This insightful book is an in your face realistic portrayal of today's teenagers and the issues they face. Funny parts and sarcasm are intermingled with more serious issues such as depression and teenage pregnancy. The characters are all very well-developed and their complex relationships are a draw for turning the page long after bedtime.
John Green fans will love it!

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group and Netgalley for this Advanced Reading Copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book was snarky, silly, funny and incredibly honest. I really enjoyed the story of Reggie dealing with depression and love and coming into her own. However, I did give this 3 stars which is a pretty average rating. I think this book is wonderful, but it didn't hit me like I wish it had. I liked the idea and the story but I didn't love it. It wasn't everything that I had hoped it would be, maybe I just had my expectations too high. However, for someone else this may be the perfect fit. I've just read so many books like it, I felt unjustified giving it a rating anything above 3 stars.

A chemist's is never usually exciting, but these two characters spark up talking to each other after both realising they have similar medications, for clinical depression.

Reggie, real name Regina, lives with her religious mum and her dad who goes with what her mum says. Her mum doesn't seem to understand fully the concept of Reggie's depression which we learn is down to two close people in her life leaving her.

Snake, a young guy who's so relaxed about every situation normally isn't now in the best situation at all. He's just met Reggie and yet his ex girlfriend Clara and school queen bee is seven months pregnant with his baby and yet it was down to a drunken accident and not a loving relationship unlike he feels for Reggie.

I loved the way that Reggie and Snake interacted by using teasing insults towards each other and because they both have an alternative style and different family make up's. I liked the fact that having two mum's was brought up as so far this is their first book I have read with this particular part of the storyline. I also appreciated that in this teen pregnancy story, the teens aren't breaking down or arguing but are accepting of the situation they have been dealt with. It was a refreshing and yet humorous read which made me want to keep on reading.

Thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book!

I hated (in a good way) this book about two teenagers who develop a common bond while picking up some Zoloft at the local pharmacy to help relieve their symptoms of clinical depression. Reggie (see: Regina Mason) refuses to feel anything after the loss of her two closest friends while Snake (see: Matthew Elliot) is dealing with the after effects of inadvertently impregnating fellow classmate Clara Banks whose father owns the ice cream joint where they all work. This impending fatherhood puts a crimp in any sort of relationship these two lost souls might cultivate even though they both exhibit a growing attraction (see: bearability) towards one another. Who else recognizes the various phases of depression, especially when the wicked Stage 3 (see: Disconnect) immobilizes the sufferer? Clara, while she wants her boyfriend to love her, recognizes that there is an irresistible allure between Snake and Reggie, despite his sense of loyalty towards her and the baby. The triangle becomes even more bizarre when Clara turns to Reggie to be her partner in birthing class when Snake, in the grips of the
paralyzingly Stage 3, stands her up, resulting in an atypical alliance amongst the three outcasts.

Add in a droll, provocative, sometimes hurtful dialogue, a bunch of compelling minor characters (Side note: Snake's two moms), and some intense psychological musings with a morbid overtone to convey the premise for Definitions of Indefinable Things by Whitney Taylor.

The fast moving plot covering only a couple months of their junior year in a small town high school moves from point A to point D with more than a few intersections of various disasters (see: self inflicted) encountered along the way. While there is a somewhat HEA at the conclusion, the future is realistically open ended concerning the destiny for these young teens.

Four stars for a unique approach to covering the issue of deep depression and family dynamics as well as dealing with the topic of rejection by ones peers, not to mention the repercussions of teen pregnancy,

A thank you to Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This review also appears on my blog, Gotta Read.

While I don't think there's necessarily anything new in this book, I don't think that's a really bad thing in terms of this book specifically. There are a lot of books about depression, each with it's own spin. While this one does follow some similar tropes, the likability of its characters are what make it a compelling read, one that teens will be able to connect with as well as feel invested in the stories of its characters. Definitely a title worth having on YA shelves and into the heads of teen readers.

How does anyone know they're depressed? You feel equally alive and dead and have no idea how that's even possible. And everything around you doesn't seem so full anymore. And you can't tell if the world is empty or you are. That's how I knew. I realized it wasn't the world that was empty.

DEFINITIONS OF INDEFINABLE THINGS is snarky and funny and beautiful and honest. Reggie Mason has depression, and she talks about all elements of it--the symptoms, the drugs, the side effects, the therapy, the impact on day-to-day life--with frankness and humour and pain. The entire book is basically one brilliantly sarcastic witticism after another, and every sentence simultaneously makes you laugh out loud and also want to wrap all these characters in a bear hug.

Though I'd want to wrap Reggie, Carla, and Snake all in bear hugs regardless, because they are all just so flawed and quirky and lovable and REAL. Their struggles--whether with depression or loneliness or pregnancy or family--are both heartbreaking and empowering; they're dealing with such hard things, but their lives aren't tragedies to be fixed. Their lives are just their lives, and they cry and joke and scream and laugh and live day-to-day the same way we all do, even when we're struggling.

It was no surprise to me that I loved this book, because a book that talks about mental health as candidly as this is always going to have a place in my heart:

"So, what are you on?" he asked.
"Zoloft."
"Clinical? Obsessive? Panic?"
"Clinical."
"Me too. Another thing we have in common."

Thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A novel about depressed teenagers that is not a continuous drama? Yes, please!

When I started to read this novel, I was a little afraid because I thought it might be too similar to other books about teenagers who suffer depression I had read before. Most of them had seemed too dramatic for me, not because I do not take depression as the serious issue it certainly is, but because they usually ended up being one of those “what else can happen to me” stories. I am talking about books in which the author seems to throw a series of endless disgraces into the life of the main characters and at some point it feels like it is too much. This novel does not fall into that and I’m really grateful for it.

Definitions of Indefinable Things tells the story of Reggie, a clinically depressed teenager girl who meets a boy, Snake (yes, that’s the name he has chosen for himself), when both of them are waiting to get their anti-depressants at a pharmacy. The rest of the story might seem obvious, but some more elements are thrown into the mix, the most relevant and unexpectedly charming one being a very pregnant ex-girlfriend.
The story itself is very enjoyable, even if it isn’t very original —after all, I’m not really looking for originality in contemporary YA. But, in my opinion, the really strong points of this book are the characters and the writing.
Reggie can be a tricky character, and the author took a big risk with her. In a way, she might be considered a teenage version of the famous Dr. House: she is extremely snarky, she doesn’t seem to have a filter when dealing with delicate topics, she is quite the opposite of nice with most people… In sum, she can really be a pain in the arse, so I suspect some readers will dislike her. They certainly have reasons to do so, and even I was on the verge of hating her at some points. She oversteps in many occasions and, even if she realizes that her circumstances don’t justify her behavior, she still acts the same. However, I got past all that defensive shell and I saw that she is just a confused, angry teenager who is doing her best to go on, so she grew on me little by little. So did the rest of the characters, particularly the secondary ones. I love well-developed characters but in many occasions authors only pay enough attention to the protagonists. Fortunately, I really enjoyed the secondary characters in this book, especially Polka, a charming exchange student, and Carla, who turned around my expectations and first impression of her. Reggie’s parents are also very present in the novel and, while her father is much more likable, I think Reggie and her mom’s difficult relationship is also one of the best aspects of the story.

As regards the writing, the novel is not written in a poetic way or with big intellectual words, but it isn’t simplistic either. I think the key as a storyteller is to find the right balance to entertain your readers without showing off and, at the same time, convey a meaningful message. From my point of view, the author has managed to do both things very successfully.

And this leads me to my last point. As an adult reader I truly enjoyed this book. But I’m certain I am not looking at this story the same way I would have done ten years ago. The best thing about this novel is that it will certainly appeal to young readers because they will see themselves, their friends and their parents reflected in the characters. And while some may think they are reading just a love story, they will receive a couple of really important messages at the same time (which, apart from the story itself, are the reason I will recommend this book to my students). The first message is that healing takes time. Sometimes a really long time. The second is much more important, in my opinion: love is great, but we shouldn’t expect it to save us. It’s actually more complicated and obviously better explained in the book, but I don’t want to give too much detail because the best way to discover it is after getting to walk in Reggie’s —and indirectly Snake’s— shoes.

So i really liked this book. but i can tell you right now, a lot of people won't. It deals with depression in a slightly different way than a lot of other books i've read. The reason i related to it so much is because i deal with my depression with sarcasm and self deprecating humor as well, so i really understood where the MC was coming from. If you're a fan of John Green, The Fault in Our Stars in particular, i think you would probably like this. That's not to say it's sad like tfios, but the humor, and how the teens talk, is very similar.
Bullet Points!
Plot: Okay so the plot covers various things. you got reluctant friendship, you got depression, and you have a love story. I think all 3 were handled pretty well. although i'm not completely sold on the love story.
Characters: Reggie is our narrator. She has a similar humor to mine, as mentioned above, so obviously i think she's the best. ;) Snake is our male lead. While I appreciate his life outlook, and i do find him to be a fun character, he does things that i'm not a huge fan of. Yet, somehow, he is still very likable. Carla is an important player, and she is pretty darn great. I cannot stand Reggie's mother. Like, at all! Her dad is awesome.
Romance: Like i said earlier, not completely sold on it. It's definitely not your typical YA swoony romance. I'm not, not sold on it. But it's got some problematic things going on with it.
Diversity: Snake's parents are lesbians. One of Reggie's friends is an exchange student from Taiwan. And obviously, the whole book deals with depression.

I did not find this book about teenage depression anything but depressing. I really hated the plot and the characters and their choices baffled, alarmed, and/or aggravated me. I'm thankful the ending was somewhat hopeful but I wouldn't call it a happy ending. I think where the characters end up in their relationships to each other makes for a mess and seriously unrealistic. For a book to be dealing with real life issues and to try to be "real" and relatable it can't expect me to buy into this ending as a happy one. I felt it was depressing and would've liked the main character to have a different ending with a new start. It just didn't work for me.

This is one of those books I wanted to like more than I did. I found the story interesting, enjoyed the complicated love story, and liked most of the characters, especially Reggie. The dialogue was just a bit forced at times. There's "people being clever," and then there's "look how clever these people are!" And I found that this book suffered from the latter., but it's still a well crafted and quirky story. Reggie's narration really is superb.

This was a story of clinically depressed girl meeting a clinically depressed boy, whose burgeoning romance was complicated by the boy's pregnant girlfriend. For me, this book did not fit neatly into the romance category. I felt that it was more a story of Reggie coming to terms with her depression, and perhaps beginning to make her way out of it.

Reggie was angsty and wore an armor of sarcasm. She struggled to see the good in anything, and she was battling with ghosts from her past. She found a perfect foil in Snake. Snake, though also clinically depressed, was trying to have experiences and connect with people. He was "bearable" in Reggie's eyes, and that was a good start. The first part of the book was filled with a lot of great banter and fun world observations.

But as Snake's and Reggie's relationship grows, Reggie revealed the triggers for her depression, and the heavier stuff sort of just keeps coming after that.

"Romeo and Juliet meets Rosemary's Baby drama"

I really loved Reggie and Snake together, but I have the admit, the Carla part was a little weird for me. It was an interesting complication, and I thought the relationship between Carla and Reggie brought something to the story, but from a romance POV, it was a little weird.
Hate. Apparently, it was my predominant behavior. I was hating again. But, for once, I wasn't hating him. I was hating the absence of him

I have read some reviews where people found the characters unlikable, but I liked them. Reggie wore this I-hate-the-world veneer, but we saw the softer sides of her. And Snake was flawed, but he was trying to be better, and make choices based on the right reasons. Reggie, Snake, Carla, and even Reggie's mom all experienced personal growth. They changed for the good over the course of the story, and I thought Taylor did a admirable job getting them there.

"Keep staring and I'll punch you in the jaw," I warned.
"I'm guessing you've never had a boyfriend." He smiled, "Guys stare."
"I've had a boyfriend, thank you. He didn't stare."
"Then he wasted his moments."

Overall: A very enjoyable read told by smart and snarky characters with struggles I could relate to.

There were some pieces of this book that I did enjoy and it was an easy to get through read. However, from the beginning, I felt like it was just trying to hard. The characters were less like well rounded people and more like traits being forced together to create a stereotypical person with depression or parent or pregnant teen. Also, I found a lot of the main character's inner monologues to be frustratingly repetitive.

Reggie knows depression all too well. When she meets Snake, she is inexplicably drawn to him. Snake gets through to her, reaching past the barriers Reggie normally has in place. But he has a big problem of his own – a pregnant girlfriend. Unlike most books that deal with teen pregnancy, this hits a unique chord. Snake is tremendously likeable and it’s easy to see why Reggie is smitten. The dialog is witty and fresh. Carla, the pregnant girlfriend, is also refreshingly different and atypical. This book captivates and rings true, giving an honest portrayal of depression, of the feeling of being overwhelmed and immobile. The unfathomable yet totally plausible relationship that shouldn’t happen yet does, hits just the right chord. Taylor’s book is an enjoyable and insightful story that will draw readers in.

(taken from my Goodreads review, linked below)

Overall, I liked it. It has a dark humor that encapsulates the experience of adolescence with mental illness. I thought the sharp quips were a little aggressive at times, which bugged me some; even with mental illness, I think it's important to recognize that having an illness doesn't excuse assholeish behavior towards someone, especially if its not acknowledged as being hurtful either at the present time or later on. So some of the protagonist's remarks towards several people she interacted with irked me some, more so in her interactions with love interest, Snake, since he struggles with depression as well. Without spoiling anything though, I guess the 'opposite' sort of speak (I-hate-you means I-love-you) becomes their own love language, and it could be my own sensitivity that was less than enthused by how her insults became an "endearing" part of Reggie's character.

I do appreciate that this isn't a novel that celebrates the idea of love being the cure to depression. Because falling in love, even staying in love, DOES NOT make it all just go away. Dependence on the idea of love between two people being some kind of saving grace is a lonely one, and it distances from the goal of being able to not only reach self-acceptance, but be able to do so for you on your own. I'll admit, there were times reading this that I thought it ~was~ going to be a 'depressed teens find love and yay happy ending' but the author does a good job in the end of creating a more complex, realistic picture of how interactions may occur between two people with depression that fall for each other.

Another really important thing I think the author was able to get across through "Definitions of Indefinable Things" is how depression can function differently from person to person. There is no one trigger, there is no one way a person experiences depression. The complexity of it is explored here, and I appreciate that. Even between Snake and Reggie, there's a scene where they realize that although they both struggle with the illness, they experience it in vastly different ways.

"Definitions of Indefinable Things" is well-written, quotable, relatable, shares some insightful messages about mental illness (#fightthestigma?), and explores family dynamics in a way that might be really comforting to teens and others who live with family that don't seem to understand depression. Also some LGBT rep, w00t w00t.

Not sure what I was expecting with this book exactly, but I think it was better than I was expecting? Mostly in regards to how the author crafts the common 'two depressed teens fall in love' story to fit a more realistic picture: that romance doesn't fix it all, but letting people in (family, friends, even a romantic partner) can be immensely helpful in the healing process.

Genre: r-contemp, YA
Stuff: depression, teen pregnancy, family stuff
Fail: the main topic is not my cup of tea
WOW: wise thoughts
POV: 1st person, female
Love-Geometry: a weird one

Quote-Core: "Depression is only as complex as the person who’s defining it."

I'm not a fan of teen-pregnancy books or school stories or angsty romances between young fools. Definitions of Indefinable Thing contains it all, but serves it in a unique and strangely appealing way, dressing it with sarcasm and an interesting structure.

We have only one POV, Reggie's. Reggie is a depressed girl who fights an emptiness inside her with medicine and hatred for the world and people around. At first, she seems too pretentious, too snarky, as if she's trying too hard to look cool and indifferent while being lonely and sad. But later we see that like everyone else she wears masks, hides pains, and dreams about feeling alive again.

Reggie meets Snake, another depressed guy who tries to taste life and see its colors, but fails again and again until Reggie appeared. It's not love from the first sight or something, it's just two people who make each other mad, angry and all, providing with emotions.

They could be a perfect couple, they could heal together, if not for Carla, Reggie's classmate and a girl who was made pregnant by Snake during a one night stand under alcohol influence. These two aren't in love either, but they're entwined forever through the child. Of course, Reggie doesn't like it. At all. But she starts to like Snake who wouldn't leave her be anyway. That's where her problems (and not only hers) start... or maybe this is the place where they start to disappear?

The strongest part of this book is its writing. At the beginning it seemed forced, as if the lines were trying too hard to create a pseudo-unique atmosphere, but when I got used to it, everything shined. There are a lot of good quotes, important topics, plus powerful meaning, many laughs, almost-cries and indeed-cries. And it's the writing's merit only, since I didn't like the plot or character's personalities. Words make wonders.

The plot is simple, but not boring. I mean, every contemporary is quite rather usual and knows no twists, but if an authors can accent right aspects of his or her story, mere thing would seem complex. Whitney Taylor achieved this goal.

The characters aren't likable, but that's the point. You don't like them, you hate their situation, but you understand them and and feel for them. It's easy to relate with someone who seems nice and does right things, but that's way more interesting to grow on someone who's not.

All in all, this is not your typical story about mean girls or bad boys and good chicks. Whitney Taylor wrote about family, losses, meaning of life and... other indefinable things. Wanna take a look at the world through depressed eyes? Go ahead.