Saint Anything in Better Read Than Dead Book Club

Apr 19, 2018 Gaby rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2018, young-adult

4.5 Stars
I would have probably given this 5 stars if it wasn't for that rushed ending. But moving past that, this was a fantastic book. I am on a Sarah Dessen kick, I definitely want to pick up more of her books. She doesn't write the typical adolescent romance novels. Her books always have a deeper meaning and well crafted characters. I love that no matter what's your age, you can always relate to the situations/feelings her characters experience.

Even though Sydney, the main character, exasper 4.5 Stars
I would have probably given this 5 stars if it wasn't for that rushed ending. But moving past that, this was a fantastic book. I am on a Sarah Dessen kick, I definitely want to pick up more of her books. She doesn't write the typical adolescent romance novels. Her books always have a deeper meaning and well crafted characters. I love that no matter what's your age, you can always relate to the situations/feelings her characters experience.

Even though Sydney, the main character, exasperated me a lot throughout this book for her inability to stand up for herself, I still appreciated her journey and reading from her pov. There were other characters that made me want to slap them at times, like Sydney's mom and Ames (ugh let's be honest, was the character of Ames really necessary? I could have done without that creep). But there were so many other characters that were amazing, like Layla and her obsession with fries. I absolutely loved her and she was the best of best friends. And then there's Mac who is the type of guys that every girl dreams of; and the rest of the friend group was also pretty awesome.

The story was long but moved at a fast pace which kept me turning pages. I really enjoyed this read but like I said its overall greatness was somewhat overshadowed by that lackluster ending with paragraph after paragraph describing how everything wrapped up nicely. I would have preferred the author to start wrapping things up bit by bit a lot sooner than throwing all those long paragraphs at us at the very last chapter.. Ok rant over, I really did love this book! Head down for some spoilers

(view spoiler) ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2016 Haley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: re-read

Sarah Dessen is one of my favorite authors. She also happens to be the first young adult author I remember reading back when I was fourteen. I remember reading Just Listen and feeling really mature because of it, and I've been reading her books ever since.

I also got lucky enough to meet her on the book tour for this book at the beginning of last summer. Now only did I get my copy of Saint Anything signed, but she also signed that copy of Just Listen that I bought at fourteen and my copy of This Sarah Dessen is one of my favorite authors. She also happens to be the first young adult author I remember reading back when I was fourteen. I remember reading Just Listen and feeling really mature because of it, and I've been reading her books ever since.

I also got lucky enough to meet her on the book tour for this book at the beginning of last summer. Now only did I get my copy of Saint Anything signed, but she also signed that copy of Just Listen that I bought at fourteen and my copy of This Lullaby which has, for years, been my favorite of her books.

All of that influences my review I think. It took me a year to actually read this book, which is ridiculous. Most of it comes down to me trying to read all of the older books I had sitting around before I got to newer ones, but I'll also admit that the anticipation of having a new Sarah Dessen book on my shelf that I have yet to read is a nice feeling.

I knew I would like this book going into it. Not only do I like Sarah Dessen's books in general, but this one received so much praise after it came out. It felt like even more than what I remember from previous book releases of hers, and it had me very hyped up about this book. Luckily, I wasn't disappointed in that regard.

Remember how I said that This Lullaby has been my favorite for years? I honestly just don't know anymore. I'm reluctant to say it isn't for nostalgia reasons if nothing else, but Saint Anything blew me away. Typically I would worry that this is a case of me getting caught up in something new and nothing more, but I've never had this reaction to a Sarah Dessen book since reading This Lullaby.

Saint Anything both felt like a Sarah Dessen novel and also like something more at the same time. There was a different quality there that led me to forget at times who the author is. Now, I love all of her other books, so this isn't a criticism of them. I enjoy having that familiar Sarah Dessen feel when I read her books. It's a good feeling. And I still felt that to a certain extent with Saint Anything, but I also found myself forgetting sometimes who had written the book.

I feel like that almost creates a conundrum. I fell absolutely in love with this book, but I also wonder if I would recommend it to someone if it were the first Sarah Dessen book they were going to read. Maybe I would want to point them towards a book that feels more quintessential Sarah Dessen to me, but at the same time, I want to just recommend this book to everyone regardless. I don't know.

When it comes to my feelings about Saint Anything though, I'm just going to go ahead and say it's tied with This Lullaby as my favorite Sarah Dessen book. For now. We'll see what conclusion I come to in the future.

I also realize that there's so much that happens in the book that I haven't mentioned in this review. While I debated for a bit over whether or not to talk about that, I decided not to. There's a lot I would really like to say about the characters and their actions, but I went into this book knowing almost nothing about the plot. While I typically don't care about that sort of thing, I liked it in this case, so I'm going to keep quiet about most of it. What I will say is that I found all of the characters compelling, although often in a very frustrating way, and I enjoyed the way everything felt so realistic even though that meant spending a good portion of the book feeling angry. I think that, more than anything else, is what the book managed to do so well.

http://hmweasley-blog.blogspot.com/20... ...more

Like · see review

Jan 17, 2018 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviews

I really enjoyed this book. This was my first Sarah Dessen book and I really enjoyed it and would love to read more of her books. I loved the chemistry between the characters and the unexpected twist and turns that occurred throughout the book. I would highly recommend this book to all readers that like young adult novels that are impossible to put down! So good!!!

Like · see review