Review: That Summer

Title That Summer
By Sarah Dessen
For Fun
Source Library





Synopsis
Um, let's see, what is this book about? A girl named Haven who is really tall which really isn't that unique but with the way she whines about it you'd think she had a lamppost growing out of her back! Meanwhile her Dad's just remarrying some new young thing as the book opens and Haven whines about that for awhile and her older sister Ashley is getting married and the wedding plans litter the book as a reminder that, hey, Ashley is annoying, but not really. OK, yeah, I get it!

General thoughts
As you can see by my synopsis of the book I was not very fond of it. This is the first Sarah Dessen novel I've read and maybe I should have picked a different one or maybe they're all like this and it wouldn't have mattered. Anywho, It just wasn't that impressive. First off, as I mentioned above, I didn't get why Haven was soooo upset and self conscious about her height. Several times she has people tell her she's pretty or overhears people commenting on how beautiful she is and yet all she can whine on and on about it her height. Now, I know we're all like this, we only see the bad in ourselves but since when has being tall been bad? Seriously, this girl never spoke up and when she does it's like a freaking dam has burst and there's only a few pages left in the book and you're thinking: that's it? That's what I've been reading this for? A meltdown?!!! Grrrr.  I'm not completely stupid. I got the moral of the story, I understood what the author was trying to say but the storyline to teach said moral could have been a little more interesting. Just sayin'

Characters
Haven was completely un-relatable to me. One, I'm not freakishly tall. Two, I speak up if something is bothering me and three, I don't base my whole existence on other people and what they think of me. Wait, maybe it's because I related to her that I hated her. Who knows.   Ashely was seemingly self centered but I had the impression that if we read the book from her perspective we would have sympathized with her.  Obviously there's a lot more characters but the truth is I felt that they were all rather trivial and yet, as with Ashley, the author could have picked anyone of them to use as the main protagonist and we would have seen their side of things and disliked Haven instead. Maybe that was the whole point. Well, I don't know if my ramblings make sense but there you have it.

Would I recommend it?
Fat, freaking chance! But, hey, what do I know, maybe it was amazing and I just didn't get it.