Review: Sarah Dessen Books

So, I have several guilty pleasures. I watch Dr. Oz and 90210, I listen to One Direction, and I love Lifetime movies. I mean, it's not like that's all I watch or listen to. I do tend to have better taste in entertainment. Honestly, I do. Despite the aforementioned activities, I've always prided myself in having a pretty decent taste in books, all middle school Twilight obsessions aside. However, with the warm weather descending upon my life and all the springyness in the air, I'm starting to dig out my summer reads. Sarah Dessen writes my favorites.
Sarah's books follow a formula similar to that of a Nicholas Sparks movie, though I do enjoy her books a heck of a lot more. They're always (all ten of them) narrated my a girl who either falls in love right away and then falls out of love, or falls in love gradually and gets with her man at the end of the novel. The males in these novels tend to have quirky names and personalities (Sumner, Dexter, Norman) and are usually extremely attractive. (That's a big characteristic of Wes in particular). The plots usually range from lighthearted (Keeping the Moon, That Summer, Along for the Ride, This Lullaby, The Truth About Forever) to rather deep and dark (Dreamland, Someone Like You, Just Listen, Lock and Key). I've read nine out of ten of them, so I have a pretty good grasp on how they work, and I've even gotten to the point where I can tell some of her earlier stuff from her later stuff. So, I have decided for your reading pleasure, to review three (with no particular organization) or her books here.

That Summer (1996): I literally just finished reading this one about five hours ago. I bought it last night. I'm just going to admit bluntly that I really did not like this book. It's not like it was really awful or anything, but I've certainly read better from Dessen. The main character is a fifteen-year-old girl (my age!) who is almost six feet tall. Her sister is getting married, and so is her father, to the weather girl he had an affair with (which led to the divorce of her parents...obviously. Also many of these books contain the one-parent factor, or at least the daddy/mommy issue factor). I don't like it because it really doesn't have that much of a plot. Like, literally nothing happens. I know that I'm not enjoying a book when I find myself glancing to the next page to see if anything interesting starts happening. This is also the only Sarah Dessen book that has absolutely zero romance in it. I guess it disappointed me because it didn't follow the formula I'm familiar with, which is understandable, as this was her first novel. I just wanted something a little more memorable. And while the male hero, Sumner Lee, is adorable and charming and whatnot, he's built up to a lot of nothing. Like, the only real plot is the fact that the summer Haven (main character) was eight, her sister was in 10th grade or so and dating Sumner, and Sumner brought the family together because he was so dang charming. But then they break up, and Haven witnesses it but doesn't know why they broke up, but thinks that it's all her sister's fault. So when Sumner shows back up at the time the novel takes place, there's a lot of speculation as to why they broke up in the first place. And you don't find out until about four pages before the end. It's the most suspenseful part of the book, and the big conclusion is.....(spoiler alert)......he cheated on her. Big whoop! Ok, so I know cheating is bad, but it was SO built up that I was totally disappointed that he didn't do something like super sleazy and awful. However, I'll give Sarah a break, seeing as this was her first novel, and the first thing you ever write isn't going to be the best thing you ever write.
Overall grade: C+

The Truth About Forever (2004): I also just finished re-reading this a couple days ago. THIS IS MY FAVORITE. There. All out in the open now. I just love this book for some reason. The main character, Macy Queen, is a former runner who witnessed her father's death (one-parent...) and is now living with her control freak mother who sells real estate. She also has a crazy sister (also kind of a recurring theme in all the books. I think 4 or 5 of them include crazy sisters). And a crazy boyfriend, who is not so much crazy as ridiculously obnoxious. By obnoxious I mean a genius. He's also obviously socially awkward, because after he goes to brain camp he (spoilers) decides to go on a break with Macy because she ended an email to him with "I love you", and he thinks she's not spending enough time at the library job that she's filling in for him. Even though she totally is, the girls she works with are just catty smarty-pantses with sticks up their you-know-wheres. Macy's biggest issue throughout the novel is perfection, or rather lack thereof. Her control freak mother and her control freak boyfriend both expect a lot from her, and she's not happy with all the pressure and emptiness and boredom. So she gets a catering job with a bunch of excellent people, all of which are perfectly developed as characters. Like seriously, she goes from having seven or so poorly developed main characters in That Summer to having nine wonderfully developed characters in this. Seriously. It's hard to develop just one main character, let alone nine of them. Especially when one of them is dead. Yeah, that's right, she even develops the dead father beautifully. There's plenty of plot, plenty of romance with Hot Wes (okay, it's just Wes, but he's hot), and a great ending. All of the random details actually matter to the story, and I just love it. Absolutely.
Overall Grade: A

Someone Like You (1998): It's been awhile since I've read this one, but I wanted to cover one of her darker stories, and I can't remember Dreamland well enough. I liked this book. I thought it was quite good, as a matter of fact. So why is it darker? Well, for starters, the main character (Halley)'s best friend's boyfriend dies within the first five pages in a horrible motorcycle accident. And then a little later, we learn that the best friend (Scarlett) is pregnant. And then Halley falls in with the dead boyfriend's best friend, Macon (quirky name), who pressures her to sleep with him and is all around a dangerous guy to be with. And then (spoilers) he gets all cheesed off cuz she won't sleep with him and starts driving her home all angrily and then they get in a car accident. Nobody dies, but still. Okay. Review time. Halley's character was pretty well developed, but Macon's and Scarlett's characters could've been done a lot better. I would've really liked to see characterization of Scarlett's dead boyfriend, because there are only a couple of mentions of him throughout the book, and there's a big deal about how even though a lot of other girls dated him, he and Scarlett were really in love. I wanted to see that a little more. The plot was great, though, so that's good.
Overall grade: B

Other things I like about Sarah Dessen books: Almost all of them take place in the same area, so there are some characters and places that pop up in multiple books. For example, The Last Chance Bar and Grill from Keeping the Moon is mentioned in The Truth about Forever, the Lakeview Mall Models from That Summer are in Just Listen, Scarlett from Someone Like You is actually in This Lullaby briefly, etc. Also, I have never disliked a male hero (except for Macon and Rogerson, who you're not supposed to like anyways). And the majority of them take place in the summer time, which I love, because it puts me in a good summer mood.

Things I dislike: I don't always like the sidekick type people because they tend to have very little characterization. I also don't always like the main characters in all of them. I really couldn't stand Remy from This Lullaby, even though her male counterpart, Dexter, is my second favorite male character (after Wes). Haven from That Summer was kind of a brat, too. But really, that's about it.