The Truth About Forever is about 17 year old Macy. A year and a half ago Macy saw her father die and it has defined her life ever since. She lives with her control freak mother who refuses to show any grief and both she and her mother expect perfection in everything. Macy spends her evenings studying for her SATs, she has a perfectly genius boyfriend who doesn't feel emotion, and her room is in perfect order. Then summer arrives, her boyfriend goes away to Brain Camp and Macy is left with time to fill. She takes a part time job with Wish Catering, run by the scattered Delia and staffed by an assortment of teenagers who aren't perfect. Well, on paper anyway. With these new friends, Macy starts to loosen up and feel things again, and with Wes (sa-woon!) she learns to really tell the truth and let herself really care.
The short version: Loved it. LOVE Wes. Every character in this one is dead on and Macy's transformation is completely belieable.
The long version: Wes first. Wes is awesome. He doesn't have a perfect past but he's pretty darn perfect now. Wes is an artist as well as a waiter and takes care of his 16 year old brother in his free time. Macy and Wes start talking and have this effortless easy companionship that you can totally believe turns into something else. Those of you who want a little romance in your YA will find it here!
Macy is also believable. She's lying to herself about being fine with her father's death and controlling every aspect of her life so that nothing bad can happen again. As the story progresses she starts to see that being in control might make things predictable and safe, but it doesn't make you happy.
I don't think there was a single character in this one that was a straight stereotype. Possibly Kristy and Bert, but I still enjoyed them. Macy's mom and sister are perfectly drawn and there is one scene with the three of them that made my heart break for them all. By the end of the story everyone has learned a little something (of course) and the ending is so completely perfect that your heart might just swell up a little.
Overall, quite an enjoyable read and definately gears me up for more Sarah Dessen.
(PS. I just gave in and added a new tag for some of my posts. I've also added this tag to my new Goodreads account.)
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
Viking Juvenile
2004
384 pages
Sa-woon, indeed. I LOVED Wes.
ReplyDeleteHope you're loving your vacation!
This sounds wonderful. You're not the first person to love Sarah Dessen's work, so I think I need to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI. MUST. READ. SARARH. DESSEN. That's it. You are pushing me over the egde! Hope you are happy. :)
ReplyDeleteWhy am I so resistant towards YA fiction? Why why why? I actually don't have any good reasons. I saw about a million Dessen books at B&N on Friday, but I picked up something else instead. You're beating me down.
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't want to hear it. The library system here does not have Truth About Forever in their system. Neither does the book swap site I use. I really don't want to cave and buy this book new, but I'm running out of options..
ReplyDeleteThis book was surprisingly a slow read to me, which was shocking especially because of its many fans. The story is about a girl named Macy who is affected by her father's death that she witnessed a few years back. She stopped running and pushed many of her friends away, all while attaining her perfect boyfriend, Jason. He went away to a summer camp and soon realized they weren't right together and sent her a breakup email.
ReplyDelete