Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Once and for All

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Once and for All by Sarah Dessen

7 reviews

hazydazywaffles's review

emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Some parts of this book made me cringe a little but I liked reading it throughout my busy week. I didn't like the fact that Ethan and Louna had met only once. It made their love seem super juvenile but the school shooting twist was very sad. I will say, Ambrose's confession at the end had me kicking my feet and smiling.

Then also the jumpscare Sarah gave all of us at the end made me want to scream till I found out he wasn't dead.

Overall, I liked this book. Was it my favorite Sarah Dessen book ever? No. But, still enjoyed it, considering I'm such a sucker for her writing and ability to make characters so interesting. 4/5

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_thebookishbarista_'s review

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emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoy most of the Sarah Dessen books that I read and I’ve been reading from her since I was in 8th grade. This is a book that I’ve owned for a very long time and think I was scared to read it because it’s the e last book of hers that I had left to read. I’m excitedly waiting for her to release more in the future!! But anyways. I enjoyed this book. I wasn’t all out in love with this book like some of the others I’ve read from her. However, I do think that she always does such a good job of covering heavy topics while keeping things relatively light as well. Dealing with the grief that Louna went through is unimaginable, but sadly it happens all the time. Dessen’s book topics have managed to mature with me as I’ve grown up. I loved this romance, even though it had me on the edge of my seat until the very end.

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enchantedsleeper's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I enjoyed this book and I raced through it in two days, but I also agree with a lot of the gripes that other people have raised in the reviews.

The way that Sarah Dessen uses a school shooting to engineer a tragedy wherein the main character loses her first love felt... off. Hollow. I originally thought that the "loved and lost" that the blurb referred to was a bad breakup, and I kind of wish it had been. When she referenced the school shooting to show what had happened to Ethan it just felt like - really? We're going there? And while I felt like the young love element was handled well, Ethan's actual death felt less so. She never went to the memorial, and that's it? Wasn't she in touch with any of his friends, his family? They might not have been together for long, but everyone knew they were in a relationship! Did no-one reach out to her?

I think Louna's actual response of being jaded and cynical about love fit better with a bad breakup (and her background in the wedding industry), not traumatically losing a teenage love. I don't think she would be in the place where she was for this book just seven months later, much less willing to date around random guys because of... what, a bet? As others have pointed out, there was also no space on the page devoted to the horror of gun violence or any of those implications. It was just treated like "something that happens". And I'm not from the US, but I can't believe that anyone who is is that inured to it that they wouldn't dwell on the circumstances of how he died. Campaigned over gun rights. Been angry at the senselessness of how Ethan's life was taken. Not "I was SUPER SAD for seven months but I'm mostly okay now and ready to move on".

Ambrose as a character was okay. He was very much a retread of Dexter from This Lullaby, right down to the little dog, and started off as this arrogant guy but then actually wasn't? Possibly because Dessen realised this made him too unlikeable? Instead he's just clumsy and scatty, except that he's actually super reliable and great, and he juggles women constantly but that's their fault for getting attached to him, he never promised them anything. Geez. I think I preferred the relationships that all the background characters were getting into. William and the cheese guy were totally cute; I found the mum's romance with mister Work Clichés a bit convenient, especially the timing, but it was nice to have a parent figure - two, really - who actually communicates and is honest. Natalie and William being platonic besties was also adorable. I'll take a whole book about them navigating their new relationships alongside their close friendship with each other.

People have mentioned Jilly actually being a crummy friend to Louna and I kind of agree. She sets her up with clearly terrible guys and doesn't look out for her at a party. She's unimpressed by Ambrose when they first meet, which I get, but then does a complete 180 and is fine with him. And then she tells Ambrose about Ethan without even asking Louna? Even though she knows that Louna hasn't told him herself and must know that she doesn't want to? Nope, nope, nope. Do not do this to your friends, ever. I felt like that part, the patented Sarah Dessen moment where everything falls apart but it's fine because it will be solved by the end, felt a lot more contrived than usual. I was actively groaning when it happened. And I don't enjoy that part in any of her books, but in this one it felt particularly forced, because of how it happened. I had been preparing for Louna and Ambrose to finally have the conversation about Ethan, and in the end it wasn't even her that brought him up. She would have been justified in feeling seriously betrayed by Jilly, but it wasn't even an issue between them? And poor Ben. The Paul of the story (referencing This Lullaby), but at least Remy had the good grace to break it off with Paul before she reunited with Dexter (and did it for reasons unrelated to Dexter), whereas Louna straight-up abandoned Ben on her birthday, with no explanation, and then came back saying "I'm with this guy now"? Meanwhile her mum, William and their respective significant others are looking on? Yiiiiiiikes.

There were things to like about this book and I did find her romance with Ethan compelling, unlike some who found it unrealistic. But most of what happened in the present day? Not super sold. I think the wedding industry + a bad breakup would have been enough to make Louna cynical without needing to bring a *school shooting* of all things into the equation. Or if you're determined to do the tragedy, then do it right. Maybe make them friends at the end of the book for once instead of a couple. But that's not how The Formula goes.

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sofiajearally's review

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hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

This book was so fucking dumb.

I'm not happy to say it because I've always loved, or at least liked, Sarah Dessen's books. This Lullaby was one of my favorite books when I was a teen. Maybe it's just that I'm not a teen anymore, maybe I'm too old for this. Or maybe the book is bad.

Okay, so we follow Louna, who can't get over her ex-boyfriend Ethan. She meets Ambrose and then it's your usual hate-to-love romance. There's really nothing else. There's barely even a plot!! And some elements of that "plot" are not believable one bit (like

Natalie hiring Ambrose

Louna having her first time on the beach at night with someone she met 3 hours ago

) or are disgusting (like the bet, which essentially means using other people to get what they want - each other). The only interesting thing was the wedding planner stuff.

Alright, maybe the plot is not the most important part of a romance book but there was no chemistry either!!! Louna and Ambrose are better off as friends. Which makes me think: I hate that there is no woman/man relationship other than romantic ones, except for William and Natalie, but they had to make him gay for that to happen!

The characters are one-dimensional as hell and William is clearly a gay token which is ewww.

I thought Louna wasn't too annoying at the very beginning but yep, she is in fact irritating. She has no personality except being "not like other girls" because she's cynical about love and
her boyfriend of a day died
. GIRL IT AIN'T THAT DEEP. You're 17, you don't know anything. Can we also talk about the sexist moments towards other girls? That made me roll my eyes so far back I thought I was going blind.
Ambrose is annoying from start to finish; he's a player and I do not believe that lOUna ChANgeD hIM (and him having ADHD is not supposed to be a redeeming quality). I don't get why we're supposed to root for him, and to be honest I wasn't.
As for Ethan,
I liked him, too bad he's dead.

The writing is fine but there are some of the stupidest, cringiest sentences I've ever read, like: "They fit me perfectly" (Louna, about her sandals), like OBVIOUSLY GIRL YOU BOUGHT THESE SHOES LAST YEAR??? Can someone also tell Ms. Dessen that people don't blush all the damn time? That was annoying as hell.
Some tropes that I hate were also there: "I DIn'T nOTIce WE haD CHEmisTRy" ; "date is suddenly turned into an asshole because he's a threat to the romance" (NEWSFLASH: you can have heterosexual people of opposite genders not date/not be attracted to each other while still being polite).

The structure was also weird toward the end, with chapter 25 (where

Ambrose and Louna reconcile

) being randomly put in the middle of the day before Louna's birthday, while it actually happened before that day. I took 10 minutes to go back and forth, trying to figure out the timeline, even though this book, which could have been 60 pages shorter, was already a colossal waste of time. And what was that

fake-ass suspense

at the end?

(Of course Ambrose is alive! Although it would have been more interesting if he wasn't.)

I'm definitely too old for this shit. The only people I would recommend this book to are 16-year-olds who still think fairytales exist and think they're deep AF when they haven't lived anything difficult in their life. And even then, I wouldn't encourage them. "I hoped that they would always prioritize their partner before everything else." Honestly, what kind of message is this sending to young girls? NO. You have to prioritize yourself for goodness sake.

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queenfury's review

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emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

"You can't measure love by time put in, but the weight of those moments. Some in life are light, like a touch. Others, you can't help but stagger beneath."

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whatcassiedid's review

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I felt like the backstory with Ethan was kind of unnecessary.

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theinfinitebookcase's review

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4.0

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