Book Review Eighteen: This Lullaby

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen, published by Penguin Group.

I can't pass up a Sarah Dessen book now that I've been introduced to her! This one was no different. I happened to have some motivation to hit up the library one day. I sat there for literally an hour and read the first two chapters of this book. I liked it so much that I went out and bought it the next day. There's just something so enchanting about her books that makes you want to read them in one sitting but at the same time want them to last forever. That's exactly how I felt when I read Audrey, Wait!

Remy, the main character, is a recent high school graduate who is in control, organized, and thinks she knows what she wants in life. She doesn't believe in love lasting forever and she is constantly finding flaws in her endless stream of boyfriends. Her recent ex is Jonathon who she dumps in the beginning of the novel. She plans to have fun during her last summer before college and wants to spend it with Lissa, Jess, and Chloe, her three best friends. They remind me of the three best friends from Before I Fall. Just like Oliver's characters, Dessen gives personalities, histories, and dreams to all of her characters, no matter how minor.

Remy's mother is constantly falling in and out of love. She's been married several times and this novel features her latest marriage to Don, a car salesman. And if there isn't enough focus on love in Remy's life ... her brother Chris is also in love with his girlfriend, Jenny, Lissa with Adam, and even Jess becomes infatuated with a few boys. It's up to Remy and Chloe to remain cynical about the four-letter-word. However, Dexter has the power to change everything. He's a musician, like Remy's father who abandoned her when she was young but left her with a hit song to remember him by, and he's quirky, clumsy, blunt, and in love with her. She allows him a chance, despite his many flaws, but she still doesn't know if she can allow herself to be vulnerable enough to really let him in.

Sarah Dessen always develops her characters really well. They have flaws, they have promise, they have lovable traits, but they also have a past. That is the most intriguing part about Remy. She has this past of upsets that her mother caused. She has this really interesting backstory of watching her mother's failed marriages and her mother wrapped up in her latest novel (her mom is a romance novelist) and a bad reputation for allowing boys to go all the way, drinking, and smoking too much. I felt like there was this whole other story about Remy that I was missing. It's like you're really good friends with a person, you know everything about her, and then she disappears for two years. When that friend comes back things are just like old times, except no matter how much she fills you in on those two years you're still going to be out of the loop. You weren't there to experience it with her. Just like with Remy when she explains her bad side: "Her hair was flat, her face a little sweaty. She looked drunk, but I would have known her anywhere. It was everybody else who always liked to think she was gone for good" (pg 101). This made me wonder if something especially bad had happened to her. Was she taken advantage of in the past? Had she let someone in before only for him to break her heart? I felt like there was a strong backstory that just lingered around waiting to be explained. "How did I know this would be any different? The story could have been the same, easily; me drunk, in a deserted place. Someone there, reaching out for me. It had happened before. Who could blame me for my cold, hard heart?" (pg 108). Only that's the extent that Dessen shares with us.

The other really amazing thing about these characters is that they all influenced each other. Every character had a part in creating the way the rest of the characters turned out. Remy's mother clearly affected her perspective on love, but Remy (maybe inadvertently) also affected the way Chloe dealt with boys; "Because if I wasn't cold, hard Remy, then she couldn't be the Chloe she was, either." If Remy can fall in love with Dexter and throw all of her rules about boys out the window, then Chloe has the chance to fall in love also. I think that scares Chloe just as much as it scares Remy. I also think that one of the main influences on Remy's new view of love (besides Dexter) is her brother Chris. He's seen the worst of what it can do for someone, just like her, yet he focuses on seeing the best it can do.

So, in case you can't tell, I was in awe of Dessen's talent when I read this. I must have highlighted something every five pages. It was definitely worth the 8.99 for paperback.

Book Review Eleven: Keeping the Moon

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen, published by Penguin Group.

Keeping the Moon is a novel about fifteen-year-old Nicole Sparks, nicknamed Colie, who goes to live with her Aunt Mira in Colby, North Carolina for the summer. Her mother, Kiki Sparks, is a fitness guru off on an international tour to promote her weight-loss line. Colie and her mother used to be fat, during what they call the "Fat Years" and now that they have both shed the weight they are dealing with their new identities differently. Kiki has embraced this new image and lifestyle and is determined to help others do the same. Colie, however, seems to miss the safety she had behind her fat, although the pain and verbal abuse she received during those years still haunts her. Losing the weight didn't mean losing the insults; kids traded the fat nicknames to slut and "Hole in One," rumors that are just that: untrue and hurtful.

In Colby she acquires a job at Last Chance, a small restaurant in town, and befriends Morgan and Isabel, two girls that are quite different and yet the epitome of what best friends should be. Colie has never had a best friend before, and therefore learns from their relationship with each other while creating one of her own. The relationship between the three girls becomes the focus of the novel as Colie learns what friendship and self-esteem really mean and how they can transform her from her perpetual state of self-defense.

However, just like in Sarah Dessen's other novels, all the characters play a major role, no matter how little their actual part in the novel. Norman, for instance, is a hippie boy who lives downstairs from Mira. He collects odd parts, antiques, useless junk, and above all else, sunglasses. He's an artist and a cook at Last Chance. He doesn't appear to have a lot of stake in the novel, and is mentioned here and there between the fighting and dancing Morgan and Isabel do, however he becomes increasingly important in Colie's life. He also is the one to show her what she looks like to the outside. I loved this character, just as I love all of the male characters Dessen writes. She creates a believable, eccentric male protagonist that has a bit of mystery and charm. He's always likable yet never quite says what he's thinking. He also always likes the female character but it takes her a while to come around or to achieve a certain milestone.

That's what there is to love about Sarah Dessen. Her novels aren't just a "girl meets boy, girl falls for boy, boy and girl are happy together" format. They're more "girl has problem, girl is in process of addressing problem, girl meets boy, boy helps her find herself, girl is happy with herself, girl and boy are happy together." That idea is especially portrayed through Aunt Mira in the book. Mira is overweight, she wears crazy outfits, she rides her bicycle all over town, and she also is a collector of broken items. However, Mira says, "I've always known who I am. I might not work perfectly, or be like them, but that's okay. I know I work in my own way" (pg 171). And that's really the lesson to be learned from this novel. As long as you're happy with yourself just ignore the comments that other people make. They make those because they can't understand you and that scares them. "Because it's so hard, in any life, to believe in what you can't fully understand" (pg 228).

Needless to say, I recommend this one. It's a quick delightful read, it has a lot of good self-image lessons for teens in it, and adorable relationships that are as realistic as they are complicated.

Favorite quotes: "...an electric solar system that pulled things in, turned them around, and gave them a new life all their own" (pg 186).

"You're not the kind of person who smiles for nothing, Colie. I have to earn every one" (pg 189).

Book Review Six: Just Listen

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, published by The Penguin Group.

Okay, I put Sarah Dessen on my new favorite authors list. This novel was also exceptionally well-written. I didn't like it as much as TTAF (The Truth About Forever) but it was still captivating, charming, and full of deep dark truths. Bad things do happen to everyone, and that means they can happen while you're still too young to know what to do about them. You can either choose to bottle them up and pretend they don't exist, or confront them head on by fronting a brave face through a long struggle. In this novel Annabel Greene had a horrible trauma happen to her and it'll take the reader halfway through the novel to discover just what it is that Annabel is hiding. (I guessed it pretty early on, so you might too.)

What I appreciated was that Dessen allowed the reader a chance to see what had happened through Annabel's eyes before Annabel herself even thought about bringing it to the surface. It was like a small step of courage for her to relive it and I appreciated that she could share it with us first before the other characters in the novel.

This novel seems to speak about relationships more than anything else. (If you think the book is purely about the music then maybe you should go back and re-read it). There's the faulty relationship between Annabel and her mother. Her mother still looking at Annabel as a young girl with a modeling dream and refuses to see that she is all grown up and dreaming on her own. Annabel's relationships with her sisters are just as troubling. She has two older sisters who are polar opposites. While there is a huge focus of the family on Whitney's problem: an eating disorder, and Kirsten's exciting new discovery: she wants to go back to school, Annabel feels left in the dust. She is ostracized at school since her friendship with Sophie, the most popular girl in their grade, ended bitterly over the summer. Her loneliness and isolation allows her to befriend Owen, a major music enthusiast who is just as isolated from the high school world as Annabel.

Owen and Annabel seem an unlikely pair from the beginning but they form an honest friendship revolving around finding your identity. Owen believes it can be found through honest communication and the world of music, whereas Annabel was used to putting on a face that everyone wanted to see and saying the words everyone wanted to hear. Through a trusting and at times, uncomfortable friendship with Owen, Annabel learns who she really is and how much she can handle after all. She surprises herself and readers in this gripping tale about a young woman's journey to figure out her place in the world.

On a side note, the music that is featured in this novel does not sound like anything I would ever listen to. I loved Owen as a character but as an enlightened listener, no thank you. However, the title did work perfectly; Just Listen could refer to just listening to what your memories are telling you, just listen to your family and friends when they have a problem, or just listen to the music, that's what it was intended for. Don't judge, just listen. Give it a chance. It could blow your mind.

Favorite Quote: "I was beginning to see, though, that the unknown wasn't always the greatest thing to fear. The people who know you best can be riskier, because the words they say and the things they think have the potential to be not only scary but true, as well," (pg. 67).

P.S. I just realized what I really like about the two novels by Sarah Dessen I have read so far is that the young girl may be struggling and she may meet a young, cute, insightful guy, but that guy doesn't rescue her. You may think you like novels where the guy comes and rescues the girl and they live happily ever after. It's not the truth. It's not reality. It'd be nice if life worked that way, but alas, it doesn't. What happens in these novels is more realistic: the guy comes along and offers witty, charming insight and the girl starts to think and she comes to terms on her own. She learns with his help and she makes life changes and discoveries and falls in love, but it's due to her own strength and determination. Very feminist. Which of course means I love it. And I love insightful hot male leads.

Book Review Three: The Truth About Forever

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, published by The Penguin Group.

I freely admit that this is the first book I have read by Sarah Dessen. I knew she was an up-and-coming young adult author and I just hadn't read anything by her yet. Typically I don't read the same books as the rest of teens. I don't read the Clique series, or the Princess Diary series, or Twilight. I do, however, judge a book by it's cover. It's wrong, I know, but if I like the front cover I'm motivated enough to read the back of the book. If I like what the back says, then I'll read it. Most of the time that's what works and that's how I find really good authors.

That wasn't the case this time. I had heard about her a lot, and seen her books on the shelves enough times to note that she would be good. Then a co-worker suggested her and said she deals with serious issues in a new way. I was interested but had a lot of other books to read in my way. Then my boyfriend got me The Truth About Forever as a Christmas gift and I couldn't stall any longer. Here it was, my chance to see if she was as good as everyone claimed.

She isn't. She's BETTER. Trust me, I haven't loved a book this much since Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway. Which was this past summer, so it was nice to fall in love with characters again. It had been a long while since I loved something so much that it was the last thing I wanted to do before I went to bed and the first thing I wanted to read in the morning. I couldn't stop reading, but at the same time I didn't want to finish. That meant it would be over, and then what? I'd lose those characters that I had grown so attached to. Sometimes I find it just unfair that I read fast, it makes it that much worse to find something special and finish it in a short amount of time.

But back to the novel ... Macy is alone for the summer while her boyfriend, Jason is at Brain Camp. He is perfect and has inspired such perfection in her. She thinks of perfection as control and stability and therefore strives by it. She needs her rigid schedule to keep calm in her life since her dad's death the year before. His unexpected passing, and her key role in the moment, are what have made such an impact on her life. She is a changed Macy because of it, and not for the better. Her relationship with her mother is pivotal in the novel, as is her new job with Wish, a local catering company.

Wish brings about new characters to disrupt Macy's controlled life. She begins to thrive in chaos instead of order and finds thrill in mishaps and disasters. She makes new friends who begin to teach her a few things about truth, happiness, and being extraordinary. I don't know if I'll be able to say any more without giving some key moments away. I don't have that kind of self-restraint, especially when I love something so much.

What I will say though, is read it. If you like the unexpected, if you like a book that makes you smile to yourself, if you like staying up until 3 am because you can't wait to find out what happens next, you have to read this book. It redefines the way you look at life, being perfect, and friendships. It may take some trauma to bring people together in life, but what they can learn from each other and fresh life-changing summers is enough to make it worth it in the end.

Edited to say: I do have How to Deal by Sarah Dessen, which I hadn't read but did love the movie it was made into. It was a quirky teen movie starring Mandy Moore. It's on my list of books to read, but I already recommend it based on how good the movie was. :]