Sarah Dessen

First off, I have five writers that I admire above all others, for the following reasons:

C.S.Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia got me hooked on reading. I was almost four when I was introduced to the Pevensies, and I've loved them since. By some feat of ignorance, I only read The Horse and his Boy (the third in the series) when I was 18. I'd read all the others before I hit double figures. In some ways, this has left me completely devoted to certain writers. I will go to certain lengths for books that other women would go through for shoes, and I attribute that wholely to C.S.Lewis.

J.K.Rowling - The modern C.S.Lewis as it were. People always seem to think if you rate Ms Rowling then you know nothing of writing, purely because she's so popular. But honestly, the woman's a genius. The sheer number of threads she buries in Harry Potter, and manages to draw to conclusions makes her so. I think I referred to her as a Jigsaw Master to someone the other day. Harry Potter is full of those annoying sky pieces that you need to finish off the picture. You just have to look hard enough to know when it's the right sky piece. I wish I had her scope for putting so many storylines together.

Lionel Shriver - The first (of two) adult writers in my list. We Need To Talk About Kevin made such an impact on me, both as a carefree late-teen, and again as a mother. The lengths Eva, the main character, would go to in an attempt to ignore her fault in the situation surrounding her was incredible. I could read that book over and over (but yet I'm still only up to the second chapter of The Post-Birthday World. I think I'm just worried about the whole sliding doors scenario and keeping up in written word).

Scarlett Thomas - The other adult writer (I'm sorry, truly, but there's something about writers who aim for adolescents, they have such a scope you're not allowed to have with adult books, yet they don't have to rhyme all the time, or fit a word pattern. As much as I may love reading The Gruffalo with my offspring, I do crave proper chapter structure too). Scarlett Thomas was actually a key to me making my realisations about J.K.Rowling, she talks a lot about homeopathy in her books, and at one point she mentions Monkshood, which was referenced in Harry Potter, and she explains it's use in the context of poisons and homeopathic treatment and well, it just made me realise quite what an effort Rowling made. Anyway, The End Of Mr Y? Brilliant! But whenever I try to convey to someone the storyline they look at me like I'm mad, or I read strange and unhealthy things. But they can watch the Matrix, and Being John Malkovich, and the two storylines have parallels in the book so I must just explain it wrong. Either that or it must be out of expectations that I'd read something like that (craziness. If all I have to read is the signs on a train, I'll stare at a poster and re-read, and re-read, and re-read). PopCo earned me similar looks, but I was a little disappointed by how black-and-white her conclusion was.

Sarah Dessen - The woman this title is about. She's becoming quite a cult figure for girls of a certain age. I can see why. Her books aren't exactly gripping fantasies or complex mysteries like all the other books I've admired above. They're pretty samey actually. Girl having hard time is put/puts herself in an unknown situation, creates new friends, competes with elder siblings, carries burdens brought about by elder siblings, new friends help take the weight off, boy gets involved, girl goes a little crazy from not being able to cope with the change, yours truly starts to blub like a baby, girl has an epiphany, everything works out.

But they still appeal. It's because she's so character-driven. You can feel the emotions, and you can relate so well to the upheaval because most girls have felt that way at some point in their adolescence. Hence why I always cry.

I like one thing she does, which is that all her characters are from the same places, Lakeview or Colby, and all the lead girls are a few years within each other. If she wrote an earlier book, she'll take a place from that book and reference it in the newer one. Characters make reappearances (Remy and Dexter from This Lullaby spent one evening with the girl from Just Listen, the restaurant the girl works in from Keeping The Moon is visited by the characters in Along For The Ride, which also has a character from The Truth About Forever in). It's like she's working her way through this town. I also like that in Someone Like You, she has a character called Scarlett Thomas. I kid you not.

I'm mainly blogging about Sarah because I just finished Along For The Ride, by the way. But it didn't make me cry so much as the others did. I don't know, I think some of the other characters had more to deal with than she does, and I was distracted by the parental figures in the book a lot. I wanted to kick the dad's butt for being so blah about his newborn daughter, but that's another story entirely. I think I was distracted by the aforementioned linking. I kept trying to guess if I'd read this scene or that scene or this character or that in another book. I will be re-reading tomorrow to find out (day off, and in London no less!). I am that bad.

I'd normally say more (yes, more!) on the subject, but I do actually have a huge headache, so I'm going to crawl off to bed now. Goodnight!

(P.S. Watch this space. After Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher is pretty top. If he does another book like that, he's definitely in the top five.)