The Moon and More, by Sarah Dessen

Via.

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Rating: ★★★

Published: June 4, 2013

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

Pages: 435

Emaline has grown up in the small beach town of Colby, and is more than familiar with the mechanics of summer vacation. Living in a vacation town, she is a permanent fixture, working at her family's beach resort company and interacting with tourists. The summer before she leaves for college, Emaline is left wondering about the "summer vacation" myth - summer romances especially. It's during this summer that Emaline experiences her first summer romance in the form of the energetic, ambitious New York film student Theo. Theo and his boss, Ivy, have come to Colby in order to make a documentary about a reclusive local artist. The contrast between insiders and outsiders comes into play frequently during the course of the novel. Dessen explores Emaline's small town mentality, although not in a negative way. 

I've been reading Sarah Dessen's books since probably middle school, and for the most part I've really liked them. Just Listen is probably my favorite, but I have absolutely no problem with re-reading This Lullaby, Keeping the Moon, whatever. I love finding the Easter eggs she sprinkles throughout her books, making connections between characters and stories. I think she portrays female friendships really well, and I like how her characters are flawed, funny, motivated people. Which is why I guess I was a little disappointed by her latest book, The Moon and More. 

I liked that Dessen kind of flipped around her usual formula. You know - girl meets boy, boy is funny and smart and different and shows the girl a whole new world/side to her and girl starts living her life or something and there are reflections on friendship and family. (That sounds kind of mean, but trust me - I really do adore Sarah Dessen's books.) However, I feel like The Moon and More had less of a clear direction than her other works. I didn't connect very well to Emaline, which I think is due to the fact that I could never figure out her characterization very well. I understood her main conflict to be that of the Colby/not-Colby world, but where romance and family matters came in, things were more unclear. I felt like it took a really long time to get to the actual plot of the story - or maybe I couldn't figure out what the plot was, which is equally as bad. I liked some of the side characters - Benji and Morris especially - but I felt like others were kind of flat (Daisy, Ivy), or lacked any personal progress (Theo, Ivy).  

If you're interested in reading Sarah Dessen's books, I would recommend you start with something else (Just Listen, This Lullaby, etc.). I feel like the reason I kept on reading the book was because every so often I caught a glimmer of her usual charm. I think this book was really interesting based off of the fact that - like I said above - it was different than her usual shebang. But I don't know if I'll be re-reading this any time soon.