conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide a description for a book titled Definitions of Indefinable Things about Reggie, Snake, UpIn with the genre: Teen & Young Adult, Literature & Fiction.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Gr 8 UpIn her engaging debut, the author skillfully captures adolescent depression and anxiety. Reggie, 17, feels alienated from her religious family after enduring several serious losses. Feeling emotionally abandoned, she is determined never to be hurt again. While picking up her Zoloft prescription, Reggie meets fellow teen Snake, who is in line for his Prozac. At first she is extremely resistant to Snake's attention, but he pursues her relentlessly. She eventually succumbs to his charms, but that's only the beginning of a very complicated relationship. Reggie's queen bee classmate Carla is pregnant, and Snake, it turns out, is the father. The three teens' tenuous connections periodically strain, break, and heal as they realistically stumble their way toward a sort of friendship and, ultimately, happiness. The main characters are well drawn and unique. The secondary characters are less so, but this doesn't lower the overall quality of this novel's insightful portrayal of complex teens struggling with mental health issues. VERDICT An emotionally engrossing and powerful exploration of depression and healing that many teens will find meaningful. A strong choice for libraries serving teens.Susan Riley, Mamaroneck Public Library, NY
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Swap the first and the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Susan Riley, Mamaroneck Public Library, NY. Reggie, 17, feels alienated from her religious family after enduring several serious losses. Feeling emotionally abandoned, she is determined never to be hurt again. While picking up her Zoloft prescription, Reggie meets fellow teen Snake, who is in line for his Prozac. At first she is extremely resistant to Snake's attention, but he pursues her relentlessly. She eventually succumbs to his charms, but that's only the beginning of a very complicated relationship. Reggie's queen bee classmate Carla is pregnant, and Snake, it turns out, is the father. The three teens' tenuous connections periodically strain, break, and heal as they realistically stumble their way toward a sort of friendship and, ultimately, happiness. The main characters are well drawn and unique. The secondary characters are less so, but this doesn't lower the overall quality of this novel's insightful portrayal of complex teens struggling with mental health issues. VERDICT An emotionally engrossing and powerful exploration of depression and healing that many teens will find meaningful. A strong choice for libraries serving teens.Gr 8 UpIn her engaging debut, the author skillfully captures adolescent depression and anxiety.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the first five paragraphs for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Definitions of Indefinable Things
  NOTHING MADE ME WANT TO GET hit by a bus more than Tuesday night happy pill (see: Zoloft) runs. After a lengthy car ride with my mother, who spent all ten minutes singing a God-awful Christian melody and praying for the state of my wayward soul, I'd have to physically restrain my hands to keep myself from shoving the door open and rolling out onto the highway. Sometimes I prayed, too. That a piano would fall from the sky and crush my miserable, suburban existence. Or that God would set CVS on fire to spare me from having to choose between Mickey Mouse and Flintstones gummy vitamins. Since I was, quite unfortunately, still alive, I took it that God couldn't hear me over my mother's off-key rendition of "Amazing Grace." Or maybe he just didn't bother noticing the pitiful lives of Flashburn inhabitants at all.
  Once we made it inside CVS, my mother always played this super annoying game of Find the Most Lame Thing and Force It on Reggie. She used to do this to my brother, Frankie, when she took him clothes shopping. Which probably explains why he turned out to be a sweater-vest-wearing, pleated-pants-enthusiast youth pastor five hundred miles away.
  I rolled my eyes. "Great idea, Karen. I'll write about how much I hate baby ducks inside a baby duck. It'll be one giant eff you to ducks everywhere."
  She adjusted her cat-eye glasses and sighed. "I just thought it would be nice for you to have a journal so you can start writing your feelings down like Dr. Rachelle advised."
  There was a difference between being happy and being distracted, but I knew Karen wouldn't understand. And picking one of our signature back-and-forths (see: screaming matches) in the middle of the school supplies aisle seemed a bit melodramatic.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide four more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: His cheeks reddened a shade when he said it, proving that he had, in fact, been flirting. Which was totally weird, and not something he, or I, was likely to ever talk about later. It did feel kind of nice, though. Having someone at school who liked me as distantly as I liked him, someone who wouldn't try to push me into matching friendship bracelets, or into a prom-king-and-queen relationship. We could write cool essays and eat lunch and not have to exist to each other beyond the perimeter of a building.
  I closed the journal and set it beside me, resting the back of my head against the armrest of his chair. "Nothing. Just stuff for Dr. Rachelle."
  He sucked in a breath as if he was prepping to ask me more, then closed his mouth with a swallow. We both sat quietly for a minute, listening to my mother humming praise songs from the kitchen. It began to storm outside, a crash of thunder shaking the walls. The clouds were black in spots and white in others, like the sky was a checkerboard, or a series of dominoes.
  Dad knew I hated thunderstorms, so he closed the blinds. "I read a story in the newspaper today," he said, getting comfortable in his chair. I craned my neck to nab a glimpse of him. "Said some doctor in Chicago is working on a drug that will make people permanently euphoric, like a heightened version of an antidepressant. Claims it'll help with America's crime problem. People will be so happy, it'll be like living in a utopia."
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Reverse the sentences.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: ". People will be so happy, it'll be like living in a utopia. Claims it'll help with America's crime problem. "Said some doctor in Chicago is working on a drug that will make people permanently euphoric, like a heightened version of an antidepressant. I craned my neck to nab a glimpse of him. "I read a story in the newspaper today," he said, getting comfortable in his chair.
  Dad knew I hated thunderstorms, so he closed the blinds. The clouds were black in spots and white in others, like the sky was a checkerboard, or a series of dominoes. It began to storm outside, a crash of thunder shaking the walls. We both sat quietly for a minute, listening to my mother humming praise songs from the kitchen."
  He sucked in a breath as if he was prepping to ask me more, then closed his mouth with a swallow. Rachelle. Just stuff for Dr. "Nothing.
  I closed the journal and set it beside me, resting the back of my head against the armrest of his chair. We could write cool essays and eat lunch and not have to exist to each other beyond the perimeter of a building. Having someone at school who liked me as distantly as I liked him, someone who wouldn't try to push me into matching friendship bracelets, or into a prom-king-and-queen relationship. It did feel kind of nice, though. Which was totally weird, and not something he, or I, was likely to ever talk about later.His cheeks reddened a shade when he said it, proving that he had, in fact, been flirting
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the last five paragraphs.. Start with the sentence 'I said, "No, we don't, and even to say that is an insult to lesbian parents everywhere," which at least got her to stop saying it, but did nothing to prevent her from going ahead and marrying Ron, a guy she had met through some online dating site and whose profile she had first clicked on because a) she thought he was handsome (meh) and b) he said he didn't have kids of his own and regretted it'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: I said, "No, we don't, and even to say that is an insult to lesbian parents everywhere," which at least got her to stop saying it, but did nothing to prevent her from going ahead and marrying Ron, a guy she had met through some online dating site and whose profile she had first clicked on because a) she thought he was handsome (meh) and b) he said he didn't have kids of his own and regretted it. (He'd been married once and divorced.)
  Mom came back from their first date dazed and ecstatic. Things moved quickly after that. I think Ron must have liked how pliable she was, how willing to follow his lead when it came to exercise and diet—​and raising kids, even though he had no experience in that last area. And Mom definitely liked having someone around to direct her. She's never liked to be in charge of anything.
  The thing about Mom is that she's the kind of needy that makes people want to do stuff for her, not the kind that repels them. Ron was basically her white knight, charging in to fix her life for her. But I'm not so crazy about being a part of her life that he thinks needs fixing. And I'm even less crazy about watching him pick apart Ivy, who doesn't have any anger or malice in her and so can't defend herself against his attacks.
  I'm her younger sister, but I can't remember a time when I didn't feel like I needed to protect and take care of her.
  WHITNEY TAYLOR is an English and psychology major from Virginia who likes to pretend she is a supermodel from New York City. This is her first novel.