Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
I picked up the recently reissued paperback version of Sarah Dessen’s fourth YA book, Dreamland. Having read only Just Listen, Lock and Key, and the yet to be released Along for the Ride, I was interested in reading an earlier work and this one seemed like a quick read. I was wrong. Where Along for the Ride had me so hooked I couldn’t put it down, I often set Dreamland down and was almost loathe to continue. But it provoked my anger and I had to finish it.
When Caitlin’s older sister runs away (though she is 18) the summer after high school graduation, Caitlin O’Koren’s life is disrupted. When she meets Rogerson, everything seems to be set right again. Until he hits her. (Read a full summary at Teenreads.com)
My first issue with this book was character inconsistency, something I haven’t seen in the other Dessen books I’ve read. The O’Koren’s spend a lot of time with their neighbors Boo and Stewart. These two are painted as easy-going, vegetarian, hippy-ish, zen-like people. Now examine this comment by Boo, “It’s bad luck to mess with tradition” (p. 38). This immediately jolted me and I thought, “Boo would never say this. It’s so conformist and patriarchal. She is not so unthinking.”
I’m also sceptical about the use of dreamworlds in this book. When Caitlin chooses Rogerson over Mike, it is a crucial moment. She later reflects, “I wasn’t even sure why I’d hung out with them. It had just sort of happened, like everything else in my life. Now, with him, I finally felt like I was making my own choices, living wide awake after being in a dreamworld so long” (p. 94). But was she awake? Briefly. For this is the only conscious choice she makes. Prior to it, she lived in her sister’s shadow. After this choice, her alertness is soon dulled by drugs and her decision making ability totally corrupted and actions manipulated by Rogerson. How long would the abuse have continued if her neighbor hadn’t intervened? If a dreamworld is supposed to represent repose (she wants to meet her sister in the dreamworld), how does that fit with the real life nightmare she sleep walks through?
On the flip side, Dessen knows high school boys. I found her metaphor for Mike spot-on. “Mike was a nice guy but very, very bland. Like a big saltine cracker” (p 53). And Rogerson was the most detailed character. I almost couldn’t help falling in love with him myself. But Dessen’s foreshadowing always kept him at arms length. Examine the instance when he and Caitlin first meet:
“[Rogerson] raised his chin, backing up, keeping his eyes on me. I stood there, my breath clouding out around my face, as a police car raced by on the road facing us, the siren screaming” (p 51).
Or as Caitlin stands at the door to her house, waiting for Rogerson:
“My mother, on the couch, turned and looked out the window, but she couldn’t see the stoplight, turning from yellow to red again” (p 73).
I also found the sports metaphors (Caitlin uses basketball chants when dealing with Rogerson’s abuse) out of place and oddly jolting (not the cheerleading comments, which I thought were ironically funny).
An excellent discussion guide can be found at the Penguin Reading Group.
Monthly Reads
I need to start keeping track of all the books I read and a short summary. It’s getting to be too much to keep in my head!
Story of a Girl: Sara Zarr – When she is caught in the backseat of a car (Buick) with her older brother’s best friend – Deanna Lambert’s teenage life is changed forever. Struggling to overcome the lasting repercussions and the stifling role of “school slut,” (though she hasn’t slept with anyone since) she longs to escape a life defined by her past. She takes a job at a pizza dive where she ends up working with non other than Tommy (the best friend). She dreams of moving out of her parent’s house with her older brother, his girlfriend, and their infant daughter. *2007 National Book Award Finalist*
Touching Snow: M. Sindy Felin – Karina’s life is spiraling into misery. She and her siblings are too busy dodging their step-fathers hammering blows to build their own lives. After “the daddy” nearly kills the eldest girl, Karina, he is taken away on child-abuse charges that don’t stick. This story reveals many real-life social issues facing Haitian immigrant families. Written in retrospect, Karina reflects, “The best way to avoid being picked on by high school bullies is to kill someone.” A difficult book to read (becuase ”the Daddy” is so brutal and the children so helpless), the promise of “justice” is all that kept me from total frustration. Well written. *2007 National Book Award Finalist*
Just Listen : Sara Dessen- “Last year, Annabel was “the girl who has everything”—at least that’s the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf ’s Department Store.This year, she’s the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling.With Owen’s help,maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.”
I couldn’t put this book down and I’ve just checked out two more Dessen books. Her characters are realistic (esp. the sister dynamic – their interactions struck a chord with me). Sophie, Annabel’s former (fake) best friend, was also well done. She was just the right part manipulative and addictive. I’ve known girls like her!
Dragonhaven : Robin McKinley- This longwinded story follows Jake, a 14-year-old boy living in Smokehill National Park – one of the last dragon havens in this contemporary alternate reality. Beth Wright of School Library Journal writes, “Once readers get through Jake’s overdone teenage diction in the first few chapters, they will be engaged by McKinley’s well-drawn characters and want to root for the Smokehill community’s fight to save the ultimate endangered species.”
Well, I didn’t find myself rooting for Jake or his squawking dragenlet, Lois. The series seems to drag on and on (perhaps because the sentence structure is torturingly bad!). Twice the length it should be, the narrative hints of a middle-aged woman not a teen boy. I enjoy fantasy (and there were some unique aspects of this take on dragons), but if there is a sequel (and there are threats of one), I will pass.
The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney : Suzanne Harper- Sparrow is the seventh daugther or a seventh daughter. She is a psychic but it is a talent she keeps well hidden. It is her mission to fit in now she has the chance. When the school district lines are redrawn, Sparrow transfers to a new school, where no one knows her sisters are local psychics and (in her opinion anyway) oddities. But her “just fit in” task is made difficult by her three mentor spirits and the appearance of Luke, a spirit who persists on being heard.
Great cover, good story, an overabundance of quirky characters. Gladly, it does not delve into teen angst macabre but remains heart-felt. An enjoyable read… but there may be some *uproar* over the psychic element (as it is taken as absolute truth).
Dragon Academy: The New Kid at School : Kate McMullen, Bill Bisso (Illustrator) – Monty Pyhton meets Wart in this goofy take on Dragon slaying!
Sarah Dessen Syndrome
March 26, 2009 at 3:09 am (Commentary) (chick lit, sarah dessen, young adult literature)
I still love Dessen but Somewhere is absolutely right. “I do believe people come into our lives to get us through stuff, to help us discover who we are, to show us that thing right in front of us that we can’t see. But in that list of people, I wouldn’t just include boyfriends, I’d include friends and teachers and coworkers.”
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