Authors you really should read: Sarah Dessen
I've been going through a MAJOR Sarah Dessen kick recently- seriously, 7 books in 2 days. I actually spent a good 30 minutes crying through the last 50 pages of Dreamland this morning, as my heart broke for Caitlyn. If you know *any* teen girls, you should really hook them up with the collected works of Sarah Dessen. Why?
1- Her characters are awesome and also true to life. I lovelovelove her characters and how they are trying to work out who they are and what they want. They might not always make the decisions that other people think are Right but they are learning and growing and finding out who they are
2- It's never a morality play. In This Lullaby Remy has slept around and drinks. In Dreamland Caitlyn smokes pot. In Someone Like You there is a teenage pregnancy BUT! it's not Lesson of The Week time. The ratio of teenage experimentation vs negative consequences pretty much matches up with my experience. Sleeping around doesn't automatically result in Diseases and/or Heartbreak and/or Pregnancy. Sometimes this is how you figure out who you are.
3- The secondary characters are GREAT. The friends and dialogue and enemies and school stuff and family- it all works.
4- Romance! Remy and Dexter, Annabel and Owen, Macy and Wes- this is the real thing. They have great chemistry and it feels right.
5- Best Friends! Caitlyn and Rina, Remy and her friends, Halley and Scarlett- sometimes romance breaks your heart, sometimes a best friend is the truest relationship in your life and that's AWESOME. Dessen gets this and shows it. Who can you count on?
6- Family. Dessen gets the complex relationships within families- loving them but wanting to differentiate yourself from your siblings, navigating parent-child, divorces and remarriages, stress, having to be the perfect one, never being able to live up to being the perfect one. She gets it.
Recommended Titles
All of them obviously BUT
This Lullaby - sa-woon!
Just Listening - the family dynamics are PERFECT
Dreamland - definitely the older end of the YA spectrum but SO GOOD
1- Her characters are awesome and also true to life. I lovelovelove her characters and how they are trying to work out who they are and what they want. They might not always make the decisions that other people think are Right but they are learning and growing and finding out who they are
2- It's never a morality play. In This Lullaby Remy has slept around and drinks. In Dreamland Caitlyn smokes pot. In Someone Like You there is a teenage pregnancy BUT! it's not Lesson of The Week time. The ratio of teenage experimentation vs negative consequences pretty much matches up with my experience. Sleeping around doesn't automatically result in Diseases and/or Heartbreak and/or Pregnancy. Sometimes this is how you figure out who you are.
3- The secondary characters are GREAT. The friends and dialogue and enemies and school stuff and family- it all works.
4- Romance! Remy and Dexter, Annabel and Owen, Macy and Wes- this is the real thing. They have great chemistry and it feels right.
5- Best Friends! Caitlyn and Rina, Remy and her friends, Halley and Scarlett- sometimes romance breaks your heart, sometimes a best friend is the truest relationship in your life and that's AWESOME. Dessen gets this and shows it. Who can you count on?
6- Family. Dessen gets the complex relationships within families- loving them but wanting to differentiate yourself from your siblings, navigating parent-child, divorces and remarriages, stress, having to be the perfect one, never being able to live up to being the perfect one. She gets it.
Recommended Titles
All of them obviously BUT
This Lullaby - sa-woon!
Just Listening - the family dynamics are PERFECT
Dreamland - definitely the older end of the YA spectrum but SO GOOD