Review: Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

So many feels about this book! I will try and keep it as non-squealy and non-fangirly as possible, but it's hard because I loved this book SO, SO much. I usually fly through books, but with this one, I took it slow until the last hundred pages and I just couldn't stop reading. And I laughed and cried and everything in between. It was simply fantastic and beautifully written.

Saint Anything tells the story of Sydney Stanford, a 17-year old girl suffering through the guilt of her older brother Peyton's actions, whose fall from the popular and seemingly confident perfect guy, son and brother tears apart her family. In the aftermath of his prison sentencing, Sydney transfers to a public school from prep, meeting a new group of friends. She meets Laylah, the flighty best friend with a refined taste for French fries, and Mac, her dependable and sweet older brother in particular, who become a new family for her when her mom and dad are too preoccupied with Peyton to help and see her in the way she needs to be helped and seen.

There are no shortage of great things to say about this book, but I'll start with the characters. I LOVED all of the characters in this book. Sydney was a gorgeously voiced narrator. The way Dessen wrote it, I could feel her emotions as she struggled and those feelings came across as honest, raw and true. Sydney is the kind of character I think any reader can relate to because all of her emotions felt very human.

And then there were the Chatham's with their perfect mix of quirkiness, reliability and working class charm. The scene of the party at their house is one of my favorites because you can feel the love and sense of togetherness in that house radiate off the pages. I loved Mrs. Chatham and Rosie in particular, wishing there was just a little more of them in the book.

Mac is definitely in my top ten list of YA fiction crushes. He was just so sweet and so dependable, but also slightly flawed. You must read for this lovely, subtle and innocent romance. I don't want to give a thing away except that Dessen presents a teen romance that doesn't feel rushed or far fetched. It felt just right.

I don't give a lot of thought to likability to characters in my reviews. It's just not something I really care about when reading a book. I mean, I liked Mac and hated Mrs. Stanford and definitely felt those emotions as I was reading, but I was still able to appreciate their function within the narrative and it doesn't really affect my opinion of the story unless it's terribly distracting. I don't think an unlikable character ruins a book but I could see why some people might find Laylah a little unlikable and that interested me because I could see both sides of it. I'd be interested to see what other people think about her part in the story, so feel free to comment below.

I also really loved what Dessen did with themes of family and friendship in this novel. Dessen captures the fact that while family is still important to us as teenagers and when we are going through rough times, it is often the new friends and bonds we create during these times that carry us through. However, I also loved how the dynamics of Sydney's own family developed both with her parents and her incarcerated older brother. Very well done.

Overall, the plot felt tight. At times it was maybe a little unbelievable how much freedom Mrs. Stanford gave Sydney at some points in the middle, but overall Dessen succeeded at writing a story that flowed logically and pulled at each of my heartstrings. I cannot recommend this lovely, heartbreaking story enough. I don't give 5 out of 5 star reviews very often (only 10 or so ever) but this book certainly deserves it.

5 out of 5 stars

Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I just want to say this is the best book I’ve read in a really long time. Usually I’m able to close one book and start another but I needed to wait a while after finishing We Were Liars. It was one of those stories that hits you so suddenly and all at once, and one that I’ll definitely be rereading again and again in the future. Before I fangirl more, here is my review:

Everyone tells lies. Some lies just happen to be more treacherous than others. People can lie to others, but they can also lie to themselves. Young adult author E. Lockhart’s tragically beautiful new novel We Were Liars explores such lies, and the quest for truth, as the narrator Cadence Sinclair Eastman struggles to remember the repressed memory of an accident that occurred the summer she was fifteen.

Cadence is part of the Liars along with Gat, Mirren and Johnny. The four are the grandchildren (or in Gat’s case, a close friend of the grandchildren) of the eerily perfect Sinclair family, which summers on their island near Martha’s Vineyard called Beechwood Island. The Sinclair patriarch has three daughters, of which Cadence, Mirren and Johnny are the eldest children.

Lockhart’s depiction of this wealthy, self-destructive New England family is at once horrific and dazzling. Readers will both love and hate the family, for the Sinclairs are simultaneously repulsive and endearing. The language used to describe the setting is overwhelmingly rich and intense. At times, Readers will feel as if they are actually on the island looking at the houses or just taking in the salty, sea air. Lockhart’s skillful description makes the setting and the characters of this novel come alive.

While Lockhart’s novel is stunningly original, readers familiar with Spring Awakening will find similarities in the dynamic between the young and the old: the adults’ ignorance ultimately causes fracture and havoc for their children.

Cadence’s narration of the story is immediate, raw and emotional.  Lockhart combines her narrator’s realistic and natural voice with a twist-filled plot to create a well-paced suspense novel that will demand the reader’s attention from start to finish. The use of first person in the present tense gives the reader the sense that they are unraveling the Sinclairs’ secrets alongside her. Her selective amnesia from the accident she can’t, or refuses, to remember is exceptionally exploited to create a breathless suspense tale. Lockhart pushes unreliable narration to its best, and readers will be shocked when the truth is finally revealed. The ending of this book will leave every reader sobbing. Kleenex are strongly recommended for the last thirty pages or so of this book.

While Cadence is such a strong and dynamic character in We Were Liars, all of the other characters in the novel are as richly developed. Cadence’s mother and aunts each have a distinct personality that affects the course of the novel. The other Liars also have richly developed personalities. Gat has a strong-willed resistance to the Sinclairs’ ideals as an outsider while Mirren and Johnny’s reluctant adherence and subtle rebellion to the expectations of their family, creating an intricate network of developed characters. Each character has an impact on the course of events the novel takes and no one falls into the background.

Lockhart’s use of fairy tales to help Cadence sort through her repressed memories gives the book a fantastic, cryptic quality. We Were Liars is a modern fairy tale of loss, rediscovery, regret and endurance. It’s a story for everyone, young or old, male or female.

It is a book that discusses the desperateness of young love through the complicated relationship between Cadence and Gat. It shows the tragic consequences of family feuding and politics. It shows the closeness of bonds between friends and family and how those bonds change and twist over time. It’s a story of grief and loss as well as the search for truth and knowledge. It’s a story about the narrow-sightedness of teenagers, and of people, and how we try to control what it ultimately becomes uncontrollable.

Overall, We Were Liars will leave each and every reader feeling that they have read something simultaneously nostalgic, immediate, profound and magical. There are simply not enough words to describe how good this book is, so you’ll have to read it and see for yourself.

This is a book that lives up to the hype. All of it.

5/5