Because in the song Dig a little deeper, Mama Odie actually refers to love. Which is what we need. Or so I understood. And I feel like this is what Sarah Dessen's books are (almost) all about.
I don't want to reduce her books to the scheme I'm about to describe, so please don't read it that way, because her books are so much more than just that scheme... But I don't think I'm wrong when I say that in most of Sarah Dessen's books, the main character, a girl, is facing hardships and has trouble dealing with her life, until she meets that boy. There things get clearer. I'd even say the boy she meets kinda saves her.
Of course you can't generalize. In Dreamland, for instance, there is no wonderful love story - you'll know why if you read the book (or maybe you already know). But I did find the scheme: "troubled girl / meets a boy / boy 'saves' her" in What happened to goodbye, or else in Just Listen. Sometimes it's not just a boy, it's a boy AND friends.
Anyway, this is not criticism at all. I like this scheme. Maybe I like romance. And I LOVE Sarah Dessen's books, and if you don't know her yet I can only advise you to have a look at her website and to buy her books, because they really are worth it.
On the covers, they say "Read her once and fall in love". Well that's exactly what happened to me. Every time I'm reading one of her books, I just can't put it down. It doesn't take long before I finish it - sigh.
It was a few years ago. Maybe five, maybe more than that. As often, my grandmother gave me a book for my birthday, and I didn't know then that it would be the first of many Sarah Dessen's books I'd be reading. This book was entitled This Lullaby.
I didn't pay so much attention to it. I loved it, of course, what else can you expect from a book by Sarah Dessen? But once it was finished I just got back to my usual life and forgot about it.
Until a few years back. I was on holiday, and my parents took me to Ireland. To cut a long story short, we stopped by a library and as I was strolling about, my eyes were caught by a beautiful cover. Black, with green drawings on it. I got closer and saw Sarah Dessen's name on it. Gosh, I thought, this name really rings a bell. I thought for a while, and I remembered. She had written a book I had read and loved, This Lullaby. So I didn't hesitate and bought that other Sarah Dessen's book, The truth about forever. Of course it was awesome, and the following day I had already finished reading it.
So from that day on, I started collecting Sarah Dessen's books. Every now and then, whenever I had time, I went to the library to buy one of her books I hadn't read yet. And, you may have guessed it already, today my collection's complete.
I can't wait for her to publish other books, be sure I'll be one of the firsts buying them!
How about you? Do you know Sarah Dessen? How did you find out about her? Do you like what she writes?
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