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lindseyembry33's review against another edition
3.0
Just for clarification this is not actually a book. It is the combination of two Sarah Dessen books as a movie. It wasn't a bad movie though.
meilbes's review against another edition
its just Someone Like You and That Summer put together. The movie was ok.
meganmreads's review against another edition
4.0
Review originally published at Love Literature Art and Reason
After reading my first Sarah Dessen book recently, I realized I’ve had this sitting on my shelf for a few years. I remember watching the movie when I was younger and liking it. I don’t know what took me so long to finally pick this up or read a Sarah Dessen book!
How to Deal was a great combination of two Sarah Dessen novels: Someone Like You and That Summer. Someone Like You was the longest and first of the two books and involved characters I was familiar with from the movie, Halley and Scarlett. That Summer had some events that I remember from the movie, but involved a character named Haven. Both were similar in themes and I see why they were chosen to be combined to inspire the movie.
It was kind of cool reading the book because it was written in the late 90s. There was this one part about how Halley’s boyfriend kept calling the house phone after 10:30pm and she couldn’t get him to stop, so she held the phone by her head at night and tried to pick up on the first ring. I don’t know that teens nowadays understand that because most of them have their own cell phones they can control the ringer volume on and it doesn’t bother their parents at all when someone calls. I remember the terror of getting some boy’s number and hoping you didn’t get his mom on the phone when you called him after school when I was teen! I loved that I could relate to parts of the book in this way. I don’t think the book is too outdated for modern teens, but it contains just enough 90s and 2000s things that make it great to read if you’re an adult, too.
My favorite thing about the book was how the characters grow, make mistakes, and change. These aren’t YA contemporary books that are about summer romances that last forever. Instead, they focus on coming of age, dealing with issues, and how a summer romance might change you forever, but might not last. I liked the complication of it all and the fact that it wasn’t a light boys-fix-everything kind of book. I loved the main characters and appreciated the way they grew throughout the stories. I didn’t care much for Macon in Someone Like You, but I thought he was necessarily in order for Halley to grow, change, and understand herself a little better.
I definitely recommend How to Deal and I’m sure I’ll read more Sarah Desen books in the future.
After reading my first Sarah Dessen book recently, I realized I’ve had this sitting on my shelf for a few years. I remember watching the movie when I was younger and liking it. I don’t know what took me so long to finally pick this up or read a Sarah Dessen book!
How to Deal was a great combination of two Sarah Dessen novels: Someone Like You and That Summer. Someone Like You was the longest and first of the two books and involved characters I was familiar with from the movie, Halley and Scarlett. That Summer had some events that I remember from the movie, but involved a character named Haven. Both were similar in themes and I see why they were chosen to be combined to inspire the movie.
It was kind of cool reading the book because it was written in the late 90s. There was this one part about how Halley’s boyfriend kept calling the house phone after 10:30pm and she couldn’t get him to stop, so she held the phone by her head at night and tried to pick up on the first ring. I don’t know that teens nowadays understand that because most of them have their own cell phones they can control the ringer volume on and it doesn’t bother their parents at all when someone calls. I remember the terror of getting some boy’s number and hoping you didn’t get his mom on the phone when you called him after school when I was teen! I loved that I could relate to parts of the book in this way. I don’t think the book is too outdated for modern teens, but it contains just enough 90s and 2000s things that make it great to read if you’re an adult, too.
My favorite thing about the book was how the characters grow, make mistakes, and change. These aren’t YA contemporary books that are about summer romances that last forever. Instead, they focus on coming of age, dealing with issues, and how a summer romance might change you forever, but might not last. I liked the complication of it all and the fact that it wasn’t a light boys-fix-everything kind of book. I loved the main characters and appreciated the way they grew throughout the stories. I didn’t care much for Macon in Someone Like You, but I thought he was necessarily in order for Halley to grow, change, and understand herself a little better.
I definitely recommend How to Deal and I’m sure I’ll read more Sarah Desen books in the future.
kittlyn's review against another edition
4.0
Mostly rating this four stars for "That Summer." It was the first book of Sarah Dessen's that I've read whose main character didn't have a love interest. And I related to her a lot. Haven was probably one of my favorite characters from any of Sarah Dessen's books.
weetziebot's review against another edition
3.0
I hate movie tie-ins as much as the next book snob but desperate times call for desperate measures. I was bored out of my mind at work and picked up this book (actually two books in one- That Summer and Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen) because it was nearest to the register. I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed it a great deal! I don't remember much about the story except that it has to do with a girl whose parent's get divorced (or something like that)and of course she meets a totally awesome boy. Overall, enjoyable YA romance/coming of age.
mcipher's review against another edition
3.0
This is two novels stuck together - I finished the first one but haven't gotten to the second one yet. So far, it's good but nothing amazing, I'm not blown away.
cmw119's review against another edition
4.0
Someone Like You was a 5-Star book, and That Summer was a 3-Star one so the rating is a compromise. I still can’t fathom how they turned the two into one movie. I think trying to smush the second into the first would ruin them both.
tealmango's review against another edition
3.0
Read the full review here: http://newberyandbeyond.com/my-introduction-to-sarah-dessen/
The two books contained in this package are Someone Like You and That Summer. Neither of them really struck me, and I think part of the reason is that they’re dated. For example (slight spoilers ahead!), in Someone Like You, the main character’s best friend gets pregnant. With her boyfriend out of the picture, she must decide if she wants to keep the baby, all while continuing to navigate the dangers of high school. Meanwhile, the main character has to make the decision of whether or not to sleep with her own boyfriend, a bad boy character who is starting to get pushy. It’s a decent enough book, but I’ve seen this plot so many times before. Maybe when the book first came out, it was less of a cliche, but reading it in 2015 was a bit disappointing.
The second book, That Summer, I actually enjoyed a bit more. Fifteen-year-old Haven is having a tough summer, with her cheating father marrying his mistress, her mom contemplating big changes in her own life, and her difficult older sister planning a wedding of her own. With all of these pressures, Haven can’t help but think back to a better summer, when her family was intact and her sister was dating a boy who helped bring them all closer together. Unfortunately, she soon discovers that even these happy memories weren’t all they seemed. Although not much happens in this book, I still found it less predictable than Someone Like You.
The two books contained in this package are Someone Like You and That Summer. Neither of them really struck me, and I think part of the reason is that they’re dated. For example (slight spoilers ahead!), in Someone Like You, the main character’s best friend gets pregnant. With her boyfriend out of the picture, she must decide if she wants to keep the baby, all while continuing to navigate the dangers of high school. Meanwhile, the main character has to make the decision of whether or not to sleep with her own boyfriend, a bad boy character who is starting to get pushy. It’s a decent enough book, but I’ve seen this plot so many times before. Maybe when the book first came out, it was less of a cliche, but reading it in 2015 was a bit disappointing.
The second book, That Summer, I actually enjoyed a bit more. Fifteen-year-old Haven is having a tough summer, with her cheating father marrying his mistress, her mom contemplating big changes in her own life, and her difficult older sister planning a wedding of her own. With all of these pressures, Haven can’t help but think back to a better summer, when her family was intact and her sister was dating a boy who helped bring them all closer together. Unfortunately, she soon discovers that even these happy memories weren’t all they seemed. Although not much happens in this book, I still found it less predictable than Someone Like You.
scarf_walking_chaos's review against another edition
4.0
As someone who grew up with YA books, apparently this wasn’t a thing before the 90′s, there are a lot of problems I have with some YA writers. Some authors think that teenagers are these hormonal, fight-with-my-friend-once-and-we’re-not-friends-anymore people, they’re only partly right.
I won’t say there aren’t teenagers who fight with their friends once and they’re not friends anymore, there is something special about Halley (which I was pronouncing Hailey in my head for the longest time) and Scarlett’s friendship. Even when Scarlett comes forward and tells Halley she’s doing something for the wrong intentions, and Halley attacks her, she doesn’t stop being her friend. This book rings with a truth that most books attempt to achieve and fall completely flat. Completely flat.
It’s imperative, as teenagers, to have someone to fall back on. If the authors I have in mind had their way, they wouldn’t have someone in their corner they fully trusted. Because what fun was it to have someone you trusted fully and completely.
Halley’s relationship with her mother is something I’ve seen based in reality. And the realization that she can’t go through life without her is also something I’ve seen based in reality. All in all, this book was a breath of fresh air. It touched on poignant and important topics and how they shaped Halley as a person.
I won’t say there aren’t teenagers who fight with their friends once and they’re not friends anymore, there is something special about Halley (which I was pronouncing Hailey in my head for the longest time) and Scarlett’s friendship. Even when Scarlett comes forward and tells Halley she’s doing something for the wrong intentions, and Halley attacks her, she doesn’t stop being her friend. This book rings with a truth that most books attempt to achieve and fall completely flat. Completely flat.
It’s imperative, as teenagers, to have someone to fall back on. If the authors I have in mind had their way, they wouldn’t have someone in their corner they fully trusted. Because what fun was it to have someone you trusted fully and completely.
Halley’s relationship with her mother is something I’ve seen based in reality. And the realization that she can’t go through life without her is also something I’ve seen based in reality. All in all, this book was a breath of fresh air. It touched on poignant and important topics and how they shaped Halley as a person.