Book Synopsis:
Sydney has always felt invisible. She's grown accustomed to her brother, Peyton, being the focus of the family’s attention and, lately, concern. Peyton is handsome and charismatic, but seems bent on self-destruction. Now, after a drunk-driving accident that crippled a boy, Peyton’s serving some serious jail time, and Sydney is on her own, questioning her place in the family and the world.
Then she meets the Chatham family. Drawn into their warm, chaotic circle, Sydney experiences unquestioning acceptance for the first time. There’s effervescent Layla, who constantly falls for the wrong guy, Rosie, who’s had her own fall from grace, and Mrs. Chatham, who even though ailing is the heart of the family. But it’s with older brother Mac—quiet, watchful, and protective—that Sydney finally feels seen, really seen, at last.
My Review:
I’m not sure exactly what to rate this. I’m torn between 4 and 4.5 stars. I loved it, especially the ending, but at the same time, the romance wasn’t the most compelling and took a while to get going.
This is only the second Sarah Dessen book I've read. A few years ago, I read The Rest of the Story by her, and it was a five star read. I was hopeful, then, that this would be just as good. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one I read, but it was still great.
One of the best things about Sarah Dessen's books is the writing style. Something about the way she writes, the flow of her sentences, is just so easy to read and nice. It's not choppy or full of too many run-ons. She's also great at writing realistic dialogue and interactions between people. The dialogue never felt forced or cringey. There were only a couple little tiny things that I noticed. The biggest of these being her unnecessary overuse of the phrase "I realized I was/had been holding my breath" - I counted at least four instances of it. It's not quite as bad as "I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding" but it's similar and it was in there too much.
The romance wasn't that compelling to me. I remember loving the main relationship in The Rest of the Story, thinking they had so much chemistry and cute banter. I didn't get that in this. The characters were perfectly fine together, but I didn't get the tension or adorable back and forth between them like some romance books have. It also took a while to even develop. For most of the first half of the book, Sydney has a crush on Mac, but they pretty much only interact as friends until they suddenly become romantic.
The overall themes of this book were good. It was interesting to read about Sydney's inner conflict and guilt about her brother's actions. That was kind of a big idea of the story - should you stick by your family when they do something really wrong, hate them for causing so much harm, or somewhere in the middle. The book showed how complicated situations like what happened in the book can be. You can understand Sydney's mom's huge concern for the well-being of her son, but you can also feel Sydney's empathy for the boy who was hit and guilt about her brother.
I liked a lot of the side plots, too. There's a side story about Mac's band entering a showcase and needing to record their music that was enjoyable. Another cute little plot was with Sydney guessing what the customer is like based on their pizza order. That led to some cute interactions between her and Mac, and it was just fun to see how she could figure out a person based on what they ordered.
I really disliked the character of Ames. Right away, Sydney feels uncomfortable around him, and he rubbed me the wrong way, too, as the reader. I won't spoil anything, but that ends up proving to not be an inaccurate feeling. It was annoying that Sydney's parents kept letting him be with her, and that Sydney never spoke up about feeling uncomfortable.
Finally, I loved the ending. It kind of ended on a cliffhanger, which I didn't like, but it was a meaningful cliffhanger that was annoying but doesn't make me itching for a continuation. It was more like I wish there could've been one more chapter.
Content Guide:
Language: There wasn't too much language, but there was a little bit scattered throughout, including a--, b--, sh--, h--, and d--.
Drugs/alcohol: I didn't like the inconsistency in this area. The whole book center's around the MC's brother being in prison for drug use and hitting someone while drunk driving. Also, at some parts, there is underage drinking and getting drunk that is shown in a negative light and not shown as being okay. However, there is casual, underage drinking that is shown as perfectly fine with no ramifications.
Romance: Kissing, which is sometimes described in a bit of detail. One mention of a kiss being "full-on tongue." Most of the kisses aren't described too much, though. Towards the end of the book, there is an attempted sexual assault.
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