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How to Deal

by Sarah Dessen (Goodreads Author)

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 3,803 ratings · 74 reviews

Rule #1: There are no rules

Just when you think you've got everything figured out for yourself, things get turned upside down. Families change. Lives end. New lives begin. And love sneaks up on you when you least expect it. The trick is finding that one person you can always count on, that one person who will throw out the rules and help you figure out how to deal with it a...more

Mass Market Paperback , Movie Tie-In Edition, 496 pages

Published June 2nd 2003 by Puffin

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Jan 31, 2009 Marsha rated it 5 of 5 stars

"How to Deal" is actually a package of two novels from Sarah Dessen, which were used as a basis for a movie starting Mandy Moore. I haven't seen the movie, but would like to in the future on DVD. The first novel "Someone Like You" I absolutely loved. It is a young adult novel. I thought it was so well written that it reminded me of why I came to like reading so much. The descriptions were not overdone. There was just enough description to feel involved and the dialogue feels real and not forced....more

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Oct 21, 2010 Terr added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
The most pleasurable aspect of How to Deal was reading about the unbreakable bond between Halley, the stubborn protagonist, and her best friend Scarlett. Their love for each other really made me think of my friends, and how much I should cherish them for being in my life. Their friendship is stronger than anything I’ve ever seen, they would literally do anything for each other, which I thought was incredibly considerate. This book teaches you about dealing with situations in your everyday life....more
The most pleasurable aspect of How to Deal was reading about the unbreakable bond between Halley, the stubborn protagonist, and her best friend Scarlett. Their love for each other really made me think of my friends, and how much I should cherish them for being in my life. Their friendship is stronger than anything I’ve ever seen, they would literally do anything for each other, which I thought was incredibly considerate. This book teaches you about dealing with situations in your everyday life. For example, Halley leaves her sisterhood camp, basically ending her summer, just to go home and take care of her best friend. Scarlett’s boyfriend has just died in a motorcycle accident, and she is absolutely devastated. And I just adored Scarlett’s character, because she was so brave and strong-willed, basically the ultimate best friend you could possibly have, and not even in a cheesy way.

When Halley returns home, Scarlett immediately informs her in secret, that she is pregnant with Michael Sherwood, her boyfriend’s, baby. I just felt terrible that she had to deal with the burden of not being able to confront her mom about everything.

I wasn't used to seeing her this way. Scarlett had always been the stronger, the livelier, the braver. The girl who punched out Missy Lassiter, the meanest, most fiendish of the pink-bike girls that first summer she moved in, on a day when they surrounded us and tried to make us cry. The girl who kept a house, and her mother, up and running since she was five, now playing mother to a thirty-five-year-old child. The girl who had kept the world from swallowing me whole, or so I'd always believed. (P. 20)
Not only is Halley taking care of her pregnant, best friend, but she is also trying to manage her new boyfriend, Macon Faulkner. I was really hypnotized by Macon, because I just found his character so intriguing and sexy. And I know I sound like such a girly- girl right now, but the fact that he played the bad-ass, naughty boy, made him all the more enjoyable. However, in the midst of the book, he decides to pressure Halley into having sex him with him, and that’s when I decided that he was a complete idiot. He had the personality of a very hormonal girl, on her period, and I found myself wanting to punch him in the face. One minute he’s saying, ‘Don’t worry Halley, let’s wait.’ Then the next minute he’s trying to have sex with her on her own bed, and then tries once again at a New Years Party. And Halley’s mother does not know a thing about the sex, but all she knows is that there is a boy in Halley’s life, and he needs to get out. I found Halley’s mother very nagging, when it came to Macon. She’s a teenager; let her learn from her mistakes, you can’t protect her from everything.
In the end, Halley decides to leave Macon, and I was on the fence about her decision, and I think I still am. On the one hand, I fell in love with the image of him that I had in my head, but on the other hand, he was a jerk to Halley. He turned her into something she never intended to be, and I think that I’m a little happier that she leaves him, because it shows how much her character grows from a stubborn girl, to an open-minded teenager.

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Dec 01, 2008 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love the movie How to Deal, so I decided to read the books. I personally liked Someone Like You more than That Summer. I think it's because Macon is such an intriguing character, and I personally thought that in the movie, he was made out to be a better guy.

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Apr 24, 2008 Katy Major rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Chick-lit lovers

Shelves: chick-lit, 2007, own, ya-fiction, light, fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 05, 2008 Caroline rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of the author

Shelves: not-quality-fiction, young-adult

The first book, "Someone Like You:, was an excellent book, but "That Summer" wasn't that good. They were pretty similar, so it was a surprise when the author said, "I can't imagine how they can be combined!"

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Apr 12, 2010 Shawna rated it 4 of 5 stars

I, like a lot of other readers, saw the movie first. I didn't realize when I started reading Dessen that she was the other of Someone Like You. LOVED the book. . . way better than than the movie and for obvious reasons. The book fleshed out a lot of the story for me. And I liked Macon a lot more in the pages than on the screen. It seemed an honest and optimistic approach about issues that seem to get swept under the rug in more conservative families. I appreciated the choices that Halley made fo...more

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Jun 14, 2009 Chrissy Pennada rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This book was two books combined. It was about a girl whose parents are divorced and she deals with that and the chaos going on with her father getting married to a blonde "bimbo" and her sister is also getting married. And she finds out that her best friend is pregnant and she father of her baby dies in a motorcycle accident. She tries to balance out her life and deal with everything but she's just a mess. And she meets this boy and they fall for eachother and spend the summer together. But it'...more

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Mar 05, 2009 Carla rated it 3 of 5 stars

Carla Money
Baltz
Pre-AP English 10
6 March 2009
How to Deal by Sarah Dessen
How to Deal by Sarah Dessen is about a teenage girl, Halley, whose life is changing. She has always let her mother tell her what to do and she did it. After she meets Macon, she begins to rebel against her mother’s strict rules. She begins to hang out with the wrong people and try drugs. Her mother notices her changing behavior and confronts her. She says, “Now, since you’ve been hanging around Macon you’ve been caught ski...more Carla Money
Baltz
Pre-AP English 10
6 March 2009
How to Deal by Sarah Dessen
How to Deal by Sarah Dessen is about a teenage girl, Halley, whose life is changing. She has always let her mother tell her what to do and she did it. After she meets Macon, she begins to rebel against her mother’s strict rules. She begins to hang out with the wrong people and try drugs. Her mother notices her changing behavior and confronts her. She says, “Now, since you’ve been hanging around Macon you’ve been caught skipping school, broken your curfew, and your attitude is always confrontational and difficult.” Her best friend, Scarlett, finds out that she is pregnant and this does not help Halley’s relationship with her mother. Halley soon has to learn to make the right decisions in her own life.
The book begins when Halley is at a sisterhood summer camp. She gets a phone call from Scarlett, who is crying. Scarlett is usually the one who is comforting Halley, so she knows something is wrong. Scarlett asks her to come home because her boyfriend, Michael, has died. Scarlett would not do that unless she really needed Halley, so Halley called her mother and persuaded her to come get her and take her home. When Halley arrives home, Scarlett is sitting on the front steps where they first became friends. They go to the funeral and after the funeral they offer Michael’s best friend, Macon, a ride because it is raining. That is the most contact Halley had had with Macon up to that point.
Halley is the main character. Her best friend is Scarlett and her boyfriend is Macon. Halley has to deal with having her first boyfriend and her best friend being pregnant. She does a good job at first, but soon it gets out of hand. Macon is driving by her house every night wanting her to come with him, but her parents won’t let her. He is getting pushier and she is getting nervous. Halley also promised to help Scarlett with the baby situation. They have to tell her mom and go to doctors appointments. Halley tries to juggle it all.
Macon is Halley’s boyfriend. He is the “bad guy” in school. The book says, “he didn’t seem to have a curfew.” He would always be out late at night drving past Halley’s house and beeping the horn. While Halley never gets into trouble, Macon has perfected the art of getting out of trouble. They are an unlikely and couple and everyone talks. He is into drugs, drinking and parties. Not Halley’s normal scene. At first he seems shy, but as the reader gets to know him, they see he has a temper. He gets Halley into situations where she has to make tough decisions.
Scarlett is Halley’s best friend. She finds out she is pregnant after her boyfriend died in a motorcycle accident. She tells her mother and her mother immediately takes her to get an abortion. Scarlett becomes afraid and decides not to go through with it. She never considers abortion again. She makes the choice to keep the baby and does the research. She knows it will be hard, but she also knows she has friends and family who will help her.
I liked this book because Halley is a normal teenager. She is a person who is like many of my friends before she meets Macon. After she meets Macon she does not let her personality change. She is still herself; she just has different decisions to make. The part of this book I did not like was Halley’s father. He is a very static character. He barely says anything. It seemed like he did not care what his daughter did with her life.
The theme of this book is to know how you want to be treated in life. Halley had a lot to learn with her first boyfriend and with her mother. Macon said things to her and treated her in ways she did not like. Her mother still treats her like a child even when she is a teenager. Its takes her a while, but Halley eventually realizes she can confront these people and tell her how she wants to be treated. She can only hope that they will respect her. And if they do not, she does not need them in her life.

Page count: 486
Genre: romance
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Nov 30, 2009 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

So I read this book because I thought it'd help me understand the movie better, but it did not! I don't understand how both books in this volume relate or how they both inspired the movie.

Reading this book made me feel like I was back in high school all over again, reading books that were long and not great.

I am interested to watch the movie again (saw it new in 2003) and see if the plot lines that were not finished in the movie are finished in the novel. But I have a feeling they are not, as th...more

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Oct 19, 2010 Lindsey Biondo rated it 4 of 5 stars

I thought that this book was very well written. The order of events was intrigueing and made me want to read more. I didn't ever at one point in time get bored with this book. Halley is an ordinary girl, with a very cool bestfriend who gets pregnant, and the boy that is the father died in a motorcycle accident. Halley and her best friend learn "how to deal" with all of the problems they are facing. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a long intrigueing book.

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Jan 27, 2011 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

How to Deal, covering two of Dessen's novels, was actually a bit of a disappointment. Both were good, but not as good as I was expecting from Dessen. She's written better, though this was still worth my time.

I definitely agree with many others that the first novel was far better than the second one. Like I said, of my past Dessen experiences, this one was not what I was expecting. If it had been my first read, I'm not positive I'd read her other works. However, everything else I've read before t...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Ashleigh rated it 4 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this book. I feel like I can relate so much to the main characters, their relationships, and their situations. These books are really great for every single teenager out there, as long as they're okay with swearing, especially in the second book.

It helped give me more of a perspective to why my mom and I don't get along most of the time anymore and that my situations that I felt like nobody could understand? Other people CAN relate.

The characters are also so unique and funny...more

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Oct 11, 2009 Lisbeth Solberg rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-school-mix, young-adult, movie-too

Competent writing, not too hard, and I think it will capture the interest of some of the girls who are willing to read something long-ish--I have a few of those students. They will like this/these. It's interesting to think how these two separate novels got blended into one movie. I just might have to watch the movie. I mean, I watched the first Twilight movie, so what the heck!

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Oct 13, 2010 Katrina rated it 1 of 5 stars

The books "That Summer" and "Someone Like You" deserve WAY much more credit than what this movie gave them. I didn't like it one bit. Total Waste of time. I love Sarah Dessen's books so much that they don't need a movie about them that totally ruins your viewpoint and intake of it. If you don't like books being made into movies,then definitely DON'T watch "How To Deal."

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Apr 16, 2013 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is 2 books in 1, Someone Like You & That Summer. These are 2 completely different stand alone stories. Someone like you was ok & That Summer made me wish there was a follow up book to find out what the heck happens.
How they made these 2 books into 1 movie is beyond me. The stories & characters are completely different in each one.

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Apr 21, 2009 Mimi (klutz is still my middle name) rated it 5 of 5 stars

this book has two different books in it. the first one is one of my favorite books and it a complete page-turned i read the book in like two days because it was so good. the second one is just as good but in my opinion it starts a little bit slow but give it time. the book is a fantastic read and will leave you wanted more

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Oct 05, 2012 Caitlyn Sophie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked the books but personally i think the movie should never had been made. Possibly two seperate films for esach book, but i feel that them filming the movie was a huge waste of something that could have been bigger. But, im reviewing the book, not the movie, so i have to say its good.

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Sep 15, 2011 Valerie rated it 5 of 5 stars

After reading these books back to back, I can definitely see there were many simiarities between them. I can understand why they were combined into one movie.

I really love Sarah Dessen's book. She writes a lot about romance, but it's all real and not something totally unrealistic. Also, she finds the truth in everyday things.

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Mar 03, 2012 Margaret rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-and-ya-fiction, authors-cd

This is an odd movie version package of two Dessen books, Someone Like You and That Summer, of which I like Someone Like You quite a bit more. I really like how Dessen delineates Halley and Scarlett's close but not always perfect friendship and her sympathetic portrayal of teen pregnancy. That Summer pushes fewer buttons, I guess; I didn't like Haven, the protagonist, as much as I did Halley and Scarlett, and I wasn't as interested in her issues with her family. Still, it does have the insight a...more

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Dec 28, 2011 Cassy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10351373

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May 18, 2011 Daurilin added it

Shelves: own

For those of you who have read That Summer and Someone Like You this is just the mix of both. They combined both stories to make one movie.

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Jan 09, 2009 Yaoyao rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book had Someone Like You and That Summer. They were both really good (and a little sad) books that people should read.

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May 07, 2011 Danielle added it

Twisted my mom's back to let me read it! She wouldn't let me watch the movie but I got her to let me read it, I cried a lot!

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Feb 27, 2011 Aurora Lucas rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was okay. This is one of the first Dessen books compiled into one, and you can tell she is still a maturing author.

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Oct 21, 2009 Chloe rated it 5 of 5 stars

techinquely i read them as "That Summer" and "Someone Like You" but it is still awesome

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Sep 30, 2012 Jeannie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I own this book, which is Someone Like You and That Summer in one volume.

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Nov 26, 2011 Alison rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I love how my favorite author has one book with two novels in it! Even though I liked Halley's story better than Haven's, the two novels had things in common, which made it pracitcal to put them together in one book! I feel that Halley's story is more moving and emotional, where Haven's is more about regular problems in life and was a little bit more relatable.

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Feb 13, 2011 Missy added it

its just Someone Like You and That Summer put together. The movie was ok.

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Sep 22, 2007 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen-fiction

I hate movie tie-ins as much as the next book snob but desperate times call for desperate measures. I was bored out of my mind at work and picked up this book (actually two books in one- That Summer and Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen) because it was nearest to the register. I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed it a great deal! I don't remember much about the story except that it has to do with a girl whose parent's get divorced (or something like that)and of course she meets a total...more

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Mar 28, 2011 Jayla Wilson rated it 5 of 5 stars

i saw the movie since this book is based on two of her other books

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