Relook in a Book Review #1: That Summer by Sarah Dessen

 That Summer 

AUTHOR: SARAH DESSEN

RELEASED: JANUARY 1, 1996 

Goodreads Synopsis: For fifteen-year-old Haven, life is changing too quickly. She's nearly six feet tall, her father is getting remarried, and her sister—the always perfect Ashley—is planning a wedding of her own. Haven wishes things could just go back to the way they were. Then an old boyfriend of Ashley's reenters the picture, and through him, Haven sees the past for what it really was, and comes to grips with the future.

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Yes, yes, our reviews are supposed to be at one look reviews, a real first impression of a book, movie, music, game or whatever we feel like reviewing. I'm going to be starting off a little differently. I'll have a series of blogs on here known as Relook in a Book! These blogs will be about reviews of books I've read more than ten years ago all the way back in High School or my early unfinished college years. 

I've decided to start with a Sarah Dessen book as I just finished watching the new movie on Netflix based on her book, Along for the Ride which I own and read back when it finished came back in 2009. Honestly didn't remember anything about the book and what they changed for the movie other than they changed Auden's relationship with a character that appears in another Sarah Dessen book. More on that in it's own review. Check it out!

The book I've chosen to do, since this is my first review in this series is, Sarah Dessen's first book, That Summer. This was originally released in 1996. I was only about four years-old at the time of its initial release. I didn’t read it until high school not sure on the exact date or year since I didn't start my Goodreads account until 2012 and didn't get around to adding it to my book list until December of 2014.  It was probably not until after it was made into the movie How to Deal with Mandy Moore which would be after 2003 and before 2008 which I owned the book by then. The actual copy of the book I own with That Summer has Someone Like You along with it in one book as the two books were combined together to make the movie. 

I honestly didn't even know How to Deal was based off books until my best friend at the time, Sam, told me about Sarah Dessen and she's the one that introduced her to me and probably the reason one of my other good friend at the time gifted me with probably five Sarah Dessen books, I believe it was for my fifteenth birthday.

Yes, yes, again I know you want a review. Just thought I would share a little back story of this. I'm writing this section before I even start rereading the book. I want to put what I remember about how I felt before I get into this. I recently read a few books again and was a little disappointed and wondered why the younger me rated them so high on Goodreads at the time. Really this is an experiment to see how much the books that effected me so much when I was younger, to the point where I was wishing to be a Young Adult writer myself, hold up with time. Am I different now from back then? Well, duh! But I would like to see how much so. I believe relooking at my past reads will reveal something about me. 

Though, really you're here for the review! See below:

Just finished my reread of the debut novel for Sarah Dessen. Definitely not my favorite of hers. I would say it's not the worst one as I felt the last few I've read from her were very formulaic such as What Happened to Goodbye and Once and For All. I'm wondering why my younger self gave it five stars on Goodreads but realize I was probably speed-rating to add multiple books to my list in a short time though it took my two years after I made my account to add it. 

I'm one for actual romance, that's my preferred genre. This one had absolutely none especially for Haven, the main character. Quite honestly it felt like Haven didn't do anything but eavesdropping, reminiscing about the past, complaining about the changes in her friend and job at the mall and randomly spending time with her sister's high school ex-boyfriend, Sumner but I guess what can one expect from a fifteen year-old. Nothing happens until suddenly Haven is just fed up with everything but she gets over it quickly after only one weird day which happens in the last forty pages. I understand the book is about changes you can't control in your life and how you're just supposed to move on and how to focus on the good memories but not a thing was resolved she didn't talk out her disappointment and problems with her parents and her sister. No, we end with just her wanting her to tell her sister that somehow after that one day of a meltdown she's changed and she finally understands what she needs to whatever that really is. 

The whole time she has this idea of what kind of person Sumner is and finds out the truth about what happened with her sister and him which shatters her image of him and the memories of the times he spent with the family. Nothing romantic happens between them since she's fifteen and he's twenty-one, they are just friends but she still tries to equate her finding out the truth of something five years ago and being betrayed by a boyfriend or husband as her mom and sister went through to her experience with Sumner. Honestly, if Haven was having her true own first love story interwoven into the story I would have enjoyed it more. At least something would have been happening and she would have actually been doing something while also deals with the other uncontrollable changes. 

While reading it, I found my mind wondering about side characters like Haven's best friend with her drastic changes and boyfriend drama or their crazy ex-super model neighbor that actually went through something that sounds dramatic and it would have been enjoyable to read about how she's overcome her problems.

I would definitely not recommend this Sarah Dessen novel to anyone as the first one of hers to read. If I had read this first before any of the others, I don't think I would have been as excited to read her other ones. I think I remember liking this one as much as I thought I did because, I just got finished reading Someone Like You which I remember being enjoyable but I think will be my next reread to see if I still feel the same about that one. I would change this rating to three stars. 

Just a random note of something that bugged me. There's Haven's mom's best friend Lydia Catrell, when she's first introduced it's stated the she's a divorcee that moves into the neighborhood around the same time Haven's parents were going through their divorce. The next chapter though, Lydia's not a divorcee, she's a widower. I believe that is a huge different in my mind and actually messes up the character in my head. Does she know what it feels like to go through a divorce or is she dealing with the lose of her husband? Was she married before, got a divorce then widowed? Or the other way around? I was really stuck on that. I know it's not the most important thing but as I said above I would have liked to explore the side character's stories more than Haven's because again Haven does nothing!

Also, Haven said she made $4.25 an hour. I thought that was so crazy I had to stop reading to tell me sister about it. We're definitely in a different and more expensive world now.