Friday, May 7, 2010

This Lullaby (e-book)

Remy doesn't believe in love after watching her mother marry five different times.  She has rules about how relationships should go and in what order.  Now she is getting ready to leave for college and she doesn't want to have any attachments before she goes.  That is until she meets clumsy, adorable Dexter and she wonders if she might have been wrong all along.
I had no illusions about love anymore.  It came, it went, it left causalities or it didn't.  People weren't meant to be together forever, regardless of what the songs say.  p.48 e-book
I feel really bad.  I liked This Lullaby, but I didn't love it.  It was okay.  It was good, not great; it was sweet, but not affecting.  I think I'm too old for this book.  I don't say that a lot about YA, but I think I would have loved this book when I was 16.  It was a sweet book, very predictable.  There was nothing surprising about it for me.   I wish that it had expounded more on some of Remy's real issues like what happened to her at that party and the fact that her mother never really explained her father to her.  I think it was missing a few key plotlines.  For me, it was like listening to a teen conversation and wanting to say "No. No.  This is how it works,"  but you can't because they have to find out for themselves.  There was a distinct lack of adults in Remy's world to help her which is the source of her problems.

But like I said, I liked it, but I didn't love it.  16 years ago though, I would have thought it was brilliant.

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
What's in a Name
Library
YA

9 comments:

  1. What a shame Dessen's books are usually right one. I know most of my girls love reading the I always see them passed around in my classes.

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  2. I had this one on my shelf but eventually got rid of it. I think I'm a little too old for Sarah Dessen, maybe?

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  3. @Amanda
    I really wanted to like it and was prepared for greatness. Just wasn't for me.

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  4. @Jan - I can see teenagers loving it. Just wasn't for me.

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  5. You know, I have to agree with you. I've read nearly all of Dessen's books at this point, and This Lullaby is my least favorite. I don't feel 'too old' for her books usually, because she has a multi-generational cast of characters and they make some contribution to the story. But...this one didn't work for me. Eh well - you can't like everything, right? Do you have a favorite Dessen novel?

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  6. @celi.a
    This is the first one I have read and I didn't really get a sense of a "multi-generational cast of characters" in this one. It was mostly teenagers and normally this isn't a problem for me. But this is one of the few YAs I have ever read that I felt too old for.

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  7. I read this one when I was in high school, so I think I was able to appreciate it more. I know that my sister, who's 16, just read it and loved it. I do think, however, that if I went back and read it again, I probably wouldn't feel the same way now that I'm in my 20's.

    I agree that this story lacks any real adult characters, and that may have hurt the overall plot.

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  8. Awesome review. Thanks for the honesty. I've encountered situations like this before too. :)

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  9. Lizzy - Well, I'm almost 32 so the age span is even larger for me.

    Juju - Thanks!

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