This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

As soon as Remy started high school -- pretty and blond and, well, a girl with a reputation -- teachers and guidance counselors had her pegged as average, a student who would never achieve much. She worked hard to prove them wrong, and now she's graduated and won acceptance to Stanford. She's also busy planning her mother's fifth wedding, to a car salesman, and working in a beauty salon. She can't wait to hop on that plane to California!

Meanwhile Remy has her three best friends, Lissa, Jess and Chloe, and she's just broken up with Jerk Jonathan, the latest in a string of temporary boyfriends. She is a girl who has no difficulty attracting guys. She's sexually active, but she never falls in love. Having been abandoned at conception by her father, and having watched her mother navigate four failed marriages, Remy doesn't believe in love. She never lets herself lose control in relationships, just as she always keeps control over her compulsively tidy, organized life. She has become an expert in enjoying the euphoria of a new relationship, then breaking it off before the glow fades and the couple has to recognize each others' imperfections, accept one another as multi-dimensional human beings, and commit to the hard work of building a relationship.

Then she meets Dexter, an aspiring musician who is impulsive, forgetful, and messy. Dating him is breaking all of Remy's carefully ordered rules. But what does it matter? It will end in August, when she leaves for Stanford, if not sooner. It's not as if he's going to be a long term boyfriend, right?

On one level, this is a light summer romance, with plenty of wry humor and some laugh-out-loud moments. It is also a story about taking a leap of faith -- having the courage to take a risk and allow oneself to fall in love.

It took me a while to warm up to Remy, who has a sharp edge and doesn't tend to accept others' weaknesses. However, I was drawn into her character, with its paradoxical mix of disciplined control and promiscuity, of sharp assertiveness and vulnerability. It felt real to me, and I found myself caring about her and rooting for her.

This is an enjoyable novel with fun dialogue and an interesting central character which explores the struggle between wanting love and intimacy and being terrified of it. Does it require more courage, and offer a richer, more wonderful life, when you're willing to risk loving someone without conditions and come to terms with each others' imperfections? At times, I felt this message was laid on with a very heavy hand. However, I realize that novels for young adults tend to present themes in a much less subtle way than other novels do. I admired this author for exploring these questions, which are a crucial and difficult part of coming of age.

I also liked the fact that she wasn't afraid to be honest about teenage sexuality and substance abuse. These adolescent characters aren't saints; they're real kids, easing into maturity and trying to make better choices.

I recommend this to mature teens and adults as a good read and a springboard to discussions about divorce as well as love, intimacy, sexuality, trust, and the decisions we make in adolescence.

Check Out More Reviews of This Book:
Teen Book Review
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Today's Adventure


Rating: 3.5

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

Since the day Macy Queen watched her father die, she has worked hard to keep her life in control, to be "fine," not to be an object of pity. While her older sister Caroline wept openly, Macy and her mom kept their grief frozen. Soon after that, in English class, Macy connected with Jason -- academically gifted, serious, and completely in control. With Jason as her boyfriend, achieving top grades, and living a well-ordered life, she is "perfect," and this is the glue that holds her and Mom's little family together.

Now Jason is leaving to spend the summer at "Brain Camp," and Macy is facing a summer alone, filling Jason's role at the library reference desk. When she meets Delia, the very pregnant and somewhat disorganized proprietor of Wish Catering, it creates a crack in her well-ordered world. Soon she is working with Delia and her quirky crew: Kristy, a beautiful young woman whose face is marked by scars from a childhood accident -- she dresses outrageously, because if people are going to be staring, she might as well give them something to look at. It also includes Kristy's sister Monica, who speaks in monosyllables, Bert, who has made a hobby of studying the coming apocalypse, and Wes, a gorgeous artist with a criminal history who makes unique, beautiful sculptures from the rubbish other people cast aside.

Macy's friendship with Wes, who has coped with the death of his mother, deepens. He seems unaware of his good looks, and he likes flaws -- "they make things more interesting." With her new friends, and with the spark heating up between her and Wes, Macy's life becomes vivid and three-dimensional. But to risk love -- and to risk living her life on her own terms -- is excruciatingly difficult. It will also upset the delicate balance in her mom's life and in their relationship.
This is a beautifully written, introspective novel, with warm, colorful, quirky, characters and an intelligent teen protagonist. It asks thought provoking questions. What does it mean to try to be "perfect?" Does it take more strength to be a rock, someone who can be relied upon to manage her life smoothly in the face of crushing grief, or to deal head-on with the messiness and unpredictability of grieving -- and of living?

It took me a while to get fully engaged in this book, but when I did, I was hooked. This character-driven novel worked for me once I'd had time to get fully acquainted with all the characters. While this is not my favorite of Dessen's popular YA novels -- that honor belongs to Someone Like You -- it was a compelling and memorable story with an intensely satisfying ending.

Read More Reviews:
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Rating: 3.5

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen

Fifteen-year-old Colie Sparks's life has been defined, in many ways, by not fitting in. After years of moving from one place to another with her struggling single mom, she finally settles down, but she doesn't find peace. Middle school is torture. Fifty pounds overweight, she is ridiculed for being fat. After she loses the weight, she is branded as a "slut" and is relentlessly harassed by popular girls in her school. Vulnerable and uncomfortable in her own skin, she gets a dye job and a lip piercing that don't really suit her and tries to shield herself as best she can.

Colie's mom, once obese, now a born again health guru, is off to Europe to promote her exercise program. Colie is sent to stay with her eccentric aunt Mira on the North Carolina Coast. Overweight and oddly dressed, Mira is the butt of many jokes among the locals. Although Mira seems oblivious to this, Colie finds it excruciating.

Colie takes a job at the Last Chance Bar and Grill and befriends the waitresses, Isabel and Morgan, who have an edgy and volatile relationship but are devoted friends, and gentle, eccentric Norman, a short order cook and gifted artist. Gradually her new friends, along with Aunt Mira, help her gain confidence and self esteem.

This is a lighter novel than Someone Like You, but still rich with human experience. Sarah Dessen's knack for creating unique, quirky, down-to-earth characters really shines here. I saw shades of one my most beloved authors, Anne Tyler, in her odd, richly developed cast of characters. However, for some reason, I didn't find the characters in Keeping the Moon quite as compelling as those in Someone Like You, and I didn't find this novel as difficult to put down.

Nevertheless, I recommend it, and it is a book I would have dearly loved to have had on my shelf when I was a young teen. Colie is easy to relate to and quickly won my affection, and I readily connected to Aunt Mira. This is a story both teens and adults will enjoy.


Rating: 3

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen

Fifteen-year-old Halley is having a dreadful week at summer camp when she receives a late night call from her beautiful, confident best friend, Scarlett. "Halley ... can you come home?" A tragedy has shaken Scarlett's world, and neither of their lives will ever be the same.

Halley's life is changing in other ways too. She is drifting away from her mother, a developmental transition that neither of them is quite ready for. Her beloved grandmother is aging and becoming quite ill. And Halley finds herself swept up by the joy and anguish of her first love.

Sarah Dessen creates colorful, interesting, and sometimes delightfully quirky characters. She also seems to be exquisitely skilled at painting human emotions and the complexity of normal life transitions -- as well as those crises that are unexpected. I really liked the way she portrayed the subtle ebb and flow of Halley's relationship with her mom as she struggles to establish her independence and the tenderness of best friendship between adolescent girls. I was also moved as I watched Halley at her sick grandmother's bedside, seeing her mother's tough exterior slip, revealing raw vulnerability. Sarah Dessen also writes some gorgeous prose:

When we went back inside I only spoke with Grandma Halley for a few minutes. At first, when she opened her eyes and saw me there was no flicker of recognition, no instant understanding that I was who I was, and that scared me. As if I had already changed into another girl, another Halley, features and voice and manners all shifting to make me unrecognizable.

"It's Halley, Mother," my own mother said softly from the other side of the bed, looking across at me encouragingly, since she couldn't squeeze my shoulder and pass this off as better than it was.

And then I saw it, flooding across my grandmother's antique, careful features: she found me in the strange face looking down at her. "Halley," she said, almost scolding, as if I was an old friend playing a trick on her. "How are you sweetheart?" (p. 190)

This is an unforgettable coming of age story, at times sad and often funny. We watch Halley, who has always seen herself as shy and vulnerable, become her best friend's greatest source of support during a crisis which would challenge most adults to their limits. We see her find romance for the first time and follow her relationship with the attractive and charming, but unreliable, Macon. We also see her pull away from her intense, assertive mother, who has always provided direction to her life, begin shaping her own identity, and finally reconcile with her mom.

I highly recommend this novel to readers who enjoy rich, engaging coming of age stories and articulate character-driven books, especially to teens.

You can read a sample chapter, on the author's website, here. Read another review at: Fluttering Butterflies.



Rating: 4

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me