Review: Psych Major Syndrome

Title: Psych Major Syndrome
Author: Alicia Thompson
Publication date: August 11th, 2009

Summary:
Patient Name: Leigh Nolan
Age: 18 years

Presenting Concerns: Leigh Nolan has just started her first year at Stiles College. She has decided to major in psychology (even though her parents would rather she study Tarot cards than Rorschach blots), despite reporting that she thinks, "Psychology is a load of crap." Patient has always been very good at helping her friends with their problems, but when it comes to solving her own...not so much. Patient has a tendency to overanalyze things, particularly when the opposite sex is involved. Like why doesn't Andrew, her boyfriend of over a year, ever invite her to spend the night? Or why can't she commit to taking the next step in their relationship? And why does his roommate Nathan dislike her so much? More importantly, why did Nathan have a starring role in a much-more-than-friendly dream? Aggravating factors include hyper-competitive fellow psych majors, a professor who's badly in need of her own psychoanalysis, and mentoring a middle-school-aged girl who thinks Patient is, in a word, naive. Preliminary treatment will include Introduction to Psychology, but may require more if she's going to answer these questions and make it through her freshman year.

Diagnosis: Psych Major Syndrome


Review:
This was an interesting book with a few fun and unique things about it, but otherwise it was kind of predictable. Not to say it wasn't good, though. I really liked it; especially how at the beginning of each chapter it would have a definition of a psychology term. As someone who's interested in Psychology, the emphasis on psychology related things was something that made the book more likable for me; though perhaps I'm a bit biased. There were also other events I enjoyed reading about, like Leigh participating in a mentoring program at the middle school and the students that she met. Leigh was a character I felt I could relate to, but the main part of the novel about her relationship with Andrew and Nathan was predictable. I could tell how it would end by the time I was halfway through the book, and that was definitely a drawback. Overall, I did like this book a lot, but a lot of it was easily predictable. In some ways there was a uniqueness to it, but maybe not as much as you'd expect.

Characters: 8/10
Plot: 7/10
Originality: 7/10
Writing: 9/10
Overall grade: C+