Sunday, December 13, 2009

2nd Quarter ORB

Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen. Penguin Group, 1998.
Genre: Fiction


Someone Like You is a book about two girls who have been best friends since Scarlet moved across the street from Halley when they were eleven. Scarlet was the more outgoing friend while Halley was quieter and kept to herself. The summer before the junior year of high school, Scarlet got very close to her new boyfriend, Michael Sherwood. At the end of the summer when Halley is away at camp, she gets a call from Scarlett explaining that Michael was dead. This loss fazed the whole school, but especially Scarlet when she found that she was carrying his baby. Just juniors in high school, Scarlett has to decide between abortion, adoption, and keeping her baby and Halley gets her first serious boyfriend.

“Dessen has a perfect ear for the immediate daily details of a middle-class teenager’s home, school, job, party scene…. Many teenage girls will find themselves in this story.” I agree with this quote because I did find myself, a teenage girl, in the story. It wasn’t that I have the exact same life as Halley and Scarlett or that I do everything they did, but there were a few things that stood out. Like being nervous around a crush, or always being there for my best friends no matter what.

Sarah Dessen has a very engaging writing style. I’ve read books by her before, such as Along for the Ride, and once again notice the same style of writing, which I can’t wait to dig into every time I open one of her books. Dessen writes like she is a teenage girl who wrote in her diary and is now taking her diary entries and creating a book out of them. It’s relatable to any teenage girl, whether they think so or not.

“Everyone seemed to be eyeing Scarlett’s stomach, as if since second period she’d suddenly be showing, the baby ready to pop out at any minute.” (139) I chose this quote because I feel like what the author is saying, is what everyone would be thinking, even if they didn't want to. It's the feeling of knowing a physical feature about someone and not wanting to be rude but still stopping to take a quick glance, to see what everyone is talking about. As much as everyone denies it and calls it rude, everyone has done it.

I think that reading this book will actually affect my life. Many teenagers think that reading this book is never going to help them and that reading any book is a waste of time. This is an exception to me. This book taught me about mistakes and decisions that every teenager has to deal with. It will cause me to think twice in the future before I do anything that my effect my life.