Welcome this month's edition of the I Eat Words Sarah Dessen Read/Reread Challenge! Check out this post that explains the details about the awesomeness that is this challenge. This month my best friend Sandy and I reread Someone Like You, Dessen's second novel. This one has a soft spot in my heart because it was the first one I read. I found it randomly while working at the library when I was in high school. I was shelf reading, thought the title sounded interesting, read it, told Sandy to read it, and a love affair was born.
Synopsis:
Halley has always followed in the wake of her best friend, Scarlett. But when Scarlett learns that her boyfriend has been killed in a motorcycle accident, and that she's carrying his baby, she's devastated. For the first time ever, Scarlett really needs Halley. Their friendship may bend under the weight, but it'll never break--because a true friendship is a promise you keep forever.About the Story
Main Character: Halley Cooke
Age: 16 (fun fact: Halley would now be 33...we know she was born in 1980)
School Year or Summer?: Both...the novel starts with two weeks of summer left but the majority takes place during the school year.
Boy: Macon Faulkner
First description of the boy: "His blond hair, cut short over his ears, stuck up in tiny cowlicks. In one ear was a row of three silver hoops." (page 30) "He was in a white T-shirt ripped along the hem and dark blue shorts, those clunky boots on his feet. He was tall and wiry, and tan from a summer working landscaping." (page 32)
Crushable?: Maybe...if you like the bad boys.
Big Secret?: In a way, yes.
Heavy Storyline?: Yes.
Parents Together?: Yes.
Sibling(s)?: No.
Sibling(s)?: No.
Takes Place In: Lakeview.
Cameos: None that I could tell. This was her second book, after all.
About the Book
Released: 1998
Epigraph?: No.
Format (of the copy I read): Paperback
Own?: Yes.
Signed?: Yes.
Read or Reread: Reread.
Age when first read: Oh man...15? 16?
New cover vs older cover: I'm actually torn. I don't get the jar and butterflies but at the same time I don't get the sand, flip flops, and drawn heart.
My Thoughts
Just as I remembered, Someone Like You is pretty heavy. Right away we learn that a classmate of Halley's, Michael, has died and that her best friend Scarlett had been dating him. Then we find out that Scarlett is pregnant with his baby. Around this time Halley, a quiet good girl, has also started hanging out with Macon, Michael's best friend, who has quite the reputation. It's a lot to deal with and I think Halley gets through it all the way most sixteen year old girls would - by shutting out her mother, confiding only in her best friend, and continuing to date the bad boy.
It was really hard to read as Halley fell in deeper with Macon - especially since I knew what was going to happen. Since I've got ten years on her, it was like watching your little sister or niece date a loser or jerk who you know is no good for her but you can't say or do anything. You just have to wait until she figures it out for herself and be there when she needs you. In the book, Halley has Scarlett who is trying to be the voice of reason. She tells her to be careful but, of course, Halley's not listening. Being a true best friend, Scarlett helps her through the inevitable mess near the end of the book.
As I'm writing this I'm realizing that I think I liked Scarlett more than Halley. Not that I disliked Halley. She is a great character and I loved reading her story. Maybe it goes back to what Halley says about feeling like she's an outline of herself and is just waiting for the colours to be filled in. Scarlett already has most of her outline filled in - with reds and golds - so you can't help be drawn to her just a little bit more. She's got a good head on her shoulders (even though she did end up getting pregnant...but "it came off"!) and is a great secondary character and an even better best friend.
I know it's been a long time since I had read this book (at least ten years, I'd say) but I had completely forgotten Cameron, the new kid, existed. He shows up about halfway through the book (and school year). Halley is hanging out with Macon more and more but Scarlett's pregnancy is moving along and she needs someone to be there for her. Cameron comes along at just the right moment. He has a few sweet scenes where it's clear he cares for Scarlett but we don't get to know how much and I'm left feeling like their story is unfinished. I just wish things had been a little clearer with the two of them.
I'm glad I got the chance to reread this one because I always get confused due to the movie How to Deal, which combined That Summer and Someone Like You. The movie really softens both the relationship between Halley and Macon, and his personality. While I like that better, I think the book version is, sadly, a lot more realistic. Is this one of my favourite Dessen books? No, not really. But I do think it's worth the read. It's a fabulous young adult novel.
I'll finish with a quote that really stuck out for me:
"Because life is an ugly, awful place to not have a best friend." (page 23)I completely agree. I'd be lost without my best friends!
Sandy's Thoughts
My first impression of Someone Like You is
the movie it helped spawn in the early 2000’s (How to Deal, starring Mandy
Moore). The first time I read it was after I was already in love with the
movie. It interests me how the movie powers that be decide which parts of a
book make the movie cut and which don’t. All book fans wish that the entire
book could become the film adaptation but that is rarely so. There are always
changes. How to Deal combines the pregnant best friend (Scarlett), Halley, and
Macon of Someone Like You with the main character parents and sister with a
wedding of That Summer. I have always wondered why the script was divided in
this way. Of course to me every Sarah Dessen book should be a movie, so I am
not the most objective critic.
I do, however, have the ability to separate
book and movie and love them equally if not differently if they are both good.
The one thing I can’t stand is killing off a character in a movie who does not
die in the book (ie. In The Bourne Supremacy Marie dies in the movie but not in
Robert Ludlum’s novel). So enough ranting and onto Someone Like You proper.
Someone Like You is a fantastic example of
a strong teen angst coming of age novel. It showcases the typical friction
between a mother and daughter that have been close until the dreaded teenage
years. Halley and her mom are practically twins until she begins to resent the
way her mother is constantly controlling her life and her decisions. Growing
means becoming your own person, an entity outside of your parents desires. The
resentment gets stronger throughout the book and reaches the point where Halley
feels that everything her mother says has a double meaning, a condescending
one. It takes years of future maturing to realize that not everything your
parents say is a slight against you. Some advice is granted out of the pure
need to protect you, some is to keep you from repeating their mistakes, and
some is just to test you. Halley begins to realize this and take the pieces of
her mother’s advice that suit her.
Sarah Dessen introduces an interesting
theory at the very beginning of the book. On page 23 she tells us, “…life is an
ugly, awful place to not have a best friend.” This is a wonderful quote and I
could not agree more. (Blogger note: We did not coordinate our reviews! Clearly Sandy and I are BFFs!) Adolescence is scary enough to experience without the
added benefit of someone going through it with you. Halley and Scarlett fall
into their friendship and never look back. Each has their own uniqueness that
helps the other during different difficult times of their lives. Scarlett can
make friends with anyone, she is outgoing and strong but Halley is sympathetic
and loyal enough to stand by a friend no matter what the consequences in her
own life may be. There is a certain peace to having a best friend and knowing
that they understand you and you belong with them.
It helps you develop a better sense of
self. For example, when Halley is considering having sex with Macon she is
aware that he is being persistent and a little pushy and she stands up to him.
When she wavers and reconsiders it is Scarlett that reminds her that girls like
them do not have sex without saying I love you first (page 202). This point
stays in the back of Halley’s mind and helps to guide her to the right decision
for herself. That is what a best friend is for. To help you see things
differently and be there when you stumble anyway. Scarlett and Halley are there or each other
no matter what. Even an unplanned pregnancy cannot divide them, though Halley’s
mother would like to try.
I think that this novel is a wonderful
divergence from the usual teen pregnancy story line. Scarlett and Halley are
the goody-goodies of their high school. No one expects Scarlett to become
pregnant, not even Scarlett, but it happens and she deals with it in a rational
and very adult like manner (no doubt because of having to raise her own
mother). Scarlett stays in school, keeps her baby and adapts her future. The
loss of Michael is too great to lose his child as well. In many other tales, especially television
shows, the pregnant teen becomes such because she was at risk in the first
place. Sarah Dessen throws a twist into the regularly used plot by taking the
father of the child out of the picture in such a tragic manner that the reader
sympathizes with Scarlett’s decision to keep the child. Much like Halley, the
reader never questions the decision again.
This novel is an excellent “role model” for
teen girls in my opinion. I know that seems strange due to Scarlett’s pregnancy
but it is the strength of the characters that I admire.
Halley knows her own mind when dealing with
Macon after the honeymoon period is over. She knows what he wants and what it
will take to keep him but she also knows that she is not ready to give in. By
the end of the book she realizes what someone like her deserves because she
realizes who she is. We all deserve to be ourselves and be loved for it, if not
by a guy or our friends then we deserve to be loved by ourselves. Halley
realizes that and it helps to make her life a little more peaceful.
Next month
October's book of choice is Keeping the Moon. I don't really remember much about this one so I'm interested to see what I think about it now.
Someone Like You was my favourite book as a teen. It was the first book that gave me that feeling that the author had written a book about my life. You know those books? I was dating a guy like Macon, my best friend was similar to Scarlett, and I related so much to Halley. I read and reread this book and even had my bff read it (she agreed the author had clearly been spying on us and had written a book about us lol). I've been wanting to reread it for years but I'm kind of scared...it meant so much to 15/16-year-old self, but I've changed so much as a person, a reader, and a writer, and I'm afraid I won't like it and it'll overshadow all those happy memories. It's probably dumb, but there you go! Also, my cover is different from both of those...I saw Jessi Kirby tweet Sarah Dessen about a year ago with the picture of the cover I have, and I guess it was the original Canadian cover of the book (I've had it since shortly after it came out). And now I'm just rambling lol. I'm so glad to see these reviews because most of the people I know - even Dessen fans - haven't read this book, but it will always have a really special place in my heart.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that this book connected with you so much! It'd be really interesting to see what you'd think of it now. One of the things I love about Dessen is that it does seem like she's spied on a teen girl because her characters are so great and so real. I always said my favourite Dessen book was This Lullaby but after rereading them, I don't think it is. That made me sad but it also means that I've come to appreciate others more. I still love it but it didn't affect me as much...I think it's because I really identified with Remy at the time I read it. I also read it the copy with the old school cover...it was dark blue, with a starry sky, and had the drawing of a girl on it. I agree with other Dessen fans not reading this one. It's like a lot of people just started reading after she released some of her later books (say, This Lullaby). I'm hoping I convert some of the YA lovers who have never read Dessen (which I find SHOCKING) with all these reviews!
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