tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10890387.post8382665374697606205..comments2023-12-25T00:38:19.500-08:00Comments on Finding Wonderland: The WritingYA Weblog (archive): One Sarah Dessen deserves anotherSarah Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16534942492714970282noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10890387.post-83411500494458742452006-01-08T14:41:00.000-08:002006-01-08T14:41:00.000-08:00UPDATE: You know what? The more I think about it,...UPDATE: You know what? The more I think about it, the more I understand what didn't quite ring true for me, in this book. I like Dessen's work, but I <i>still</i> haven't yet read a "satisfying" book on battering (except, possibly the scary and definitely non-YA epic "Black & Blue," by Anna Quinlain, but that was more about the creepiness of a policeman-battering-spouse.). What I <i>disliked</i> about this book was the roller-coaster effect of the 'justs' -- that feeling of, "Well, if she just <i>told someone,</i> or just turned around and walked away, or just..." you know what I mean? I, as reader, wasn't sold on the situation occuring. If solutions were so obvious to me, I wasn't inside of the protagonist's skin enough for the book experience to be true, to feel real - for the choices before me to be agonizing, for the relationship to be as enmeshed and all-encompassing as it probably was. I was feeling, instead, like I was on the outside, observing, and that means I doubted the writer's ability to really convey what goes on in the head of a battered person. Not that I wish Dessen firsthand knowledge, but I didn't buy it, and that's why I don't try and write about Big Issues like that anymore. I'm not successful at it, and I haven't yet found a writer who can write up to that Beliveablity Quotient who hasn't been there... and not a whole lot of battered YA people are YA writers concurrently...<br><br>So I amend: this may have been the <i>best book so far</i> I may have read about the issue of teen battering, but it still comes across as an "issue" book, and thus not really as real and about the human drama as it could have been.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10890387.post-25179814749621694412006-01-10T07:53:00.000-08:002006-01-10T07:53:00.000-08:00Has anyone read Dessen's Someone Like You, or seen...Has anyone read Dessen's <i>Someone Like You</i>, or seen the movie "How to Deal" with Mandy Moore? Apparently the movie is based on the book... I just wondered if the movie did the book justice or not.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10890387.post-35339360652374556762006-02-02T19:17:00.000-08:002006-02-02T19:17:00.000-08:00Me again, can't seem to let this die: I have now r...Me again, can't seem to let this die: <br><br>I have now read <a href="http://www.booksense.com/product/info.jsp?affiliateId=ReadersResponse&isbn=0613286510" rel="nofollow">Someone Like You</a>, <a href="http://www.booksense.com/product/info.jsp?affiliateId=ReadersResponse&isbn=0142501557" rel="nofollow">This Lullabye</a>, and all other Dessen books upon which I can lay my hands. I've noticed two things: <br><br>1. The boys are all impossibly wonderful -- until or unless. <br>2. The novels she writes about the friendships that girls have seem to take cues from the boys -- some of the best guys in her novels act like ...they've been around super cool, mature girls. Or else they fake it well.<br><br>Interesting. I end up half in love with all of the male characters, and in the end, I'll bet that's what keeps Dessen her female readers, partially. Well done!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com