two depressed teens. This was a strong debut by Whitney Taylor, and I’m looking forward to see what she does next!

Thank you for the ARC!

I was looking forward to reading this book and see how depression was depicted.

I was so disappointed! And I little worried too.

The main character was downright unlikable. A spoiled, mean, selfish entitled teenager. And I worried that depressed teenagers are reading this book think it is OK to treat your loved ones this way.

Depressed people often behave irritably, and are snarky, sarcastic and come across very negative.

BUT

Depressed people are not sociopaths!

They don’t treat everyone like crap for no reason. They don’t disrespect their mothers for no reason. The way the MC treated her mother was despicable. I kept reading to see if her mother was mean or unsupportive  in any way. ANYTHING to justify the way Reggie treated her. But nope. That wasn't the case. 

Reggie's mother behaved like a normal mother concerned about her depressed child.

But all you get from Reggie is that her mother makes “stupid suggestions” for Reggie  to follow the directions of her therapist, its annoying enough to go get her medications and doesn’t talk about normal things like birthday cards but “babbles”. Whatever spoiled Reggie “didn’t care about” was stupid. Everything her mother did was stupid. Especially being a Christian!

I’m not a Christian and I found all Reggie's references to this religion very disrespectful.

The way the two depressed teenagers “in love” talked and treated each other was just as bad! It missed the mark by miles as well.

So, nope.

I hope not many teenagers read this book. It’s not a realistic rep of depression example and a little bit dangerous I would say.

 This book is about mean, abusive teenagers disguised as depressed teenagers.

So many emotions! This book made me laugh out loud. I haven't had that from a book in quite awhile. It also made me cry and feel empathy for the characters. I liked it and would definitely recommend it to my friends.

unfortunately i cannot get this to work on my kindle so i can't read it.

I voluntarily read an ARC of this book! Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to read and review Definitions of Indefinable Things by Whitney Taylor! A young adult story that encompasses many teen issues, is therapeutic while being told and sticks with the reader for days afterward. Reggie, Snake and Carla share their take on depression, relationships and teen pregnancy . I plan on purchasing this book for the library I work at because the teenagers will love it with it's sarcasm, humor, struggles and dysfunctional relationships telling the story. 5 stars!

I started liking our two main characters, but somewhere along the way it lost me. I honestly don't know if I was feeling particularly cynical when I read this so I will take the time to reread it during summer and come up with an opinion.

I liked the way the author described the main character's depression in stages. Disconnect is something I can relate to. I appreciate that the author tried to make it clear that depression effects everyone differently. My biggest issue was that Reggie's depression and Snake's depression seemed exactly the same. There was potential to demonstrate differences. I liked both Reggie and Snake's banter the most. Overall, I thought the story was OK.

Two teenagers who suffer from depression find some of what they need in each other.

Lately, I’ve been drawn to stories about depression, anxiety, mental illness in general, and particularly those in the YA genre. I suspect we all find ourselves drawn to fictional accounts that jive a little with our own lives, and that is definitely the case here. And I suspect that I’ve been leaning towards YA for stories surrounding mental illness because they so often take a softer approach, and I’m not in a place where I feel comfortable getting “hit hard”, if that makes sense.

Well, I’ll tell you that if that is what you really want, that is definitely what you’ll get here: a YA novel that is built on two teenagers battling their own forms of depression, that is written with a soft approach. Emotionally, I didn’t feel much. Their individual experiences with depression were realistic, to the degree that anything real was shared. Ultimately, I think it could easily have gone deeper, and I would have been more satisfied.

The characters were interesting, as was the plot itself, and the writing was perfectly adequate. But I wanted more. While Reggie was well fleshed out, and I really liked her (even if she was sometimes a bit tiring), so why didn’t I feel anything? I feel like I’m beating a dead horse here, but if a character is in pain, as a reader I expect to feel connected to that pain, and I just didn’t. Ultimately, I never felt like I had any skin in the game, and that was disappointing.

But, it’s a perfectly adequate book, a worthwhile story, good character development. I just expected something different than what I got.

Writing mental illness and romance in an authentic, realistic and interesting manner is difficult. DEFINITIONS OF INDEFINABLE THINGS missed that mark for me. Many readers drawn to the book will likely have experiences with mental illness, their own or that of friends and family,

I’m not sure I was the right person to read this book.

That sounds awkward, I know, considering I did read it and now I’m writing a review for it. I’ve never read a book that portrayed depression in any way like Definitions of Indefinable Things and so my view on this topic and this book is likely skewed in that regard. I want to be upfront about this as I don’t claim any knowledge on depression or other mental health topics in general.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t really working for me. For one, while I’m beginning to read contemporary stories more often and finding more I enjoy, I can’t add this to those numbers. From the first chapter, I was a bit put off by Reggie’s character and the book continues in her head for full duration. I found her voice simply unlikable and to read an entire book without a break from it was a bit too much for me. Had it not been for the singular character view throughout this book, I think I likely would have finished it sooner.

Reggie came off as pretty obnoxious more often than not. And in the way that I grew to dislike her. Regardless of the events of the book, I don’t think her constant negative attitude in the way it was portrayed was really called for nor realistic. Though I can’t speak from personal experience, I have known friends with depression and could not match this behavior with any of theirs (however, I also understand each person has their own experience).

I think that this book addresses depression in a way that wasn’t what I was expecting (but in a good way). I hoped it wouldn’t follow the line of love being a cure-all for depression because that’s not how life works. And Definitions doesn’t do that which I think is one of its stronger points. Plus the writing is different from any other contemporary novels I’ve read, making it a standout for that as well.

Though I can’t say I was really a fan of the underlined words with the snide comments following. It just…jolted me out of the story and they were frequent enough to become annoying.

In all honesty, this was not a good fit of a book for me. I was hoping for something more in line with books like The Upside of Unrequited and this didn’t quite meet those same expectations for me. I think there was a lot of work put into this book and that there are readers out there much better suited to it than I, so while I can’t personally recommend it I wouldn’t let this review stop you from reading it should it sound interesting.

3.5 STARS

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Trigger warnings for depression.

This book is very difficult for me to review, because a lot of the good and bad are mixed together for me.

While this book deals with the issue of depression and is therefore really important, I feel as though this book is hard to recommend to anyone. The main characters are both depressed and much of the book is severely triggering. However, this book is very confusing in its discussion of depression, something I feel has to do somewhat with relatability, but as I mentioned before, I feel like the only ones who could understand the depression talk would get triggered by it.

The characters, however, were really fun in my opinion. Reggie is very angry and snarky, and Snake doesn't get fazed by her sharp words and quickly learns how to speak Reggie's language. I also liked how complicated the relationships were. Reggie and Snake are becoming closer than friends, but they also have to deal Carla, the girl Snake got with pregnant. I love how complex the dynamics between the three characters were and how Reggie had to keep on re-evaluating both relationships as the book progressed.

And while the writing was a bit confusing, and I sometimes had to re-read a sentence to figure out what was flying, the story-line was very well done. It followed Reggie's ups and downs with depression while navigating new friendship. It was a very character driven story, and since I liked the characters, I liked the book.

Overall I enjoyed this book, but feel that the writing was a bit hard to follow. I would recommend this, however, to anyone who is interested in a story focused on depression, or a story with complex interpersonal relationships.

It's a risky move, making your protagonist aggressively abrasive. Reggie goes out of her way to make herself unlikable. It is to Taylor's credit, then, that Reggie is ultimately a likeable characters. Even before we witness her vulnerabilities there is something charming about the way she calls out people about their failings, doesn't let anyone get away with anything I also admire the presentation of mental illness here. We are presented with two clinically depressed teens. They are medicated. They don't get "fixed" or reject conventional treatment. They are miserable, just tying to find a away to hold on to a slightly less miserable existence. They don't aim for "normal", just functional. While the secondary characters lack much depth, it's a relatively enjoyable read.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Seventeen-year-old Reggie Mason meets Snake at the pharmacy while they are both picking up their antidepressants. Reggie likes to be alone to avoid the possibility of someone leaving her, but Snake is determined to change that. Snake isn’t uncomplicated himself, though – his ex-girlfriend, Carla, is 7 months pregnant.

It was hard to read a book from the point of view of such an unlikable character. Reggie felt like she was using her depression as an excuse not to try to be polite or kind to anyone, ever. The writing itself wasn’t bad; I would be willing to read a book with a different main character by this author, but this just wasn’t the book for me.

HMH Books for Young Readers and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Definitions of Indefinable Things. This is my honest opinion of the book.

Definitions of Indefinable Things is the story of three teenagers whose lives become big, twisted, confusing messes. Between Reggie and Snake's depressive episodes, and Carla's pregnancy issues, none of the three seem to be able to catch a break. As Reggie comes to certain realizations, will she have the strength to choose her own recovery and her own happiness above all others?

Strangely enough, there is a small measure of hope offered up when the reader least expects it, but it is too little, too late in my opinion. Although the author clearly has done the research on depression, I do not feel that she quite captured the emotions of her characters in this book. As doctors are prescribing anti-depressants to teenagers less due to the recent studies that indicate they may be counterproductive, I found it to not be believable that two teenagers would take such medicine. Reggie's attitude was a bit over the top, as well as her mother's, which gave me negative feelings about the book. Definitions of Indefinable Things had a premise that showed promise, but did not live up to my expectations.