Someone Like You

Title: Someone Like You
Author: Sarah Dessen
Published: First published 1998, by Viking
Format: Paperback
Pages: 281 (of actual story)
RRP: roughly £5.99

Rating: * * * * / 5 (You Must Read)

I literally just finished Someone Like You about 10 minutes ago. What struck me is how Sarah Dessen deals with friendship - she establishes it throughout the book until the dramatic ending when Scarlett goes into labour and Halley freaks out, but after her mum comes and saves the day, Halley, who tells the story, realises that friends stick together, no matter what. It sounds a little cheesy, but it doesn't seem like that when you're reading. It's probably one of the best books, if not the best, about friendship and teen pregnancy that's out there.
Despite it being written more than 10 years ago, you don't notice. Objects and technology doesn't really come into it, so I didn't know it wasn't written less than 5 years ago until I looked up when it was first published for this review!
It's a classic example of how Sarah Dessen can write - towards the end when Macon is pressuring Halley to move 'further on' in their relationship, I found myself acting motherly, trying to will Halley into not doing anything stupid and cheering on Scarlett for making her stop and think. Slowly, Halley changes throughout the book from a mother's almost-perfect daughter into a completely reckless teenager, but is thankfully brought back to who she really is when she discovers who her boyfriend is. It's really interesting to read, and is written amazingly.
Although loads of people have different views, I'm glad Halley finally became herself again. I know loads of people will disagree and say 'oh, but Macon made her so happy with the candy and slight danger' but that's it; everyone has different views on what's right and wrong. and none of them are completely wrong or right. It was nice how Halley lived for third period, but I had a slight grudge against Macon from the start - I don't really like to completely let myself go and live dangerously.
Obviously, a big factor is that of Scarlett's pregnancy. It was so sad how she found out she was pregnant the day before her boyfriend died - she never even got to tell him. That wasn't a spoiler, by the way; it happens in the first chapter. It might just have been Sarah Dessen not going into it too much, but it seemed to me that people weren't so shocked by a 16 year old girl being pregnant as they are today. Of course, her shell-shocked mum wanted her to have an abortion or give the baby up for adoption, but her classmates dealt with it reasonably well and her boss only mentioned her giving up her job once. Nowadays, teens who get pregnant are stereotyped as girls who sleep around and do drugs, when it's not true most of the time, but in Scarlett's case it was just accidental, and she was accepted after the initial shock. It just goes to show how modern society can't really accept change that well.
Another big thing in Someone Like You was the mother-daughter relationship between Halley and her mum, Julie. As Halley gets more and more involved with Macon, her and her mother's seemingly-perfect relationship crumbles more and more. We sit there as Halley's mum tries to stop Halley from seeing Macon in order to save Halley from making an inevitable big mistake. At that point, you're either with Halley or not - I thought she was being slightly naive, but I could relate with some of the problems she had with not being able to share as much with her mum as she had - although not in a big way for me.
While reading Someone Like You, I could see it playing out inside my head like a film - and a good film. Scarlett's moodswings added a touch of humour to an otherwise serious, but chick lit.-y, book, and it taught you a lot about relationships - I'm sure every girl reading this could relate to something. Occasionally - especially towards prom night - I could predict what was going to happen, but it didn't really take that much away. Sarah Dessen is an amazing writer - can't wait to read more!!
I think that if you're not a big reader, this is a really good book for you if you're looking for something or want to start reading. And if you are a book lover? Even better!!

This Lullaby

Title: This Lullaby
Author: Sarah Dessen
Published: first published (UK) 2003, by Hodder.
Format: paperback
Pages: 380
RRP: £5.99

rating: * * * * / 5

This is my first book for the Sarah Dessen Challenge that I am taking part in. I've not really read any of Sarah Dessen's books, except for flicking through Just Listen a few years back. So imagine how I felt when I started This Lullaby; completely amazed. Sarah Dessen is a great YA author, like many out there, but she is also so much more. She really writes as though she is Remy (the narrator of This Lullaby). She lets us follow Remy as she realises she's not as clued up about life and all it's heartaches as she first thinks.
Remy Starr, our narrator, thinks she has her life all planned out. Now school is finally out forever, Remy just wants to enjoy her summer before leaving for Stanford College, which is 7,000 miles away. As with every other teenage summer before, Remy is looking for a summer fling. When Dexter stumbles into her life, Remy is totally against being anything more than acquaintances with him, but he's determined to go out with her. As well as being messy and disorganised, Dexter is also a musician like her father (who wrote the famous song This Lullaby for Remy to make up for not staying in contact) which is the worst of all.
Despite all of this, Remy does go out with Dexter, and as she starts to overlook things that normally would've have gotten the guy dumped, Remy starts to question whether she's right or not; is there such a thing as love that lasts more than 6 weeks?
At first, Remy was such a pessimistic cynic I got slightly annoyed by her, but as the book goes on, you grow to love her. She has had a lot to deal with in her life, what with her mother's constant marriages and divorces that Remy has had to organise, that have helped her to think love is a joke. You see how she becomes a much happier person up until THAT moment - I won't spoil it for you.
This book is lighthearted and fun, but it has depth too, which I love. All in all, it was a really good book, and I recommend it for a light summer read. I didn't find it good enough for 5 stars, but it's brilliant all the same.

Sarah Dessen's books:

Last Chance
That Summer (published UK 2 Jul 09)

Someone Like You - READ

Keeping The Moon

Dreamland

This Lullaby - READ

Lock & Key
Along For The Ride (published UK 16 Jun 2009)

The Truth about Forever

Just Listen

Em from Em's Bookshelf has started the Sarah Dessen Challenge. This sounds really interesting so I'm going to take part, even though one of the books isn't out in the UK until the middle of June.

Em made only three rules:

1) Read all 9 books by Sarah Dessen that are published in the UK.
2) Set your own time frame. My goal is to read all 9 books by November 21st 2009 but yours could be by the end of 2009 or by the end of the summer. Whatever works best for your schedule. Don't stress...this is supposed to be fun! :)
3) Comment on this post or link to this post on your blog. The more people that hear about this, the more people we'll have cheering us on!

I'm going to try and read all her books by November 21st, which seems a while, but I don't have any of her books!!!

You should try it out too!