Another year, another Sarah Dessen novel. Okay, I know she doesn’t put out a new book every year. But you can count on a new summer read from Sarah Dessen coming soon enough, and there’s something comforting about that.
What I love about Sarah Dessen novels, apart from the fact that they remind me of my early love for YA, is how simple, at least on the surface, their plots are. If you're familiar with her work, you know most of her novels follow a similar formula: a girl facing a (usually family related) crisis spends her summer in a new place, and meets a group of people (cute boy obviously included) who expand her worldview and ultimately help her grow as a person. Yet Dessen manages to do this in a completely new way each time, with unique characters that are always relatable.
The Rest of the Story follows this formula quite neatly. Emma (also referred to as Saylor) spends part of her summer in a lake town she hasn't visited since she was a kid. There, she reencounters some of her extended family, and forms new friendships with people she barely even remembers meeting. There's a bit of mystery in the story too, as most of the novel revolves around Emma (I'm conflicted about whether I should refer to her as Saylor since that's what she goes by for most of the book. But since she's initially introduced as Emma, I'll stick with that.) learning more about her mom, who died of an overdose when Emma was twelve.
I particularly loved the first few chapters of the book, as I felt they did a great job of setting up Emma's character. You can see how she has adapted to her father's practical lifestyle, yet she's still secretly curious about her mom's wilder nature. Throughout her time at the lake, she is able to explore a different, braver side of herself, making peace with the fact that just because she takes risks doesn't mean she's going to end up in the same fate as her mother.
All in all, it was a very sweet coming of age story. I thought the romance was great, and Emma's love interest was one of my favorite from Dessen. In fact, I think I'd add this novel to my top 5 Sarah Dessen books (of course I have a list). The characters didn't feel quite as fleshed out and relatable to me as those in Along for the Ride (my favorite, in case you were wondering), but they were very well done. My favorite part of the book though, was the setting. It felt so vivid and lifelike, and you could truly imagine what it felt like to be working at her family's inn, or cruising from one end of the lake to the other in a motor boat.
Anyway, I definitely recommend The Rest of the Story. It's the perfect summer read, and is so easy to get into. I read the whole thing in a couple of days because it got difficult to put down at one point. One thing's for sure: Sarah Dessen is definitely still the queen of realistic YA fiction.
Rating: 5/5 stars
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