Why I Love Sarah Dessen

I’ve been reading Sarah Dessen’s books since I was fifteen (quick math: seven years!), and every time she releases a new one, I still get ridiculously excited. Her latest book, THE MOON AND MORE, comes out today, two years after the release of her last book. In honor of her pub day, I thought I’d write a post about why I still obsess over her books even though I’m not sixteen and living in a beach town.

 

1.   I’m not sixteen and living in a beach town: I like living vicariously through the main characters. We all want that fun summer to remember at the beach (at least I do). And even though I’m only three years removed from teenager-dom, I already miss the lack of responsibility and the endless possibilities of the three months in between school years.

2.   Her stories are comforting: As a reader, I’ve grown to trust Sarah and her stories. I know that when I finish the story, I’m going to be happy and so are the characters (even if it’s not 100% in the way I initially expected). Plus, the girl usually gets the guy, which is always nice!   

3.   THE BOYS: Enough said. And there are TWO boys in the new book!

4.   The quirky situations and secondary characters: When I started writing, I unintentionally modeled my plots after Sarah’s. She puts her characters in unique situations (moving around and changing your name in every new town, working for a hectic catering company, not being able to sleep at night), situations I’d never been in but suddenly wanted to understand. I’ve tried to do the same with my own characters, and I’ve gotten praise in workshop classes for my ideas (People said they’d never read stories with the same plots/situations as some of mine: hot air balloon crews, beauty pageant consultants, mothers/daughters living in trailer parks).

5.   She made me want to be a writer: Sarah creates the stories I’ve always wanted to write. When I read her books at fifteen, I realized, “Wait…THIS is what I want to do!” Her books are the reason I sat down at a computer and typed out hundreds of pages of a “book” that will never see the light of day. But it was a start, and I haven’t stopped since. Now I have a Bachelor’s in creative writing and am going for my Master’s. And Sarah Dessen is one of the reasons why.

Bonus reason: She's obsessed with Good Morning America and so am I! :)

 

HAPPY PUB DAY, SARAH! Everyone should go buy a copy of THE MOON AND MORE. I’m at work until five, and it’s killing me that I can’t run to the bookstore until 5:01!

 

 

Check out another post where I talk about my two favorite Sarah books!