The Nature of Jade

The Nature of Jade

by
3.88 of 5 stars 3.88  ·  rating details  ·  6,505 ratings  ·  445 reviews
I am not my illness. "Girl with Anxiety," "Trauma of the Week" -- no. I hate stuff like that. Everyone, everyone has their issue. But the one thing my illness did make me realize is how necessary it is to ignore the dangers of living in order to live. And how much trouble you can get into if you can't. Jade DeLuna is too young to die. She knows this, and yet she can't quit...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published February 27th 2007 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
more details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne CollinsHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. RowlingThe Lightning Thief by Rick RiordanTwilight by Stephenie MeyerCity of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Best Teen/Young Adult Books
94th out of 1,203 books — 1,998 voters
The Hunger Games by Suzanne CollinsTwilight by Stephenie MeyerCatching Fire by Suzanne CollinsI'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally CarterEclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Best Teen Girl Books
102nd out of 965 books — 1,325 voters


More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  rating details
Nomes


I enjoyed my second Deb Caletti book much more than the previous one I read of hers (Honey, Baby, Sweetheart but I still have conflicted feelings...

Caletti writes beautiful prose, with sentiments about the finer details of life that make you pause and contemplate. It's a fantastic skill for a writer to have b/c it lets the reader get right inside the characters head and connect.

Maybe it's the faux fire and the rain and the sinking couch, I don't know. Or maybe it's his soft clothes and warm eye...more
Gwen the Librarian
I finished reading The Nature of Jade, by Deb Caletti, a couple of days ago. I felt a real sense of mourning when it finally finished. Not because it was a sad book, but because I hated to end such a satisfying and well-written one. I would follow these characters forever.

Jade is a sixteen-year-old living in Seattle. Senior year is approaching and all of her friends and even her family are going through major changes and growing pains. Jade herself has anxiety, panic attacks. The only thing tha...more
Misty
This is by far one of the best books I have read. I would venture to say that it is now my favorite book. I couldn't put the thing down and was completely engrossed in the characters and their lives. I couldn't get enough of Jade, her brother Oliver, Sebastian and little Bo. I read another review where someone said that they could read about these characters forever and I have to agree with that. I also really enjoyed the story with the Elephants that Jade worked with. I learned a lot about elep...more
Wendy
I wanted to like this book. And there were some things about it that I really did enjoy. But there were more things that bothered me. Some things specifically about the book, and other, more general issues that I will get to.

First, the good:
The main character, Jade, is well-written. She's interesting and sometimes pretty insightful. Like when she talks about how people get caught up in all the little, meaningless things in life so that they don't think the BIG THOUGHTS about death. Or when she...more
Hannah
warning: you may suffer from severe enjoyment while reading this book.
Please read responsibly
Kate
May 05, 2011 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Kate by: Teen Book Club selection
Jade is a senior in high school who suffers from anxiety attacks. She takes medication and goes to a therapist, but the one thing that keeps her calm is the elephants. She lives only a few blocks from the Seattle Zoo, and watches the elephants on the Elephant Cam (like this one, at the San Diego Zoo). The elephants go about their lives like very calm people.

Then Jade sees a boy about her age watching the elephants, and he has a baby with him. Jade begins to wonder about this boy and comes up wit...more
Sierra
Sep 19, 2008 Sierra rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Teens
The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti is about 18-year-old Jade, who suffers from panic attacks. The only thing that helps calm her down is the elephants that reside in the zoo a few blocks away from her house. She even has a live webcam that films the elephants 24-7 from the zoo, on her laptop, so she can see them whenever she wants. Once, while she was watching the webcam, a boy in a red jacket appears on the screen, watching the elephants. And he has a baby on his back!
Jade is interested in this...more
Jennifer Wardrip
Reviewed by Kylie for TeensReadToo.com

Since being diagnosed with Panic Disorder, Jade DeLuna does not know how to cope with the shortness of breath and dizzy feelings, but could this all change when she meets the boy in the red jacket?

Jade,18, is in her senior year of high school when she is diagnosed. She knows nothing good can come out of it and she thinks not even the support of her family can help her through. Not only that, but her other family members have problems of their own.

Like her...more
Erika
Jan 14, 2008 Erika rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: females
This book is written about Jade, a girl with a panic disorder. She is a senior and she lives near a zoo. She finds the elephants most mesmerizing and calming, which help her with her disorder. She leaves up the 24 hour elephant watch from the zoo's website in her room everyday. Jade goes through life averagly. She has friends, a regular family and pretty good grades. She does however think about every possible thing that could go wrong with every little thing.

One day while watching the elephant...more
Kyla
***YA Book***
Two chapters in I was jealous of this book - not only had the author "stolen" the setting of my own YA book in progress (Ballard, WA) but she was using the real life elephants of the Woodland Zoo, including Hansa, the baby elephant that had a key role in my now-husband and I declaring our love to each other (true story!)
But as the book went on - and on - and on, it became clear this book would have benefited from a little judicious editing. Too many elements clutter the book to be d...more
Kelly
The Nature of Jade is a compelling story of a girl, a boy, and... elephants (Yep, not your average teen romance novel). Jade Deluna has been diagnosed with Panic Disorder. Jade is a shy and cautious girl, and her disorder has made her even more so. But one thing helps Jade through her illness- visiting elephants at a local zoo, only blocks away. Jade even keeps a live zoo webcam on in her room to soothe herself over daily stresses. This is where things change for Jade. She meets Sebastian.

Normal...more
Gabby Harrell
Jade has really bad anxiety like really bad. She is watches elephants with the zoo monitor in her room to comfort her. One day she sees a boy with a baby from the monitor and becomes obsessed in a way. The plot pretty much is her summer before college and how she deals with everything.
So the plot sounds like a love story. IT IS NOT. It's just about Jade growing into her own skin and becoming independent, her growth of friendships and overcoming anxiety. I adored this book because the plot was l...more
Bayan Basri
I had mixed feelings about this book. Sometimes I liked Jade and sometimes I felt like she was utterly naive and Sebastian too, it was like he was the male version of Jade in my opinion. I loved Tess, Oliver, Micheal, Akeelo and Bo (by the way how is his name pronounced? Bow? Boo? Bu??). The book was really fast paced right after Jade met Sebastian but uneventful,and I thought Jade's anxiety wasn't really a big part of the book as you'd think. I liked the setting of the book but mostly I liked t...more
Janell
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Alexa Avenell
The Nature of Jade caught my eye with the subject matter in it alone. Anxiety and Panic attacks aren't usually the focus of most young adult novels. Caletti addresses a topic that so many young adult deal. It is done in such a way that many readers can easily relate. When talking about the anxiety that comes with applying to college and leaving your family behind, Caletti is spot on. She took the words out of my mouth. Jade DeLuna is a character that the reader wanted to get to know. This book i...more
Michelle
A slowish-moving, throughtful novel about a teen girl, her family, her anxiety disorder and her new and problemtic boyfriend. Would suit a reader who likes family, friends and romance novels, and has enough stamina to keep reading through the first part which is a little too introspective to grab a less persistant reader.

Jade is in her last year at school, and comes from an achieving middle class family. There's no money worries, everyone has their health, but everyone is quietly unhappy. Jade s...more
Farrah
The Nature of Jade is about a girl with an anxiety disorder. She loves watching the elephants in a nearby zoo because they always seem to calm her. One day, while watching the elephants from a zoo webcam, she sees a boy with a baby on his back stop and watch the elephants. He comes everyday and Jade eventually decides that she has to meet him. Jade finds out that the boy (Sebastian) has a troubled past with the mother of his baby (Bo). But she is still drawn to their chaotic, cozy life.

I loved...more
Laura
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Jenny Renee
What first made me interested in this novel is the fact that the main character Jade has anxiety and a panic disorder. I don’t suffer from a panic disorder but I do have anxiety and panic attacks so I thought I might like reading a story about something I can relate to, and I loved it! This book was filled with romance, friendships, family drama, and the love of animals—and I think that it was a perfect mix.

Overachiever Jade loves elephants. She loves just looking at them and they calm her down....more
Stephanie Loy Son
I wish I could give this book a 4.5 instead of a 4 because it was a fabulous read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I believe that this is one of the few "teen reads" that makes your time worthwhile. It is beautifully written and provides insights to the behavior of animals.

"The Nature of Jade" by Deb Caletti is about a high school senior named Jade who deals with a severe case of anxiety and volunteers at the zoo working with elephants. From this experience, she meets Sebastian and gets pulled into...more
Tina
I think this book is very original, even for a contemporary YA novel set in a high school setting. The writing itself, however, doesn't quite met my standards.

The beginning of the story makes Jade sound like a stalker obsessed with some guy in a red coat with a baby. It's also a bit too slow paced. I my opinion, Deb Caletti also introduced too many of Kade's friends. I found it mildly difficult to keep track of them. Michael and the Ugandan exchange student were easy to keep track of but I conti...more
Caitriona
I am told that this is a love story. Not just by the blurb, by the rave reviews on the back cover or by the shelves people have put it on on Goodreads - I am also told this, repeatedly, by the author as she recounts Jade's story. For the most part, I certainly see it as one. But the book as a whole is about 70% love story, 20% drama about family and anxiety and 10% tangled mess.

The story follows Jade DeLuna, eighteen-year-old anxiety sufferer. Her little brother, Narnia-obsessed Oliver, suffers...more
Donna
This was the first book I have read by Deb Caletti, and I will definitely be reading her other titles. It was wonderful - a beautiful coming of age story with superb writing. Examples of phrases I loved: "'Well, if you don't feel secure, safe, you'll never feel free. If you're not free, you can't be secure,' Damian says." (spoken to Jade by Damian, p. 93); and "The pain of being without him - butterflies crashing against rocks." (Jade's narrative about missing Sebastian, p. 277). The quick summa...more
Victoria
The novel “The Nature of Jade” is a good book about high school student Jade DeLuna who at the age of eighteen has a serious condition, Panic Disorder. She finds comfort in daily visits to the local zoo where she watches the elephants and also watching them through the live zoo webcam. One day while she is watching this webcam in her room, suddenly she sees an image of a boy who is wearing a red jacket. She is curious, who is this strange boy who has a child and why does he sneak into the zoo so...more
Amy
3 of 5 stars

Eighteen-year-old Jade copes with an anxiety disorder and a touch of OCD, a distant father obsessed with her reluctant little brother's intramural sports, and a tone-deaf mother with her own anxiety/control issues. When Jade spies a boy in a red jacket, carrying a toddler on his shoulder on the zoo webcam she keeps on 24/7, she sets out to meet him and falls in love for the first time.

Pros: Jade is a complex, flawed, and well developed narrator. I love that she is successfully deali...more
Katieeoh Lacanlale
One word to describe this book: HOPE.

This book is just amazing. I actually bought this because of the cover, its one of the sweetest book covers that I’ve ever seen, simply romantic, that’s the way to put it. And the book is something I really treasure. Similar to Sarah Dessen’s books, typical love story, but this one is a bit different. As you can see, Jade isn’t the type of person you always see, since she’s having a panic disorder, she realizes the lessons of life that she cherishes the most....more
Devon
Feb 05, 2009 Devon rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Sarah Dessen fans
Recommended to Devon by: Emery
Shelves: own
Emery sent me this book and another for my birthday, and I began this one first. I'll have to agree with her and say Dessen > Caletti. However, I really enjoyed the book. It was funny, hilarious even at times. Also, fluff. Yay! I like these contemporary teenager novels that have nothing to do with fantasy, sometimes. It's like taking a break from work. Which is weird, since if anything these should be MORE taxing for the brain. I guess it's just taking a break from understanding parts of a wh...more
Maddie
This book was a simply breathtaking. Deb Caletti weaves a story about a girl who gets panic attacks, trying to get her life together after high school. Maybe it wasn't the plot that I loved so much, just the way Deb Caletti puts such thought and detail into every sentence. This was everything I hoped it would be and more.

I loved how Deb Caletti chose to have the main character have panic attacks. It shows that even the ones who have little flaws like this can be just as good as us - maybe even b...more
Shane Harris
*Spoiler Alert*
This and other reviews on my blog: http://booksinmynook.blogspot.com/

Jade is our main character and we see the story evolve through her eyes.
She experiences panic attacks and has learned to control her anxiety with medication and counselling.
Jade loves her little brother - who enjoys nothing more than reading his fantasy novels, but is forced into a multitude of sports by a demanding Father who insists that sports will make him a man. Jade's mother is re-living high school (and d...more
Natalie R
I went into The Nature of Jade with no expectations whatsoever. I had never read a Deb Caletti book before, and no I know had or had told me about any of her books. This was just a spur of the moment “what random book do I have on my shelf” kind of read. And I can tell you, I’m glad I picked it up! It’s not the best book I’ve read by a long shot, but it was a book that I could relate to on a lot of levels.

Jade is a girl who is just one year younger than myself and is finishing up her last year o...more
« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 99 100 next »
topics  posts  views  last activity   
Did u like the animal references 6 20 Jun 14, 2013 07:42am  
The Nature of Jade (Paperback)
Nature of Jade (ebook)
The Nature of Jade (Kindle Edition)
The Nature of Jade (Audio CD)
The Nature of Jade (Paperback)

135786
Deb Caletti is an American writer born in San Rafael, California. She was a National Book Award finalist, as well as the recipient of other numerous awards including PEN USA finalist award, the Washington State Book Award, and SLJ Best Book award.
Deb went to Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, Washington, U.S.A., and graduated in 1981. She earned a BA in Journalism/Communications from the Uni...more
More about Deb Caletti...
Stay Honey, Baby, Sweetheart The Secret Life of Prince Charming The Six Rules of Maybe The Story of Us

Share This Book

Your website
“It was one of those times you feel a sense of loss, even though you didn't have something in the first place. I guess that's what disappointment is- a sense of loss for something you never had.” 465 people liked it
“Are you getting your period?" She narrows her eyes.
No! God. I hate that. I hate when every negative act is blamed on your period." Sometimes bitchiness is just bitchiness, happily unattached to anything hormonal. It should get full credit.”
133 people liked it
More quotes…