Dessen, Sarah - The Truth About Forever
I started reading this at one in the morning, thinking I would read a chapter or two, then go to bed. I actually ended up going to bed around five, after I had finished the book.
Macy Queen found her father as he lay dying by the side of the road of a heart attack. Since then, her mother has buried herself in work, her sister has moved away, and she has been trying as hard as she can to be perfect. Her boyfriend Jason is goign to camp for the summer, leaving her alone with his library job. But instead of spending her days studying for the SATs and being the good daughter, Macy ends up catering with a fun and chaotic group of people. Most importantly, there's Wes (unrelated to angsty, suffering Wes of the Whedonverse). Wes is the one person Macy's really allowed under her shiny exterior since her father died.
I cried so much during this book, not because of overtly emotional scenes, but because there was so much grief in the background that Macy never allowed herself to express, so much unstated loss. Macy and her mother never talk about her father, really, but his very absence is a giant hole in the book that everything revolves around. And I just felt so very bad for Macy, afraid to get too close to people, and so accustomed to putting her feelings away that she's not quite sure what to do with them.
She actually reminds me of myself back in high school, too afraid to let any cracks show, petrified by the thought that any imperfections would be taken advantage of.
I really liked her relationship with Wes, despite Wes being slightly too idealized. I like that they get to know each other through the game of Truth, that they actually talk and learn things about each other. And I very much liked the portrayal of her family -- Caroline, the previously rebellious older sister, and their mother the workaholic. The small pressures on Macy to be the perfect daughter, as opposed to Caroline's past disobedience, along with the perception of her as the stable, dependable one, are pressures I can sympathize with, and the book really affected me deeply along those lines.
The ending was a little too tied up for me, and there was a rather gratuitous Big Misunderstanding that seems too clunky for Dessen's usually delicate and sure hand. I also wish that the conflict at the end had been more directly caused by Macy's own fears and insecurities, as opposed to the Big Misunderstanding, because that would have fit the book much better.
But this was still really good. And I don't know if it's because I am personally very affected by the story that Dessen is telling, but this book didn't just make me sniffle and tear up. I had actual tears rolling down me cheeks at several points in the book, which almost never happens to me. There's just such a sense of loss in it, and yet, there's still hope within that.
Links:
- gwyneira's review
- oursin's review
Macy Queen found her father as he lay dying by the side of the road of a heart attack. Since then, her mother has buried herself in work, her sister has moved away, and she has been trying as hard as she can to be perfect. Her boyfriend Jason is goign to camp for the summer, leaving her alone with his library job. But instead of spending her days studying for the SATs and being the good daughter, Macy ends up catering with a fun and chaotic group of people. Most importantly, there's Wes (unrelated to angsty, suffering Wes of the Whedonverse). Wes is the one person Macy's really allowed under her shiny exterior since her father died.
I cried so much during this book, not because of overtly emotional scenes, but because there was so much grief in the background that Macy never allowed herself to express, so much unstated loss. Macy and her mother never talk about her father, really, but his very absence is a giant hole in the book that everything revolves around. And I just felt so very bad for Macy, afraid to get too close to people, and so accustomed to putting her feelings away that she's not quite sure what to do with them.
She actually reminds me of myself back in high school, too afraid to let any cracks show, petrified by the thought that any imperfections would be taken advantage of.
I really liked her relationship with Wes, despite Wes being slightly too idealized. I like that they get to know each other through the game of Truth, that they actually talk and learn things about each other. And I very much liked the portrayal of her family -- Caroline, the previously rebellious older sister, and their mother the workaholic. The small pressures on Macy to be the perfect daughter, as opposed to Caroline's past disobedience, along with the perception of her as the stable, dependable one, are pressures I can sympathize with, and the book really affected me deeply along those lines.
The ending was a little too tied up for me, and there was a rather gratuitous Big Misunderstanding that seems too clunky for Dessen's usually delicate and sure hand. I also wish that the conflict at the end had been more directly caused by Macy's own fears and insecurities, as opposed to the Big Misunderstanding, because that would have fit the book much better.
But this was still really good. And I don't know if it's because I am personally very affected by the story that Dessen is telling, but this book didn't just make me sniffle and tear up. I had actual tears rolling down me cheeks at several points in the book, which almost never happens to me. There's just such a sense of loss in it, and yet, there's still hope within that.
Links:
- gwyneira's review
- oursin's review