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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
Originally posted here
3.5
After the period where all I read was Sarah Dessen I had to take a break. From the fact the books started to run together and that I needed to mix it up. The joys of being a mood reader is that this happens. The good news is that I’m three books away from having read all of them, much to the joy of my friend Sarah who has to deal with me in bookstores yelling about the fact the covers of Dessen’s books never match (Hi Sarah! Thanks for putting up with me!)
This Lullaby is the comfortable Sarah Dessen that we know, this book takes place in the same setting as her other ones, and deals with problems that everyone faces in their own way. Remy doesn’t believe in love. She has no faith in love, what she has faith in is that A + B = C, the sky is blue and that she has to get out of this town. While no one believed in her, she believed in herself and worked her way out of her small town. At the end of summer she is going to Stanford and will be free of her life and her mother’s failed relationships.
Of course this is easier said than done, Remy has good friends, she’s close to her brother, and as much as she wants to deny it, she’s close with her mother, the woman who Remy believes keeps marrying everyone. Remy actually doesn’t believe in love because of her mother. After the fifth marriage, Remy finds it hard to believe in true love. What Remy doesn’t expect in her last summer at home is Dex. Adorable musician Dex who seems through Remy’s hardass outside shell.
I adored This Lullaby. I though how Dessen wrote that last summer at home before college was perfection, from friendships, to Remy’s natural snark level, I found This Lullaby to be one of my favorites of Dessen’s world.
3.5
After the period where all I read was Sarah Dessen I had to take a break. From the fact the books started to run together and that I needed to mix it up. The joys of being a mood reader is that this happens. The good news is that I’m three books away from having read all of them, much to the joy of my friend Sarah who has to deal with me in bookstores yelling about the fact the covers of Dessen’s books never match (Hi Sarah! Thanks for putting up with me!)
This Lullaby is the comfortable Sarah Dessen that we know, this book takes place in the same setting as her other ones, and deals with problems that everyone faces in their own way. Remy doesn’t believe in love. She has no faith in love, what she has faith in is that A + B = C, the sky is blue and that she has to get out of this town. While no one believed in her, she believed in herself and worked her way out of her small town. At the end of summer she is going to Stanford and will be free of her life and her mother’s failed relationships.
Of course this is easier said than done, Remy has good friends, she’s close to her brother, and as much as she wants to deny it, she’s close with her mother, the woman who Remy believes keeps marrying everyone. Remy actually doesn’t believe in love because of her mother. After the fifth marriage, Remy finds it hard to believe in true love. What Remy doesn’t expect in her last summer at home is Dex. Adorable musician Dex who seems through Remy’s hardass outside shell.
I adored This Lullaby. I though how Dessen wrote that last summer at home before college was perfection, from friendships, to Remy’s natural snark level, I found This Lullaby to be one of my favorites of Dessen’s world.
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Compared to Sarah Dessen's other works, this one didn't really compare. I found it very slow, and dull. But I enjoyed it at times.
This Lullaby was one of the few books of Dessen's that I hadn't previously read and now that I have, I'm actually kind of... disappointed, maybe? I know, I'm even shocking myself by saying something negative about a book by an author that I have honestly always adored, but it is what it is.
The main problem for me was that the book lacks any real, consistent plot beyond the relationship. A lot of her books can be a bit like that, sure, but this is a serious offender. The thing was, I was always waiting to figure out what was actually going on. Turns out, there really wasn't anything. It was kind of like reading an account of someone's normal life, which is fine, but I have my own normal, boring life, and I read books to escape that. I want something with more sustenance.
There was a lot that Dessen could've done with the friendship aspect of this book that she left completely neglected. I know I'm a cynic when it comes to romance but I've loved several of her books. They just all happen to be the one's that have more going on than an overly cheesy and all-too-predictable romance between a girl (who has just been through so much trauma that, most often, her mother put her through, and she's sworn off love in order to protect her heart) and a boy (who has an equally sad story but has somehow found a way to look past all of the shitty parts of life and stay cheery and his smile probably reminds someone of the sun or something). I... do not do well with those kind of stories. So, my favorites of hers are one's that go beyond the romance. Honestly, with Dessen, you know what you're getting into. But some of her books do have more depth than that and you just have to sort through them to figure out which one's those are. But this? Ugh.
When a book lacks in the plot, I try to find solace in two things: the writing, and the characters. Now, personally, I really enjoy the way that Sarah Dessen writes, even in the books I dislike completely. Her works transitions nicely from scene to scene, she creates pretty good dialogue, and her wording never feels too stiff to me (I don't know how to explain "stiff" writing but just... if you get it, then you get it). I can often enjoy her characters a lot, too, so even if the story isn't magnificent, I can still have a good time. This Lullaby, on the other hand, did not produce characters that I found even slightly enjoyable.
Remy herself was... well, she was fine. I didn't love her and I didn't hate her. Dessen always writes one of two tropes for her female characters: 1) an overly goody girl with a niche for being too gullible and naive which ultimately leads them to being easily influenced by whatever rebel boy they fall in love with, or 2) a not-an-outright bad girl who veers on the side of bad habits more often than not which leads to the softening of her shell when she finds a goofy, lovable boy who is probably lanky and silly. Sound about right? Anyways, Remy was in group 2. She wasn't really a "bad girl" but she got drunk with her friends often and was very open about the fact that she'd had multiple intimate partners (and thank the universe that the slut-shaming was toned down, though definitely still present). I could personally connect with her well enough but she wasn't my favorite female character of Dessen's.
Now, Dexter. Ugh. We all know that Sarah Dessen practically owns the copyright for Manic Pixie Dream Boys™ but come on. Dexter is the worst I've ever come across in her books. I've seen a lot of readers really appear to like him but he is without a doubt one of my least favorite of all of her characters. He's incredibly and annoyingly irresponsible and I didn't find him endearing in the slightest. Call me a hater, it's fine. I just can't get on board. Being clumsy is not a personality trait! Being in a band is not a personality trait. He was nice, I guess, but he completely lacked in... everything. For me. Similarly, most of the other character's, like the friend group, were practically stick figures due to their poor development. Like I mentioned earlier, I would've loved if the book had more to do with the friendship, but instead they were there to add to Remy's story; nothing more, nothing less.
On a more positive note, I will add that I enjoyed the family aspect to this. At first it seemed to me that the issues that Remy had with her mom were going to be a kind of side-note to take up space when nothing else was going on, but the importance of the mother/daughter relationship grew a lot towards the end of the book. Sarah Dessen producing a book with an off dynamic between the main female character and her mother are something that you can pretty much bet your annual income on. I'm serious. Most often I find the daughter to be unbearable and the mother to be overbearing in these situations, so it's not always a fun part of the story for me. With This Lullaby, however, I thought it added something really important to the way Remy viewed love and relationships (and, once again, thank the universe for that).
So, after all of this negativity and only a sliver of praise, why, you may ask yourself, if she has all these critiques, did she not give it only 1 star? And my answer for you, my friend, is that I have a crutch for Sarah Dessen books. They don't have to be wonderful; they don't even have to be good. I'll probably still somehow enjoy them regardless because even when her story could be better, she has a phenomenal skill of making her books mindnumbingly fun to read. I speed through them, they never bore me, and they most certainly never put me in a reading slump. This book was really not very good. Logistically, it was awful for me. But if I put my critical reading skills to the side, then it was not so bad. What can I say? Dessen is reliable. Like I said earlier, you know what you're getting into. And you can count on her to deliver it. Every time.
The main problem for me was that the book lacks any real, consistent plot beyond the relationship. A lot of her books can be a bit like that, sure, but this is a serious offender. The thing was, I was always waiting to figure out what was actually going on. Turns out, there really wasn't anything. It was kind of like reading an account of someone's normal life, which is fine, but I have my own normal, boring life, and I read books to escape that. I want something with more sustenance.
There was a lot that Dessen could've done with the friendship aspect of this book that she left completely neglected. I know I'm a cynic when it comes to romance but I've loved several of her books. They just all happen to be the one's that have more going on than an overly cheesy and all-too-predictable romance between a girl (who has just been through so much trauma that, most often, her mother put her through, and she's sworn off love in order to protect her heart) and a boy (who has an equally sad story but has somehow found a way to look past all of the shitty parts of life and stay cheery and his smile probably reminds someone of the sun or something). I... do not do well with those kind of stories. So, my favorites of hers are one's that go beyond the romance. Honestly, with Dessen, you know what you're getting into. But some of her books do have more depth than that and you just have to sort through them to figure out which one's those are. But this? Ugh.
When a book lacks in the plot, I try to find solace in two things: the writing, and the characters. Now, personally, I really enjoy the way that Sarah Dessen writes, even in the books I dislike completely. Her works transitions nicely from scene to scene, she creates pretty good dialogue, and her wording never feels too stiff to me (I don't know how to explain "stiff" writing but just... if you get it, then you get it). I can often enjoy her characters a lot, too, so even if the story isn't magnificent, I can still have a good time. This Lullaby, on the other hand, did not produce characters that I found even slightly enjoyable.
Remy herself was... well, she was fine. I didn't love her and I didn't hate her. Dessen always writes one of two tropes for her female characters: 1) an overly goody girl with a niche for being too gullible and naive which ultimately leads them to being easily influenced by whatever rebel boy they fall in love with, or 2) a not-an-outright bad girl who veers on the side of bad habits more often than not which leads to the softening of her shell when she finds a goofy, lovable boy who is probably lanky and silly. Sound about right? Anyways, Remy was in group 2. She wasn't really a "bad girl" but she got drunk with her friends often and was very open about the fact that she'd had multiple intimate partners (and thank the universe that the slut-shaming was toned down, though definitely still present). I could personally connect with her well enough but she wasn't my favorite female character of Dessen's.
Now, Dexter. Ugh. We all know that Sarah Dessen practically owns the copyright for Manic Pixie Dream Boys™ but come on. Dexter is the worst I've ever come across in her books. I've seen a lot of readers really appear to like him but he is without a doubt one of my least favorite of all of her characters. He's incredibly and annoyingly irresponsible and I didn't find him endearing in the slightest. Call me a hater, it's fine. I just can't get on board. Being clumsy is not a personality trait! Being in a band is not a personality trait. He was nice, I guess, but he completely lacked in... everything. For me. Similarly, most of the other character's, like the friend group, were practically stick figures due to their poor development. Like I mentioned earlier, I would've loved if the book had more to do with the friendship, but instead they were there to add to Remy's story; nothing more, nothing less.
On a more positive note, I will add that I enjoyed the family aspect to this. At first it seemed to me that the issues that Remy had with her mom were going to be a kind of side-note to take up space when nothing else was going on, but the importance of the mother/daughter relationship grew a lot towards the end of the book. Sarah Dessen producing a book with an off dynamic between the main female character and her mother are something that you can pretty much bet your annual income on. I'm serious. Most often I find the daughter to be unbearable and the mother to be overbearing in these situations, so it's not always a fun part of the story for me. With This Lullaby, however, I thought it added something really important to the way Remy viewed love and relationships (and, once again, thank the universe for that).
So, after all of this negativity and only a sliver of praise, why, you may ask yourself, if she has all these critiques, did she not give it only 1 star? And my answer for you, my friend, is that I have a crutch for Sarah Dessen books. They don't have to be wonderful; they don't even have to be good. I'll probably still somehow enjoy them regardless because even when her story could be better, she has a phenomenal skill of making her books mindnumbingly fun to read. I speed through them, they never bore me, and they most certainly never put me in a reading slump. This book was really not very good. Logistically, it was awful for me. But if I put my critical reading skills to the side, then it was not so bad. What can I say? Dessen is reliable. Like I said earlier, you know what you're getting into. And you can count on her to deliver it. Every time.
emotional
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Rating: 5 stars :)
Original Rating: 4 stars
Originally read: May 2014
Reread: July 2016
I bought this book on a whim at a secondhand bookstore and re-read it in one day. I just adore this wonderful book. Even though it semi-follows Dessen's signature plot line, it was also written early enough in her career that there were enough elements to differentiate it from the bunch.
When it works, love is pretty amazing. It's not overrated. There's a reason for all those songs.
Remy has been through a lot in her life, but she's lucky enough to have friends that can get through her thick, stubborn skull and call her out. Truth Squad, of course is just as quirky and disfunctionally perfect as any band starting out, and I love them with all my heart. And who can forget about the cast and customers of Joie's? Ah, salons.
As always, the side characters were just as interesting and dynamic and lovable as the main character(s).
Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you.
I would love to talk to [a:Sarah Dessen|2987|Sarah Dessen|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1372181953p2/2987.jpg] about the character of Remy's mother, the dramatic romance writer Barbara Starr, and her life as an author. I'm so curious! Does Barbara's author life mirror Dessen's? Or are there a couple elements that do? Or maybe Barbara Starr is the writer Dessen always made fun of- the stereotypical author Dessen loves to mock. So many questions!
The fate of your heart is your choice, and no one else gets a vote.
As always, Dessen managed to wrap up the book in a way so that everything, characters, plot, etc., had come full circle. Maybe the pacakge didn't have a cute little bow, but at least it was wrapped. And isn't that all us readers ever want?
Oh, and one last thing -
HATE SPINNERBAIT.
Reread: December 2018
My gods, this is an adorable book. I just love all of the characters, and I wish I lived in a reality where I could meet them all and tell them how awesome they are. A fantastic book! A wonderful, easy, read for a lazy winter break :)
Original Rating: 4 stars
Originally read: May 2014
Reread: July 2016
I bought this book on a whim at a secondhand bookstore and re-read it in one day. I just adore this wonderful book. Even though it semi-follows Dessen's signature plot line, it was also written early enough in her career that there were enough elements to differentiate it from the bunch.
When it works, love is pretty amazing. It's not overrated. There's a reason for all those songs.
Remy has been through a lot in her life, but she's lucky enough to have friends that can get through her thick, stubborn skull and call her out. Truth Squad, of course is just as quirky and disfunctionally perfect as any band starting out, and I love them with all my heart. And who can forget about the cast and customers of Joie's? Ah, salons.
As always, the side characters were just as interesting and dynamic and lovable as the main character(s).
Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you.
I would love to talk to [a:Sarah Dessen|2987|Sarah Dessen|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1372181953p2/2987.jpg] about the character of Remy's mother, the dramatic romance writer Barbara Starr, and her life as an author. I'm so curious! Does Barbara's author life mirror Dessen's? Or are there a couple elements that do? Or maybe Barbara Starr is the writer Dessen always made fun of- the stereotypical author Dessen loves to mock. So many questions!
The fate of your heart is your choice, and no one else gets a vote.
As always, Dessen managed to wrap up the book in a way so that everything, characters, plot, etc., had come full circle. Maybe the pacakge didn't have a cute little bow, but at least it was wrapped. And isn't that all us readers ever want?
Oh, and one last thing -
HATE SPINNERBAIT.
Reread: December 2018
My gods, this is an adorable book. I just love all of the characters, and I wish I lived in a reality where I could meet them all and tell them how awesome they are. A fantastic book! A wonderful, easy, read for a lazy winter break :)