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The Story of Us
Cricket’s on a self-imposed break from her longtime boyfriend—but she’s picked a bad week to sort out her love life. For one thing, her mother’s romance is taking center stage: After jilting two previous fiancés, her mom is finally marrying Dan Jax, whom Cricket loves. But as wedding attendees arrive for a week of festivities at a guesthouse whose hippie owners have a sweet, sexy son—Ash—complications arise:
Cricket’s future stepsisters make it clear they’re not happy about the marriage. An old friend decides this is the week to declare his love for Cricket. Grandpa chooses to reveal a big secret at a family gathering. Dan’s ex-wife shows up. And even the dogs—Cricket’s old, ill Jupiter and Dan’s young, lively Cruiser—seem to be declaring war.
While Cricket fears that Dan is in danger of becoming ditched husband-to-be number three, she’s also alarmed by her own desires. Because even though her boyfriend looms large in her mind, Ash is right in front of her....
389 pages, Hardcover
First published April 24, 2012
114 people are currently reading
11075 people want to read
About the author
Deb Caletti
37 books2,277 followersDeb Caletti is the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of over twenty books for adults and young adults, including Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, a finalist for the National Book Award, and A Heart in a Body in the World, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. Her books have also won the Josette Frank Award for Fiction, the Washington State Book Award, and numerous other state awards and honors, and she was a finalist for the PEN USA Award. She lives with her family in Seattle.
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July 29, 2011Is it sad that a very big reason why I want to read this book is because it has the same name as a Taylor Swift Song?
June 15, 2012
I must make a comparison to Sarah Dessen. Sarah Dessen's books deal with teenaged girls finding their way in the world while fixing some flaw or issue in their lives. Her books are consistently great - so consistently great that some say they are formulaic. I, for one, love Sarah Dessen. Maybe it's the romance maniac in me, or maybe I just love how she always amazes me with her writing. She's like that annoying kid in your AP English class who always picks up on the simile or metaphor before you do, and always recognizes the right answer.
Deb Caletti's books also deal with teenage girls finding their way in the world while fixing flaws and overcoming issues. This is where the similarities between Caletti and Dessen end.
Sure, they've both written about abusive relationships (Caletti's Stay and Dessen's Dreamland, but their styles are so different. Caletti always surprises me with whatever she comes up with, and her writing, or at least my opinion of her writing, is hit or miss depending on the book. She's more like that annoying kid in your AP English class who doesn't always answer questions correctly, but once in a while comes up with some splendid, mind-blowing revelation about a theme or motif or something.
The Story of Us, unfortunately, was a miss.
The story revolves around Cricket, who is spending a week of summer at the beach away from her boyfriend. In addition to her struggle with their relationship, she also needs to handle her mother's marriage, her conflict with her soon-to-be stepsisters, her sick dog, her grandfather's big secret, and a new boy she meets named Ash. Clearly, this vacation is not going to be a relaxing one.
Writing wise, I felt that Caletti let it all out in this one - the syntax is convoluted and complex, and there were a myriad of extended metaphors and similes that could have been made more concise. Here's a paragraph that I marked on my Kindle:
"I let her pass. Something was sinking in my chest. We've got a special size of worry for the people we love, somewhere between a mountain range and a small planet. You could wish sometimes that you were the kind of person who didn't care. Who could see someone hurt and turn on the television or order some new shoes online, thinking only about tan or black, seven or seven and a half. But I wasn't a person like that. I guess we'd had a lot of troubles. We saw the damage on person could do to another. You got to thinking that a person could be harmed, broken, swept out to sea."
While I like the message within this quote, it could have been cut down severely. Cricket's thought process is full of tangents that lead from one thing to another, which sometimes discombobulated me and sometimes bored me. There are nuggets of wisdom hidden in Caletti's writing, but not enough of them to compensate for the tediousness of getting through it all.
I did not connect to the characters. I feel like Caletti tried too hard to make them and their actions believable - Cricket's romance with Ash felt especially artificial. Cricket's letters to Janssen acted as the ultimate "tell, not show" device and there was so much going on in the story that none of it satisfied me by the end. It was like a huge whirlwind of events. I was consumed in all of the craziness, and then when it ended, I didn't gain anything. I just felt tired, and ready to move on.
I know this review seems horribly negative, but keep in mind that it's solely my opinion. I'm sure that people who have enjoyed all of Caletti's books will at least like this one. The ending contained chunks of insight pertaining to the power of words and other major themes. Ultimately, though, I would only recommend this book to certain people, and definitely not to anyone who needs a controlled plot or deeply fleshed-out characters.
*review cross-posted on my blog, the quiet voice.
Deb Caletti's books also deal with teenage girls finding their way in the world while fixing flaws and overcoming issues. This is where the similarities between Caletti and Dessen end.
Sure, they've both written about abusive relationships (Caletti's Stay and Dessen's Dreamland, but their styles are so different. Caletti always surprises me with whatever she comes up with, and her writing, or at least my opinion of her writing, is hit or miss depending on the book. She's more like that annoying kid in your AP English class who doesn't always answer questions correctly, but once in a while comes up with some splendid, mind-blowing revelation about a theme or motif or something.
The Story of Us, unfortunately, was a miss.
The story revolves around Cricket, who is spending a week of summer at the beach away from her boyfriend. In addition to her struggle with their relationship, she also needs to handle her mother's marriage, her conflict with her soon-to-be stepsisters, her sick dog, her grandfather's big secret, and a new boy she meets named Ash. Clearly, this vacation is not going to be a relaxing one.
Writing wise, I felt that Caletti let it all out in this one - the syntax is convoluted and complex, and there were a myriad of extended metaphors and similes that could have been made more concise. Here's a paragraph that I marked on my Kindle:
"I let her pass. Something was sinking in my chest. We've got a special size of worry for the people we love, somewhere between a mountain range and a small planet. You could wish sometimes that you were the kind of person who didn't care. Who could see someone hurt and turn on the television or order some new shoes online, thinking only about tan or black, seven or seven and a half. But I wasn't a person like that. I guess we'd had a lot of troubles. We saw the damage on person could do to another. You got to thinking that a person could be harmed, broken, swept out to sea."
While I like the message within this quote, it could have been cut down severely. Cricket's thought process is full of tangents that lead from one thing to another, which sometimes discombobulated me and sometimes bored me. There are nuggets of wisdom hidden in Caletti's writing, but not enough of them to compensate for the tediousness of getting through it all.
I did not connect to the characters. I feel like Caletti tried too hard to make them and their actions believable - Cricket's romance with Ash felt especially artificial. Cricket's letters to Janssen acted as the ultimate "tell, not show" device and there was so much going on in the story that none of it satisfied me by the end. It was like a huge whirlwind of events. I was consumed in all of the craziness, and then when it ended, I didn't gain anything. I just felt tired, and ready to move on.
I know this review seems horribly negative, but keep in mind that it's solely my opinion. I'm sure that people who have enjoyed all of Caletti's books will at least like this one. The ending contained chunks of insight pertaining to the power of words and other major themes. Ultimately, though, I would only recommend this book to certain people, and definitely not to anyone who needs a controlled plot or deeply fleshed-out characters.
*review cross-posted on my blog, the quiet voice.
April 28, 2012
This isn't an objective presentation of facts. This is a tangled mess of my emotions and Caletti's beautiful story, which will stay with me for a long time.
It's a good thing then that a review is by definition an opinion, isn't it.
Caletti writes some of the best realistic young adult fiction I've ever read. Full stop. Her focus isn't on the romance--which undoubtably will disappoint some--but on those very real moments of growing up. Of figuring out who you are and who is your family. Who do you need to hold on and who do you need to let go.
Cricket's mother is getting married, again. She managed it once before, but after the divorce she's jilted at least two if not three men at the airport. Remember the airport. Those men she left before weren't very nice men, but Dan Jax is, and Cricket worries that jilting fiancés has become a habit to her mother. It helps that they're having the wedding on an island far away from any airport but then again, they're spending the week before the wedding on an island with two crazy families coming together.
So while Daisy, Cricket's and Ben's mother, is sorting out her own mess and moving on with her life, Cricket struggles to decide what to do with hers. She's graduated trying to choose a college, her long-time boyfriend is waiting for an answer, there's an intriguing new boy--a young man really--on the island, and her best friend decides this is the time to profess his undying love for her.
The now is revealed in an appealing first person past tense narrative, which if you know me is a huge deal. The past and how they got to that island is revealed in the long emails Cricket writes to her not-quite-ex-boyfriend Janssen. Because it's all in first person limited, there aren't any of those annoying point of view changes that would normally make me climb up a wall. In Stay Clara's history with Christian permeates the story like good creepy stalkers do, but here, in The Story of Us, Cricket hovers between the two, which emphasises nicely her place in life. The in between.
There's a small mystery of what exactly happened between Cricket and Janssen that has thrown them into this limbo. It isn't that difficult to figure out, but neither is your first guess probably the right one. I was in the happy place where the obvious answer crept up on me and surprised me without shocking me. This too shows that the story isn't so much about the destination than the journey there.
Last year I read Stay and loved it. It wasn't a perfect book, but it was perfect for me. And the thing that annoyed others made me only love it more:
The ending.
I didn't cry when Clara found her closure--that came before--but I did cry when Cricket found hers. The reason why it touched me so, was because it really wasn't Cricket's ending, it was Jupiter's. That dog, only eight years old, was tired and doddery, and she was saying her goodbyes all the way through this book. She was preparing her family for that last day, and I was crying my eyes out.
See, a couple of weeks ago, on April 11th, I lost my Kitty. She was 25 years old and in pain on that Easter Monday, but it took us two days to get hold of a vet. We used those two days to say our goodbyes.
Throughout this book I was having flasbacks to Kitty and everything that happened this past year. Actually, it was quicker than that, she didn't really start to show her age until before last Christmas. So, every time the stairs were mentioned, the shaky legs, the grey hair, the accidents and the shame after, I thought of Kitty.
Accepting change is never easy.
It's a good thing then that a review is by definition an opinion, isn't it.
Caletti writes some of the best realistic young adult fiction I've ever read. Full stop. Her focus isn't on the romance--which undoubtably will disappoint some--but on those very real moments of growing up. Of figuring out who you are and who is your family. Who do you need to hold on and who do you need to let go.
Cricket's mother is getting married, again. She managed it once before, but after the divorce she's jilted at least two if not three men at the airport. Remember the airport. Those men she left before weren't very nice men, but Dan Jax is, and Cricket worries that jilting fiancés has become a habit to her mother. It helps that they're having the wedding on an island far away from any airport but then again, they're spending the week before the wedding on an island with two crazy families coming together.
So while Daisy, Cricket's and Ben's mother, is sorting out her own mess and moving on with her life, Cricket struggles to decide what to do with hers. She's graduated trying to choose a college, her long-time boyfriend is waiting for an answer, there's an intriguing new boy--a young man really--on the island, and her best friend decides this is the time to profess his undying love for her.
The now is revealed in an appealing first person past tense narrative, which if you know me is a huge deal. The past and how they got to that island is revealed in the long emails Cricket writes to her not-quite-ex-boyfriend Janssen. Because it's all in first person limited, there aren't any of those annoying point of view changes that would normally make me climb up a wall. In Stay Clara's history with Christian permeates the story like good creepy stalkers do, but here, in The Story of Us, Cricket hovers between the two, which emphasises nicely her place in life. The in between.
There's a small mystery of what exactly happened between Cricket and Janssen that has thrown them into this limbo. It isn't that difficult to figure out, but neither is your first guess probably the right one. I was in the happy place where the obvious answer crept up on me and surprised me without shocking me. This too shows that the story isn't so much about the destination than the journey there.
Last year I read Stay and loved it. It wasn't a perfect book, but it was perfect for me. And the thing that annoyed others made me only love it more:
The ending.
I didn't cry when Clara found her closure--that came before--but I did cry when Cricket found hers. The reason why it touched me so, was because it really wasn't Cricket's ending, it was Jupiter's. That dog, only eight years old, was tired and doddery, and she was saying her goodbyes all the way through this book. She was preparing her family for that last day, and I was crying my eyes out.
See, a couple of weeks ago, on April 11th, I lost my Kitty. She was 25 years old and in pain on that Easter Monday, but it took us two days to get hold of a vet. We used those two days to say our goodbyes.
Throughout this book I was having flasbacks to Kitty and everything that happened this past year. Actually, it was quicker than that, she didn't really start to show her age until before last Christmas. So, every time the stairs were mentioned, the shaky legs, the grey hair, the accidents and the shame after, I thought of Kitty.
Accepting change is never easy.
July 10, 2012
Sometimes you encounter a book that you just don't know what you think about it. For me, this is one of those books. On the one hand I can understand Cricket because I am notoriously bad at making decisions. I mean seriously, I even have a hard time choosing a flavor of ice cream. But then, I don't know. For some reason I couldn't really click with this one.
Quick Overview: Cricket’s got a lot to think about. She’s on a “break” from her longtime and pretty much perfect boyfriend, Janssen, because of something really stupid that she did. Now she doesn’t know what’s going to happen with them. Let’s not forget that college decisions are looming closer and her mother is getting married. Even though she’s happy for her mother (and she will do everything possible for her mother not to flake out on this engagement, like she did the others) everything is changing and Cricket doesn’t feel ready for it.
I could understand Cricket and her having a hard time with change and making decision, but I think what kept from really getting into it was that nothing really seemed to be going anywhere. Cricket doesn’t really try to figure out what to do. She just sort of goes around in circles about it and then puts it off. It doesn’t help that you don’t know the “horrible” thing she did, so it’s hard to get what’s going on. I also didn’t really like the whole e-mailing thing between her and Janssen. You never see any of the messages from Janssen, so you know him all through the memories and information that Cricket gives you. I know it’s supposed to be a “show, don’t tell” sort of thing, but I didn’t feel like Janssen really existed as a person, just as a character. It had the exact opposite effect. And I have to bring up the dog list thing going on between them. Don’t get me wrong I love dogs, but the metaphoric list thing just didn’t have a purpose after a while. Also, I don’t know how she did it, but somehow she has Cricket make a decision…without actually making a decision, and I just don’t understand how it makes sense.
Deb Caletti is a great writer (although sometimes a bit wordy) and I really liked Stay and The Secret Life of Prince Charming. I loved how I could understand the characters even though I had no idea what they were going through. For some reason though, she couldn’t do that for me in this book. I liked the relationship Cricket had with her family and her dog Jupiter. Dogs really are so much more important than we give them credit for, and they are usually neglected in books. Caletti is also pretty awesome at creating an authentic setting and atmosphere.
So, this is 3.5 for me. I still can’t pinpoint the specific reason I didn’t love this book. Maybe it’s just the fact that going around the mental merry go round of indecision isn’t very interesting when it’s in someone else’s head. I can see someone else really falling in love with this book, but it was just missing something for me.
Quick Overview: Cricket’s got a lot to think about. She’s on a “break” from her longtime and pretty much perfect boyfriend, Janssen, because of something really stupid that she did. Now she doesn’t know what’s going to happen with them. Let’s not forget that college decisions are looming closer and her mother is getting married. Even though she’s happy for her mother (and she will do everything possible for her mother not to flake out on this engagement, like she did the others) everything is changing and Cricket doesn’t feel ready for it.
I could understand Cricket and her having a hard time with change and making decision, but I think what kept from really getting into it was that nothing really seemed to be going anywhere. Cricket doesn’t really try to figure out what to do. She just sort of goes around in circles about it and then puts it off. It doesn’t help that you don’t know the “horrible” thing she did, so it’s hard to get what’s going on. I also didn’t really like the whole e-mailing thing between her and Janssen. You never see any of the messages from Janssen, so you know him all through the memories and information that Cricket gives you. I know it’s supposed to be a “show, don’t tell” sort of thing, but I didn’t feel like Janssen really existed as a person, just as a character. It had the exact opposite effect. And I have to bring up the dog list thing going on between them. Don’t get me wrong I love dogs, but the metaphoric list thing just didn’t have a purpose after a while. Also, I don’t know how she did it, but somehow she has Cricket make a decision…without actually making a decision, and I just don’t understand how it makes sense.
Deb Caletti is a great writer (although sometimes a bit wordy) and I really liked Stay and The Secret Life of Prince Charming. I loved how I could understand the characters even though I had no idea what they were going through. For some reason though, she couldn’t do that for me in this book. I liked the relationship Cricket had with her family and her dog Jupiter. Dogs really are so much more important than we give them credit for, and they are usually neglected in books. Caletti is also pretty awesome at creating an authentic setting and atmosphere.
So, this is 3.5 for me. I still can’t pinpoint the specific reason I didn’t love this book. Maybe it’s just the fact that going around the mental merry go round of indecision isn’t very interesting when it’s in someone else’s head. I can see someone else really falling in love with this book, but it was just missing something for me.
December 27, 2012
The biggest problem with this book was that it wasn't one story so much as a series of vignettes. Everything that was important was told to us and chopped up by the letters, the biggest cause of the choppiness. So much of what Cricket was engaged in was stuff we never got to see. Jannsen was a HUGE part of this book, and yet we saw him for five seconds and Cricket's letters to him felt like 90% facts about dogs. It was disappointing, and so was her deal with Ash. For all her judginess about Gavin and Hailey, Ash was the same thing and...meh. I think had we seen more of Jannsen (I'm not sure I'm spelling his name right, but I hope so), I'd have enjoyed this book a lot more and the ending would have felt more satisfying.
Also, I love dogs. I have a blue heeler we rescued and her name is Mellie and she is currently taking up 2/3 of the 1/3 of the bed allotted to me and I'm not complaining. Because I love my dog. But this book seemed some times to go over the top with the focus on the dog. I know Deb Caletti's family recently lost their beloved pooch and I'm sure this was cathartic to write, but it detracted from the story. A dog is a member of the family, it's true, but she didn't make for a particularly good (or even existent) plot.
Overall, I was disappointed. This is one I'd like to see rewritten to take away the letters and add some plot points because the heart of the story was there, but it had nothing to pump the blood to.
Also, I love dogs. I have a blue heeler we rescued and her name is Mellie and she is currently taking up 2/3 of the 1/3 of the bed allotted to me and I'm not complaining. Because I love my dog. But this book seemed some times to go over the top with the focus on the dog. I know Deb Caletti's family recently lost their beloved pooch and I'm sure this was cathartic to write, but it detracted from the story. A dog is a member of the family, it's true, but she didn't make for a particularly good (or even existent) plot.
Overall, I was disappointed. This is one I'd like to see rewritten to take away the letters and add some plot points because the heart of the story was there, but it had nothing to pump the blood to.
May 2, 2012
The Story of Us is about a girl named Cricket and we follow the story in her point of view as she encounters many changes in her life all in the course of one week. She has graduated high school and is going to college in the fall. She’s moving from her childhood home, due to her mother’s 4th engagement to a man named Dan, and they are getting married in one week. She’s also leaving behind her longtime boyfriend, who she doesn’t want to break up with but really has no choice.
I must admit as soon as I began reading this story is bored me. I feel as if the author was trying to additionally add the situation of Cricket and her boyfriend, due to Cricket writing emails to him but it just bored me even more. I would have liked for her to have ended that relationship and maybe throw in some broken heart drama and another guy enter the scene but honestly those emails were boring me out of my mind.
All the characters are developed nicely. I liked each character and could actually relate to Cricket’s story. However, the plot just didn’t do it for me. I tried to read page by page but honestly just kept jumping paragraphs to try to get to the end.
Although, this is a story that I did not enjoy, there are great ratings on both Amazon and Goodreads of people loving this story. Please do not get discouraged by my review and not read the book. If it’s something you’re into, by all means, pick up the book!!
I must admit as soon as I began reading this story is bored me. I feel as if the author was trying to additionally add the situation of Cricket and her boyfriend, due to Cricket writing emails to him but it just bored me even more. I would have liked for her to have ended that relationship and maybe throw in some broken heart drama and another guy enter the scene but honestly those emails were boring me out of my mind.
All the characters are developed nicely. I liked each character and could actually relate to Cricket’s story. However, the plot just didn’t do it for me. I tried to read page by page but honestly just kept jumping paragraphs to try to get to the end.
Although, this is a story that I did not enjoy, there are great ratings on both Amazon and Goodreads of people loving this story. Please do not get discouraged by my review and not read the book. If it’s something you’re into, by all means, pick up the book!!
May 18, 2012
Acho que se compreende facilmente pela quantidade de quotes que o livro tem (e muitas mais que não registei) que adorei o livro! Aliás, depois de dois livros da autora, sou completamente fã. São histórias que nos ajudam a olhar para o amanhã e a ter esperança, sabem? Que nos mostra que o happily ever after não tem que acontecer para um final feliz. Esta é uma história de descoberta. Descoberta do verdadeiro eu e da verdadeira felicidade. Afinal o que é ser feliz para sempre?
May 2, 2012
Ugh, this book is terrible. The characters aside from the protagonist barely have one dimension, let alone more. She alternates being emo and mopey, and boringly annoying, while maintaining an aura of artificiality as a character. The book felt like a professional author didn’t write it. There is zero atmosphere-building. The chapters with her letters to her luv were inserted awkwardly and while it was a way to show her relationship with him, it helped slow down the pace of the book even more by being really boring. Oh, and it provides an excuse for the author to tell not show, but she does that in the rest of the book too so obviously she doesn’t need the excuse.
I barely got myself to care about anything that happened, and then it was mostly rolling my eyes at the mundane absurdity of supposed plot twists that felt like the author just picked things to happen out of a grab bag. I have lower standards for world-building for non-genre fare, since generally such books happen in places that don’t need a ton of explanation, but the book was so insular it felt like a play. Basically other characters didn’t exist unless they were in the house or in the past. I blame Sarah Dessen for being awesome and making me think that randomly picking up another standard-sounding book by a YA “realistic fiction” author would make lightning strike again. Oh, and the prose is really nothing special, at all.
Notes While Reading:
I barely got myself to care about anything that happened, and then it was mostly rolling my eyes at the mundane absurdity of supposed plot twists that felt like the author just picked things to happen out of a grab bag. I have lower standards for world-building for non-genre fare, since generally such books happen in places that don’t need a ton of explanation, but the book was so insular it felt like a play. Basically other characters didn’t exist unless they were in the house or in the past. I blame Sarah Dessen for being awesome and making me think that randomly picking up another standard-sounding book by a YA “realistic fiction” author would make lightning strike again. Oh, and the prose is really nothing special, at all.
Notes While Reading:
June 3, 2016
Quick review for a quick read. I'll admit that Deb Caletti seems to draw me into her stories because her characters always feel very vivid and draw me in whenever I pick up a book by her. "The Story of Us" was a good read, if a bit convoluted in terms of the narration. In parts it worked, in others it didn't. It's the story of Cricket (a.k.a Catherine) - a young woman who's in between a number of different relationships and weights in her life. Her mother's getting married to Dan Jax (a man who's much more supportive than Cricket's father, but Cricket worries about her mother being able to stay grounded given her previous relationships and the difficult road navigating out of them). Cricket's going to visit her new family, she's on the rocks of a relationship with her boyfriend Janssen, intrigued by a new boy (Ash), among other things. This book has a lot going on and it does feel like a weighted read in spurts. If it's anything, I liked Cricket's voice and the fact that I could very well imagine the family dynamics in this novel. It was very well drawn in terms of showcasing the character personalities - with certain moments bringing a goofy grin to my face.
Yet, I'll say that the style of the narrative - told between the present and the letters that Cricket writes to Janssen - did bug me a little as I was going along. It didn't make for as smooth of a read as I was hoping. The book does quite a bit of backtracking to show how close Janssen and Cricket were at one point and how involved he was with her family through a number of difficult situations (in addition to their love of dogs. I'll admit I knew the dog story and respective events were coming well before the ending ever did, and that saddened me.) I feel like I wish I could've known Janssen a little more considering the letters are only presented in a one-sided progression (we only read Cricket's responses, not what Janssen writes to her.) Some of them I loved for the slice of life examination of their relationship, though. Yet the main focus of those letters built up to the mistake that Cricket had been apologizing for the bulk of the narrative and explained why she'd had such a falling out with Janssen in the first place. It took a while for the reveal to come, which I understood fit with the theme of Cricket being overwhelmed by the many changes in her life - just a matter of being ready to meet them. I'm not sure why for me it didn't hit as hard for emotion as it should've, despite how I connected with parts of the narrative. Maybe that was the issue, because it was handed to me in pieces than as a whole.
I liked this book and thought it was a great coming-of-age read. I just wish the journey had been a little more smooth in its presentation for me.
Overall score: 3.5/5 stars.
Yet, I'll say that the style of the narrative - told between the present and the letters that Cricket writes to Janssen - did bug me a little as I was going along. It didn't make for as smooth of a read as I was hoping. The book does quite a bit of backtracking to show how close Janssen and Cricket were at one point and how involved he was with her family through a number of difficult situations (in addition to their love of dogs. I'll admit I knew the dog story and respective events were coming well before the ending ever did, and that saddened me.) I feel like I wish I could've known Janssen a little more considering the letters are only presented in a one-sided progression (we only read Cricket's responses, not what Janssen writes to her.) Some of them I loved for the slice of life examination of their relationship, though. Yet the main focus of those letters built up to the mistake that Cricket had been apologizing for the bulk of the narrative and explained why she'd had such a falling out with Janssen in the first place. It took a while for the reveal to come, which I understood fit with the theme of Cricket being overwhelmed by the many changes in her life - just a matter of being ready to meet them. I'm not sure why for me it didn't hit as hard for emotion as it should've, despite how I connected with parts of the narrative. Maybe that was the issue, because it was handed to me in pieces than as a whole.
I liked this book and thought it was a great coming-of-age read. I just wish the journey had been a little more smooth in its presentation for me.
Overall score: 3.5/5 stars.
will-finish-later
August 15, 2012I think there will be lots of drama in this book. Sounds good to me.
Want to read
July 27, 2011another Cricket, uh? But this' one's a girl. Me likes the name,
it'd be my third son's name, just after Milo and Rufus ;)
it'd be my third son's name, just after Milo and Rufus ;)
September 29, 2014
I probably should not have bothered to finish this. It was boring and not particularly well written. It's supposed to be YA, not Animal Planet.
August 26, 2015
I want to start out by saying that the writing itself was great. She's a great writer. She kept me reading even though I found myself hating how the story felt way too dragged out, the boy part not the wedding part. And I didn't know what the hell was going on between her and her long time boyfriend, Janssen. I still don't think I do. The book is almost over before you learn the reason for the break. It seemed like there wasn't enough interaction with the other characters to me, with the exception of her mom and her brother. Everything with anyone else felt very superficicial, like you barely scratched the surface. I like my books to cut deep, I guess. I loved the stories about Janssen and I even liked him. I think...it's hard to tell though because it's like he was never actually introduced. Like I only ever he about him from second hand conversations I overheard from another room so everything was muffled. It drove me eff-ing batty! Because I'm pretty sure I would have loved him. I liked Cricket. I got all her issues and everything she was trying to sort out. I understood the pull she felt towards Ash and liked how she handled it. But it felt like nothing ever freaking happened. Ever. And then it was over.
Ok this part might be kind of spoiler-y, so watch out.
And I don't even know what happened or what will happen. Or who she ends up with. If anyone. That last paragraph felt so God damn vague I wanted to scream and instead of trying again and figuring it out, here I am typing this. So I dunno all the emails with paragraphs about dogs (I love dogs don't get me wrong, my dog is curled up next to me right now and my husband is always saying he would be so happy if I could love him as much as I love my dog, so I get it) and then just like a few sentences about their relationship? Come on, throw me a bone! I know the dog stuff always tied into the relationship stuff but I was always left wanting more. Still am. Dammit.
Ok this part might be kind of spoiler-y, so watch out.
And I don't even know what happened or what will happen. Or who she ends up with. If anyone. That last paragraph felt so God damn vague I wanted to scream and instead of trying again and figuring it out, here I am typing this. So I dunno all the emails with paragraphs about dogs (I love dogs don't get me wrong, my dog is curled up next to me right now and my husband is always saying he would be so happy if I could love him as much as I love my dog, so I get it) and then just like a few sentences about their relationship? Come on, throw me a bone! I know the dog stuff always tied into the relationship stuff but I was always left wanting more. Still am. Dammit.
Want to read
July 10, 2011DEB CALETTI DEB CALETTI DEB CALETTI
April 24, 2012
I hated this ending. All this build-up was a let down. You could relate but no one spoke up. Geez, what a great relationship and an awful ending
August 29, 2012
I have read Sarah Dessen. And you, miss, are no Sarah Dessen.
The fact that Deb Caletti is often listed as a read-alike author for Sarah Dessen is basically the reason I picked this up. I did like the premise, too: Cricket's mom has jilted two previous husbands-to-be, both jerks, and now that she's about to marry a really good guy, Dan, Cricket is nervous that running away might have become a habit. Her family, the guy's family, and their respective dogs are spending a week (or so - I'm not sure exactly how long) at a big lodge on the beach with two wacky innkeepers . . . and the innkeepers' hot son. Who doesn't make things simpler for Cricket, who is trying to sort out her feelings about her longtime boyfriend, from whom she's currently on a break while she figures out how they'll deal with her leaving for college.
The story is told in two ways: chapters of regular narration and chapters that are supposed to be long e-mails to said boyfriend, Janssen. The former was okay, but the latter . . . can you strain anything by rolling your eyes too much or too hard? I not only didn't believe any teen would write e-mails like these (which generally took up many pages and were simultaneously too eloquent and too sappy to ring true), but was annoyed by the repetition of heavy-handed emotional revelations. Concepts like "love" are easy to idealize! We wish they were simple, but sometimes they're not! Dogs and humans have an amazing bond! Maybe we can learn a lot from them!
And okay, can we talk for a sec about how obsessed Cricket is with dogs? It's another reason I find her letters to Janssen so tiresome. She uses dog behavior as a metaphor for human behavior in every. Single. One. Usually at length. Sure, the device of them writing "dog lists" (lists of accomplishments by dogs, or facts about dogs, or whatever) back and forth is kind of cute, but it gets old, especially since we don't see Janssen's letters but the author makes Cricket bend over backward to reply to them with letters that tell the reader all the important stuff he said. Does anyone really do that in correspondence? Reiterate what the other person's last letter said? I doubt it.
Back to the emotional revelations. I do like a few of these, like when Cricket muses about apologies. When you apologize, she says, you feel like you're giving someone something, but actually, you're asking them to give you something: they're supposed to forgive you, to make you feel better about something you did wrong. I hadn't really thought of that.
And one of my favorite moments of Cricket's is when she snaps at Amy during the minigolf game. (Amy is Good Guy Dan's younger daughter by his previous marriage, age fifteen; her older sister Hailey is eighteen.) All she says is, "Jeez, Amy. Your attitude," in a mean voice, when Amy's been bitching it up for the whole book so far, so I'd say Cricket is totally justified. But then Amy crumples and starts crying. And I totally respect that Cricket feels bad only for the trouble this causes her mom and Dan, and not for the fact that a bratty-as-heck fifteen-year-old can't take being called out on her own crap. Cricket reflects that some bullies have this technique: they dish it out and dish it out, but as soon as someone even points out what they're doing, they fall into tears and magically become the victims. Kudos to Cricket for recognizing that and not putting up with it.
I'll extend the kudos to Caletti, too, for not making Amy come around. I think it's tempting sometimes to have everyone turn out nice in the end, and it can be satisfying to read when it's done right, but I can't stand it when it seems to be done just for its own sake. It doesn't feel real. There are people in the world who are just petty and mean. If you're nice to them, they're still petty and mean. If you freaking save their lives, THEY'RE STILL PETTY AND MEAN. They might grow and change a bit, but they're not going to do a 180, especially not in one book (the main part of which covers, like, a week). This is yet another thing I appreciate about the Harry Potter books: Rowling is not afraid to make Draco just be a jerk. Some people can come around, like Dudley sort of does in the end. But if all the jerks come around, well, it would be nice if real life looked like that, but it doesn't. And I think, in a way, that it's unhelpful to show a world that looks like that, because it sort of puts it on the people who are suffering from Jerky Person's attitude to get them to change: "Maybe if I were just even nicer to her/him . . ." There's a point where you just don't put up with someone's B.S., and I like it when a book isn't afraid to show that behavior.
Now, on to another issue I had, and the reason this book made me cry: Old Characters Who Are Sometimes Animals Dying to Teach Everyone Something.
If I were in publishing, I'd have a little quiz to run by the authors of books being pitched to me. It would go like this:
1. Does your book have any old characters, human or otherwise, who die? If yes, go on to 2.
2. Do these characters die in ways that could happen regardless of age (such as heroic last stands, random bombings, suicide for reason unrelated to age, etc.) or do their deaths relate directly to the fact that they are elderly? If the latter, go on to 3.
3. Do other characters, in a significant plot point, learn things, experience catharsis or closure, or find themselves brought together by these characters' deaths?
If the answer to 3 is yes, then congratulations: your book is going to have to be the most flawless, stellar, sparkling piece of impossibly perfect literature ever composed for me to consider it. Because I don't want to entirely rule out a book just because it contains this element, but I find the use of old characters' deaths as learning tools/plot devices rather offensive, not to mention predictable, and it has been done before. ALSO IT MAKES ME CRY, WHICH I HATE. When someone (especially an animal) dies in a book or movie, I cry, but I don't think, "Wow, what a moving story; I'm impressed it tapped into my emotions that way!" No. Because animal death is a cheap shot at my tear ducts. I WILL CRY. It's not an accomplishment to make me cry with animal death. It's like pushing a button that says, "Make Nic Cry." How hard is that?
I get that it's important for fiction to reflect experiences real people have to show them that these are normal and help them find ways to deal with them. However, as I say, dog death has been done. It's been done so thoroughly that even parodies of it have been done. We all know dogs die. It's one of the things that suck about real life. When you're writing fiction, though, it's not real life, and you don't have to include all the things that suck. I think having dogs still die in fiction is a bit of a wasted opportunity.
Plus, I think having older characters who then die of old age in a way that somehow benefits other characters (with a lesson about mortality, or whatever) belittles the life experiences of actual old people (and animals). They have a lot to offer besides dying! (I kind of love stories with feisty grandmas, because feisty fictional grandmas are fun and rarely die.)
I found the writing to be okay, but not as clever, concise, or well-balanced as Sarah Dessen's. Also, I'm not sure how realistic a couple of the teens' behavior is. Hailey and Amy are reeeally immature for eighteen and fifteen. Plus, Hailey shows her possessiveness re: her dad by, as soon as anyone approaches, going to hang onto his belt loops. What? To me, that doesn't say "possessive daughter" so much as "clingy creepily-young girlfriend." I was glad that, near the end, Cricket says something to her mom about Amy being fifteen, "not seven," and not acting like it, because it weirded me out that none of the book's other characters seemed to pick up on how young the two acted.
Also, there's kind of a lot of swearing in this book. Like, more than I'm used to in this kind of book. Maybe these people just aren't the same crowd as Dessen's characters, but I couldn't help but feel that Caletti threw in a lot of swear words to make her teens seem real, and it ended up making them seem immature, like they all had something to prove.
I'd like to point out, too, that Cricket declares that she hates to be judgmental, but if that's true, then gosh, she must be suffering a lot through this book, because she is all JUDGY JUDGY JUDGE I JUDGE YOU. A lot.
I may try another Caletti book, though, because I'm curious about whether she writes the same protagonist over and over with different names, as Dessen, I admit, sort of does. If not - if the other books feature people who feel really different - I might like them more.
The fact that Deb Caletti is often listed as a read-alike author for Sarah Dessen is basically the reason I picked this up. I did like the premise, too: Cricket's mom has jilted two previous husbands-to-be, both jerks, and now that she's about to marry a really good guy, Dan, Cricket is nervous that running away might have become a habit. Her family, the guy's family, and their respective dogs are spending a week (or so - I'm not sure exactly how long) at a big lodge on the beach with two wacky innkeepers . . . and the innkeepers' hot son. Who doesn't make things simpler for Cricket, who is trying to sort out her feelings about her longtime boyfriend, from whom she's currently on a break while she figures out how they'll deal with her leaving for college.
The story is told in two ways: chapters of regular narration and chapters that are supposed to be long e-mails to said boyfriend, Janssen. The former was okay, but the latter . . . can you strain anything by rolling your eyes too much or too hard? I not only didn't believe any teen would write e-mails like these (which generally took up many pages and were simultaneously too eloquent and too sappy to ring true), but was annoyed by the repetition of heavy-handed emotional revelations. Concepts like "love" are easy to idealize! We wish they were simple, but sometimes they're not! Dogs and humans have an amazing bond! Maybe we can learn a lot from them!
And okay, can we talk for a sec about how obsessed Cricket is with dogs? It's another reason I find her letters to Janssen so tiresome. She uses dog behavior as a metaphor for human behavior in every. Single. One. Usually at length. Sure, the device of them writing "dog lists" (lists of accomplishments by dogs, or facts about dogs, or whatever) back and forth is kind of cute, but it gets old, especially since we don't see Janssen's letters but the author makes Cricket bend over backward to reply to them with letters that tell the reader all the important stuff he said. Does anyone really do that in correspondence? Reiterate what the other person's last letter said? I doubt it.
Back to the emotional revelations. I do like a few of these, like when Cricket muses about apologies. When you apologize, she says, you feel like you're giving someone something, but actually, you're asking them to give you something: they're supposed to forgive you, to make you feel better about something you did wrong. I hadn't really thought of that.
And one of my favorite moments of Cricket's is when she snaps at Amy during the minigolf game. (Amy is Good Guy Dan's younger daughter by his previous marriage, age fifteen; her older sister Hailey is eighteen.) All she says is, "Jeez, Amy. Your attitude," in a mean voice, when Amy's been bitching it up for the whole book so far, so I'd say Cricket is totally justified. But then Amy crumples and starts crying. And I totally respect that Cricket feels bad only for the trouble this causes her mom and Dan, and not for the fact that a bratty-as-heck fifteen-year-old can't take being called out on her own crap. Cricket reflects that some bullies have this technique: they dish it out and dish it out, but as soon as someone even points out what they're doing, they fall into tears and magically become the victims. Kudos to Cricket for recognizing that and not putting up with it.
I'll extend the kudos to Caletti, too, for not making Amy come around. I think it's tempting sometimes to have everyone turn out nice in the end, and it can be satisfying to read when it's done right, but I can't stand it when it seems to be done just for its own sake. It doesn't feel real. There are people in the world who are just petty and mean. If you're nice to them, they're still petty and mean. If you freaking save their lives, THEY'RE STILL PETTY AND MEAN. They might grow and change a bit, but they're not going to do a 180, especially not in one book (the main part of which covers, like, a week). This is yet another thing I appreciate about the Harry Potter books: Rowling is not afraid to make Draco just be a jerk. Some people can come around, like Dudley sort of does in the end. But if all the jerks come around, well, it would be nice if real life looked like that, but it doesn't. And I think, in a way, that it's unhelpful to show a world that looks like that, because it sort of puts it on the people who are suffering from Jerky Person's attitude to get them to change: "Maybe if I were just even nicer to her/him . . ." There's a point where you just don't put up with someone's B.S., and I like it when a book isn't afraid to show that behavior.
Now, on to another issue I had, and the reason this book made me cry: Old Characters Who Are Sometimes Animals Dying to Teach Everyone Something.
If I were in publishing, I'd have a little quiz to run by the authors of books being pitched to me. It would go like this:
1. Does your book have any old characters, human or otherwise, who die? If yes, go on to 2.
2. Do these characters die in ways that could happen regardless of age (such as heroic last stands, random bombings, suicide for reason unrelated to age, etc.) or do their deaths relate directly to the fact that they are elderly? If the latter, go on to 3.
3. Do other characters, in a significant plot point, learn things, experience catharsis or closure, or find themselves brought together by these characters' deaths?
If the answer to 3 is yes, then congratulations: your book is going to have to be the most flawless, stellar, sparkling piece of impossibly perfect literature ever composed for me to consider it. Because I don't want to entirely rule out a book just because it contains this element, but I find the use of old characters' deaths as learning tools/plot devices rather offensive, not to mention predictable, and it has been done before. ALSO IT MAKES ME CRY, WHICH I HATE. When someone (especially an animal) dies in a book or movie, I cry, but I don't think, "Wow, what a moving story; I'm impressed it tapped into my emotions that way!" No. Because animal death is a cheap shot at my tear ducts. I WILL CRY. It's not an accomplishment to make me cry with animal death. It's like pushing a button that says, "Make Nic Cry." How hard is that?
I get that it's important for fiction to reflect experiences real people have to show them that these are normal and help them find ways to deal with them. However, as I say, dog death has been done. It's been done so thoroughly that even parodies of it have been done. We all know dogs die. It's one of the things that suck about real life. When you're writing fiction, though, it's not real life, and you don't have to include all the things that suck. I think having dogs still die in fiction is a bit of a wasted opportunity.
Plus, I think having older characters who then die of old age in a way that somehow benefits other characters (with a lesson about mortality, or whatever) belittles the life experiences of actual old people (and animals). They have a lot to offer besides dying! (I kind of love stories with feisty grandmas, because feisty fictional grandmas are fun and rarely die.)
I found the writing to be okay, but not as clever, concise, or well-balanced as Sarah Dessen's. Also, I'm not sure how realistic a couple of the teens' behavior is. Hailey and Amy are reeeally immature for eighteen and fifteen. Plus, Hailey shows her possessiveness re: her dad by, as soon as anyone approaches, going to hang onto his belt loops. What? To me, that doesn't say "possessive daughter" so much as "clingy creepily-young girlfriend." I was glad that, near the end, Cricket says something to her mom about Amy being fifteen, "not seven," and not acting like it, because it weirded me out that none of the book's other characters seemed to pick up on how young the two acted.
Also, there's kind of a lot of swearing in this book. Like, more than I'm used to in this kind of book. Maybe these people just aren't the same crowd as Dessen's characters, but I couldn't help but feel that Caletti threw in a lot of swear words to make her teens seem real, and it ended up making them seem immature, like they all had something to prove.
I'd like to point out, too, that Cricket declares that she hates to be judgmental, but if that's true, then gosh, she must be suffering a lot through this book, because she is all JUDGY JUDGY JUDGE I JUDGE YOU. A lot.
I may try another Caletti book, though, because I'm curious about whether she writes the same protagonist over and over with different names, as Dessen, I admit, sort of does. If not - if the other books feature people who feel really different - I might like them more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 4, 2018
So this book was given to me by a friend, and I was expecting a nice, light contemporary read. And it definitely was a light read! It was great to be reading while I was reading other intense books.
BUT this book ended up being only about a 2.5-3 stars for me. I'm a little iffy on the exact rating.
There were some great things about this book:
1. I loved the letters that Cricket was writing to Janssen - especially all the lists about why dogs are amazing animals! It was a nice way to have almost like a break between some chapters where a lot was happening. And it gave the reader more insight into what was happening/ the relationship between these characters.
2. I love that it was centered around a wedding, and the majority of the people were just super real. The crazy grandparents, the friends showing up, the dogs not getting along, so many things going wrong around the wedding. And I also liked that it was a wedding for a blending of families.
3. There was one character I loved - Ben. He is just a great character and portrayed as such an amazing brother. Often he was my comedic relief throughout the book.
Okay, so I definitely liked some things and did enjoy reading the book, but there were a few things that bothered me.
1. The name Cricket. I know that it's her nickname, but for some reason, it just bugged me...
2. So it wasn't a big thing, but it happened a lot at the beginning of the book and really annoyed me. The main character continually referred to people by both their first and last name. Sometimes within two or even the same sentence. I was getting really frustrated, because I knew who they were by then! You don't need to add their last name every time!
3. FOR ME, the ending was unsatisfactory. I say it this way because I know some people will love the ending, and that's totally great! But I am not a fan of open endings as it is, and after waiting the entire book to figure out this relationship between Cricket and Janssen, beginning to understand and like some of the characters, and being introduced to new characters, the ending just majorly fell flat for me. I get it, it wasn't about the "love story" (there really wasn't one) - but I thought maybe SOMETHING would be a bit more wrapped up...
I definitely didn't dislike the book - I enjoyed reading it! I just found that it lacked something for me.
BUT this book ended up being only about a 2.5-3 stars for me. I'm a little iffy on the exact rating.
There were some great things about this book:
1. I loved the letters that Cricket was writing to Janssen - especially all the lists about why dogs are amazing animals! It was a nice way to have almost like a break between some chapters where a lot was happening. And it gave the reader more insight into what was happening/ the relationship between these characters.
2. I love that it was centered around a wedding, and the majority of the people were just super real. The crazy grandparents, the friends showing up, the dogs not getting along, so many things going wrong around the wedding. And I also liked that it was a wedding for a blending of families.
3. There was one character I loved - Ben. He is just a great character and portrayed as such an amazing brother. Often he was my comedic relief throughout the book.
Okay, so I definitely liked some things and did enjoy reading the book, but there were a few things that bothered me.
1. The name Cricket. I know that it's her nickname, but for some reason, it just bugged me...
2. So it wasn't a big thing, but it happened a lot at the beginning of the book and really annoyed me. The main character continually referred to people by both their first and last name. Sometimes within two or even the same sentence. I was getting really frustrated, because I knew who they were by then! You don't need to add their last name every time!
3. FOR ME, the ending was unsatisfactory. I say it this way because I know some people will love the ending, and that's totally great! But I am not a fan of open endings as it is, and after waiting the entire book to figure out this relationship between Cricket and Janssen, beginning to understand and like some of the characters, and being introduced to new characters, the ending just majorly fell flat for me. I get it, it wasn't about the "love story" (there really wasn't one) - but I thought maybe SOMETHING would be a bit more wrapped up...
I definitely didn't dislike the book - I enjoyed reading it! I just found that it lacked something for me.
June 4, 2012
This story is constructed in an interesting way. We meet Cricket's family--her, her brother Ben, and their mother--in the present as they are all packing up to go to the beach where their mother is marrying Dan Jax, or so Cricket and Ben hope, since their mother has a habit of leaving her fiances hanging the closer the wedding comes. However, all of our exposition about the characters' histories is given to us through letters Cricket writes to her ex-ish-boyfriend and her brother's best friend, Janssen. That is the titular "story of us," the one between Cricket and Janssen, who are stuck between being broken up and still being together because of something Cricket did that broke his heart (though mostly these letters contain stories about Cricket's dog, Jupiter, and things about dogs in general which even as a dog lover, I felt kept giving way too much metaphor to the story). We don't get any clear hints as to what Cricket did to Janseen, and we don't learn what happened until very late in the book. What happened is: . So, basically, half the book is present-day and the other half is the past, given to us in a very telling way and only through Cricket's perspective (something that bothered me and I'll mention why later). We meet a lot of interesting characters from Cricket's grandmother and aunt, who are boisterous and outgoing, to Dan's two daughters from his previous marriage, only one of whom strays out of the stereotypical step-sibling unwilling to part with the idea that her father isn't getting back together with her mother. So, at times, it's hard to pinpoint what exactly the major story is here. Is it Cricket and Janssen's story? Is it Cricket and her dog, Jupiter's story? Is it her family's story?
For not being completely sold on the story, I did like Cricket, probably because (parental and boyfriend issues aside) I went through what Cricket is going through post-high school graduation. I was undecided between two colleges, didn't like the idea of up and changing what my life had been like for eighteen years, and felt too worried about hurting people that I didn't want to make a decision at all. Oh, and I also had the great metaphor in that, very much like Cricket's family, . And that's the swiftest punch to the gut slash growing up wake-up call in the world, in my opinion. So, I understood what Cricket was going through, and I'm not sure if I'd act any differently in her situation. The relationships we see are very well developed, too. I loved the interaction among Cricket's family, especially the strong bond she has with Ben and her mother. They're a unit and reading about them, I actually did feel like they were a real family who survived all these ups and downs and managed to pull through it together. All of the secondary characters, too, are very well written and fleshed out for the most part, each with their own stories that managed to be addressed but not bog down Cricket's story as the main character. I enjoyed reading about these people, found all the disasters and triumphs to be fitting, and felt that the family story really has heart throughout.
My major problem with the story was that, for as much focus as his and Cricket's relationship is in her past and still in her present, as she's trying to figure out if she wants to hold onto their relationship or let him go, we never even meet the guy in the present. I wanted to care about their history, wanted to be invested in the choice Cricket had to make about whether they were going to continue their relationship, but it was hard to be engaged when you only know half the party. In fact, there were a couple times where I wondered if Janssen was even real, but since he's also Ben's best friend, I figured he had to be. We get all these letters Cricket writes to him, and toward the end of each letter, after she writes to him about another memory they've shared, she'll mention things that hint at what his letters to her have talked about, but that's it. We never see them interact other than through flashbacks and one seen at the end where he still says nothing and then is gone again by the next couple paragraphs. And since we weren't seeing him, I expected a lot more development in Ash and Cricket's relationship over the week. I was rooting for Ash by default since we actually met him and got to see their chemistry firsthand, but I felt that even their relationship (for as well written as I think it was) left more to be desired that we don't get. It almost happens in flashes, and then it's over. The ending also was slightly dissatisfying.
The writing is the best part of the novel, in my opinion. It has the right sense of nostalgia to the tone and we get some really pretty writing and quotes without it becoming too over-the-top and metaphorical (all the dog references aside). I've read a few of Deb Caletti's books and, while The Story of Us isn't my favorite of her works, I don't regret having read the story and do think that it's a nice read, especially if you love YA books with strong family relationships. I just wish their had been a little more closure when it comes to the romantic relationships Cricket has in the book and a little more present-day interaction with Janssen than just flashbacks.
For not being completely sold on the story, I did like Cricket, probably because (parental and boyfriend issues aside) I went through what Cricket is going through post-high school graduation. I was undecided between two colleges, didn't like the idea of up and changing what my life had been like for eighteen years, and felt too worried about hurting people that I didn't want to make a decision at all. Oh, and I also had the great metaphor in that, very much like Cricket's family, . And that's the swiftest punch to the gut slash growing up wake-up call in the world, in my opinion. So, I understood what Cricket was going through, and I'm not sure if I'd act any differently in her situation. The relationships we see are very well developed, too. I loved the interaction among Cricket's family, especially the strong bond she has with Ben and her mother. They're a unit and reading about them, I actually did feel like they were a real family who survived all these ups and downs and managed to pull through it together. All of the secondary characters, too, are very well written and fleshed out for the most part, each with their own stories that managed to be addressed but not bog down Cricket's story as the main character. I enjoyed reading about these people, found all the disasters and triumphs to be fitting, and felt that the family story really has heart throughout.
My major problem with the story was that, for as much focus as his and Cricket's relationship is in her past and still in her present, as she's trying to figure out if she wants to hold onto their relationship or let him go, we never even meet the guy in the present. I wanted to care about their history, wanted to be invested in the choice Cricket had to make about whether they were going to continue their relationship, but it was hard to be engaged when you only know half the party. In fact, there were a couple times where I wondered if Janssen was even real, but since he's also Ben's best friend, I figured he had to be. We get all these letters Cricket writes to him, and toward the end of each letter, after she writes to him about another memory they've shared, she'll mention things that hint at what his letters to her have talked about, but that's it. We never see them interact other than through flashbacks and one seen at the end where he still says nothing and then is gone again by the next couple paragraphs. And since we weren't seeing him, I expected a lot more development in Ash and Cricket's relationship over the week. I was rooting for Ash by default since we actually met him and got to see their chemistry firsthand, but I felt that even their relationship (for as well written as I think it was) left more to be desired that we don't get. It almost happens in flashes, and then it's over. The ending also was slightly dissatisfying.
The writing is the best part of the novel, in my opinion. It has the right sense of nostalgia to the tone and we get some really pretty writing and quotes without it becoming too over-the-top and metaphorical (all the dog references aside). I've read a few of Deb Caletti's books and, while The Story of Us isn't my favorite of her works, I don't regret having read the story and do think that it's a nice read, especially if you love YA books with strong family relationships. I just wish their had been a little more closure when it comes to the romantic relationships Cricket has in the book and a little more present-day interaction with Janssen than just flashbacks.
March 22, 2012
Review Courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales
Quick & Dirty: The Story of Us feels very personal, yet puts into words many things that people think about, but rarely voice.
Opening Sentence: I found out something a out myself as all those boxes piled up: I hate change.
The Review:
The novel starts out with Cricket, who just graduated high school, moving away from her childhood home since her mother was remarrying. Cricket’s whole life seems to be changing since she is moving, starting the next chapter of her life after high school, gaining family members, and also going through a break up with her boyfriend Janssen. Her complicated situation speaks to many people since almost everyone has gone through at least one of these issues, if not all of them.
The novel is set from Cricket’s point of view as she endures the week before the wedding with fighting family members, and more drama than one family needs. Emails to Janssen are dispersed throughout the novel, but we never see his responses. In the emails, Cricket often recounts memories about when she and Janssen first meet up to the present. It was an interesting insight, almost like being confided in by a close friend. I felt like I knew Cricket. I had all of those same fears and feelings before, so I could relate. Also in the emails are lists about dogs, which I thought was a strong tie to the rest of the book because so much can be said about dogs, humans, and the relationships we have.
In the week before the wedding, all of the family convenes at a neutral location set on the beach where all sorts of chaos ensues. Cricket’s step-sisters-to-be will have nothing to do with her family. Her divorced grandparents bicker at each other. The hostess keeps sneaking away to smoke pot. Not to mention that Cricket is attracted to the host’s son, Ash, which confuses her even more about her situation with Janssen. There is a lot of tension in this book, but it really captures the true interactions of families, and people, coming together.
All of the characters, even the ones we don’t see like Janssen, are very well rounded. I felt like I could walk into the house from the book, and know who everyone was. Each character was different, but they all worked together in a way that felt real. The interactions had just the right amount of embarrassment and elation that I could definitely relate. That is one thing I could not stress enough is how real this book felt through the way characters acted and interacted with each other. This could be any family. The specific memories made it theirs, but the human interaction that came out through the novel could belong to anyone.
Cricket is going through a difficult time, but she handles it well. I was interested to know how everything would turn out, not to mention learning more about Cricket’s past, and the ending did not disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and would recommend it for anyone who enjoys thinking about how we communicate and interact with others, and what it means to grow up.
Notable Scene:
You know, Janssen, aside from the angel costume, I realize how much our dogs have patience with us. They put up with almost anything. We sing bad, stupid songs to them. We make them dance with us. Sometimes we’re really not nice, calling them names, or being short with them and hurting their feelings. We ignore them. A whole day goes by sometimes, and I remember I’ve hardly paid any attention to Jupiter at all, like she was a piece of furniture. But then I look and see that she’s still there, alive and breathing and standing by, with her watchful, loving eyes.
But it goes both ways, because they get into the garbage, they eat your good underwear, and you’ve got to pick up their crap, but you’re still crazy about them. They mope around sometimes, looking like you’re not giving them something they deeply desire, but you don’t think, “Jesus, she’s moody! I’m outta here!” They lie where it’s most inconvenient, and we just step over them. I guess it’s a different relationship. When someone has to turn three circles before lying down, maybe you feel they really need looking after. But I’m sure they look at what we do and think the same thing.
We hurt each other, is the point. Hurt, annoy, embarrass, but move on. People, it just doesn’t work that way. Your own feelings get so complicated that you forget the ways another human being can be vulnerable. You spend a lot of energy protecting yourself. All those layers and motivations and feelings. You get hurt, you stay hurt sometimes. The hurt affects your ability to go forward. And words. All the words between us. Words can be permanent. Certain ones are impossible to forgive.
We don’t have long, intense conversations with our dogs either (except those one-sided ones), so you don’t get distracted by who said what. No one says things they permanently regret. It makes forgiveness pretty easy to hand over. You focus on the fact that the next day comes and there you are, still loving each other. They are a good friend to you, and you try to be a good friend back. They look after you and care for you, and you look after them and care for them. It’s so simple. Pure. That’s what’s so great. That’s what you treasure. You’ll never get that anywhere else. It’s a unique, wordless friendship.
FTC Advisory: Simon & Schuster provided me with a copy of The Story of Us. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
Quick & Dirty: The Story of Us feels very personal, yet puts into words many things that people think about, but rarely voice.
Opening Sentence: I found out something a out myself as all those boxes piled up: I hate change.
The Review:
The novel starts out with Cricket, who just graduated high school, moving away from her childhood home since her mother was remarrying. Cricket’s whole life seems to be changing since she is moving, starting the next chapter of her life after high school, gaining family members, and also going through a break up with her boyfriend Janssen. Her complicated situation speaks to many people since almost everyone has gone through at least one of these issues, if not all of them.
The novel is set from Cricket’s point of view as she endures the week before the wedding with fighting family members, and more drama than one family needs. Emails to Janssen are dispersed throughout the novel, but we never see his responses. In the emails, Cricket often recounts memories about when she and Janssen first meet up to the present. It was an interesting insight, almost like being confided in by a close friend. I felt like I knew Cricket. I had all of those same fears and feelings before, so I could relate. Also in the emails are lists about dogs, which I thought was a strong tie to the rest of the book because so much can be said about dogs, humans, and the relationships we have.
In the week before the wedding, all of the family convenes at a neutral location set on the beach where all sorts of chaos ensues. Cricket’s step-sisters-to-be will have nothing to do with her family. Her divorced grandparents bicker at each other. The hostess keeps sneaking away to smoke pot. Not to mention that Cricket is attracted to the host’s son, Ash, which confuses her even more about her situation with Janssen. There is a lot of tension in this book, but it really captures the true interactions of families, and people, coming together.
All of the characters, even the ones we don’t see like Janssen, are very well rounded. I felt like I could walk into the house from the book, and know who everyone was. Each character was different, but they all worked together in a way that felt real. The interactions had just the right amount of embarrassment and elation that I could definitely relate. That is one thing I could not stress enough is how real this book felt through the way characters acted and interacted with each other. This could be any family. The specific memories made it theirs, but the human interaction that came out through the novel could belong to anyone.
Cricket is going through a difficult time, but she handles it well. I was interested to know how everything would turn out, not to mention learning more about Cricket’s past, and the ending did not disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and would recommend it for anyone who enjoys thinking about how we communicate and interact with others, and what it means to grow up.
Notable Scene:
You know, Janssen, aside from the angel costume, I realize how much our dogs have patience with us. They put up with almost anything. We sing bad, stupid songs to them. We make them dance with us. Sometimes we’re really not nice, calling them names, or being short with them and hurting their feelings. We ignore them. A whole day goes by sometimes, and I remember I’ve hardly paid any attention to Jupiter at all, like she was a piece of furniture. But then I look and see that she’s still there, alive and breathing and standing by, with her watchful, loving eyes.
But it goes both ways, because they get into the garbage, they eat your good underwear, and you’ve got to pick up their crap, but you’re still crazy about them. They mope around sometimes, looking like you’re not giving them something they deeply desire, but you don’t think, “Jesus, she’s moody! I’m outta here!” They lie where it’s most inconvenient, and we just step over them. I guess it’s a different relationship. When someone has to turn three circles before lying down, maybe you feel they really need looking after. But I’m sure they look at what we do and think the same thing.
We hurt each other, is the point. Hurt, annoy, embarrass, but move on. People, it just doesn’t work that way. Your own feelings get so complicated that you forget the ways another human being can be vulnerable. You spend a lot of energy protecting yourself. All those layers and motivations and feelings. You get hurt, you stay hurt sometimes. The hurt affects your ability to go forward. And words. All the words between us. Words can be permanent. Certain ones are impossible to forgive.
We don’t have long, intense conversations with our dogs either (except those one-sided ones), so you don’t get distracted by who said what. No one says things they permanently regret. It makes forgiveness pretty easy to hand over. You focus on the fact that the next day comes and there you are, still loving each other. They are a good friend to you, and you try to be a good friend back. They look after you and care for you, and you look after them and care for them. It’s so simple. Pure. That’s what’s so great. That’s what you treasure. You’ll never get that anywhere else. It’s a unique, wordless friendship.
FTC Advisory: Simon & Schuster provided me with a copy of The Story of Us. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
June 18, 2012
After enjoying the powerful Stay, I eagerly picked up this latest release from Caletti, anticipating another great story (and hearing Taylor Swift in my head; I love this song!) Would this "look (sic) a lot like a tragedy now"?
Well, sad to say this was most definitely not to my taste for many reasons. The premise I expected was a character narrating the romance and break-up with a guy. That's part of it with main character Cricket tracing her relationship with Janssen up to and past the awful thing she did to him (this is not revealed until toward the end so I will not share it here). The story as a whole ended up being more expansive, including her family's history and their moving on to create a new family as her mother prepares to marry a really good guy. The story takes place over a few days at the beach house where people gather. I didn't have a problem with that. I had a problem with other parts.
First I had the hardest time with the characters. There were a lot of them introduced as people gathered for a wedding and while I could keep track of their relationships, sometimes their specific personality quirks eluded me and I confused two people. Furthermore there are a lot of references to the past to trace how the characters reached the present. This was usually clearly marked and I've often liked the mingling of past and present in a story but I did not like that method for this one. I think I found it more distancing because of Cricket's voice.
Then there was my uncertainty about what Cricket did that was so awful to her boyfriend. I figured she had cheated...or come very close. Nope, nothing that bad, in my opinion. I think it was perfectly understandable for their situation in life. Furthermore while Cricket thought about this, she became upset that he was friendly with another girl. Meanwhile Cricket was cozying up to another guy! Hypocrite and another reason I was unable to bond with this girl.
I also really didn't like that we saw the letters Cricket sent to her boyfriend, who was presumably responding but whose responses are not shown. This felt very one-sided to me. I think I might have been more interested in this book if it had been alternating Cricket/Janssen chapters to tell the story of them from the beginning to the end.
Lastly there is a lot of talk about dogs. Now I am a cat-person (remind me to show you pictures of my cat some time) but I still like dogs. Or at least I thought I did. I was a little tired of how they were used in this story to prove some kind of point, I think. I didn't really get it. I mean, I understand the relationship between human and pet and I value mine but it was too much.
Overall: I feel like this is definitely not up to the standard set by Caletti with the masterful Stay; it was abstruse and emotionally distancing. While I wish I could recommend this contemporary, it did not work for me.
Cover: Is appropriate as the setting is near a beach and I love the pinks on the side and the book itself.
Well, sad to say this was most definitely not to my taste for many reasons. The premise I expected was a character narrating the romance and break-up with a guy. That's part of it with main character Cricket tracing her relationship with Janssen up to and past the awful thing she did to him (this is not revealed until toward the end so I will not share it here). The story as a whole ended up being more expansive, including her family's history and their moving on to create a new family as her mother prepares to marry a really good guy. The story takes place over a few days at the beach house where people gather. I didn't have a problem with that. I had a problem with other parts.
First I had the hardest time with the characters. There were a lot of them introduced as people gathered for a wedding and while I could keep track of their relationships, sometimes their specific personality quirks eluded me and I confused two people. Furthermore there are a lot of references to the past to trace how the characters reached the present. This was usually clearly marked and I've often liked the mingling of past and present in a story but I did not like that method for this one. I think I found it more distancing because of Cricket's voice.
Then there was my uncertainty about what Cricket did that was so awful to her boyfriend. I figured she had cheated...or come very close. Nope, nothing that bad, in my opinion. I think it was perfectly understandable for their situation in life. Furthermore while Cricket thought about this, she became upset that he was friendly with another girl. Meanwhile Cricket was cozying up to another guy! Hypocrite and another reason I was unable to bond with this girl.
I also really didn't like that we saw the letters Cricket sent to her boyfriend, who was presumably responding but whose responses are not shown. This felt very one-sided to me. I think I might have been more interested in this book if it had been alternating Cricket/Janssen chapters to tell the story of them from the beginning to the end.
Lastly there is a lot of talk about dogs. Now I am a cat-person (remind me to show you pictures of my cat some time) but I still like dogs. Or at least I thought I did. I was a little tired of how they were used in this story to prove some kind of point, I think. I didn't really get it. I mean, I understand the relationship between human and pet and I value mine but it was too much.
Overall: I feel like this is definitely not up to the standard set by Caletti with the masterful Stay; it was abstruse and emotionally distancing. While I wish I could recommend this contemporary, it did not work for me.
Cover: Is appropriate as the setting is near a beach and I love the pinks on the side and the book itself.
June 23, 2012
I had to find a secluded place to finish reading this one because I was bawling my eyes out. I really, really loved this book. It may have just been the main character's personality that rang true to me, but I also think it was just a really well thought out book with great characters who had flaws but were imperfectly perfect just the same. I also thought that Cricket's personality traits were basically who I was as a teen (and who I still am in many ways). There were countless times she said or thought something and I knew EXACTLY what she meant. The story all happens within about a week but it is definitely the story of Cricket, of her and her first love Janssen, and of her and her family in the form of correspondence between Cricket and Janssen. Cricket has graduated high school and as if this isn't enough change, her mom is getting re-married (to a great guy for a change), her family is moving, and her long time best friend and boyfriend and her are on a break. For a long time it was just Cricket, her mom, her older brother Ben and their dog Jupiter. So even leaving their home and moving is pretty hard on Cricket. Then they go to a beach house where the wedding of her mom and her mom's fiance Dan takes place. Dan has two daughters from his previous marriage, and they aren't exactly receptive to the new blended family. On top of that, there are several relatives that come in for the wedding and Cricket is worried that all the hullabaloo will affect her mom's decision to go through with the wedding because she has already left a couple of beaus at the airport and so has a runaway-bride reputation. Cricket and Janssen had some sort of falling out and now Cricket is stuck in limbo as to where their relationship will go. She has done something that she is sorry for, but their love is strong, built on years of friendship (Janssen is also Ben's best friend) and a connection that is undeniable. Much of the book also speaks to the connections between dogs and humans, which I loved. Jupiter the dog is getting on in age and she has a big long history with Cricket and her family. She has personality and she teaches a lot of life lessons to Cricket and to Janssen in the process of just being Jupiter the dog. I highly recommend this book to teen readers and adult readers who enjoy the teen books because it succeeds in painting a picture that you can visualize and in pulling at heartstrings and connecting with the ordinary and not-so ordinary of all the ups and downs of life. The best Caletti I've read so far.
May 9, 2012
I wish I could rate this higher, but I can't. I really looked forward to this since "Stay" came out, which was the BEST Caletti book. I felt like this really took a step backward towards formula and cliche.
** Spoilers from here on out ... ***
I think there was just too much going on. A mom, dad, a new step-dad, brother, aunts and an uncle, a toddler, two former almost-step dads, new step sisters, 3 friends, grandparents, a random Asian dude, great aunts, a few dogs, a hot new love interest, the old, steady boyfriend, the crazy hippies....GAH! It was hectic and crazy.
I think that's what she was going for, as this was a weekend Cricket's mom was getting married to an awesome guy. They're all thrown together at a B&B on the Washington Coast. Moving, a new marriage, new family, the 'end of an era' so to speak...it was foreshadowing.
Lots of flashback and back story because this is, The Story of Us. Cricket spends the whole book thinking back to her life with her family, and how it changed when their neighbor Janssen becomes her brother's best friend and her savior/boyfriend. I actually liked her journal scenes when she was writing to Janssen, but it was a whole lot of telling, not showing.
She's taking a break from Janssen, and the whole book we're told she 'did' something to cause the mini break-up, but never told what it was. She feels terrible, and you can tell she wants to mend the fence and rebuild the bridge and get back together with him.
This is resolved, on one of the last few pages, and it's given 1/2 of a page. I was like, "Yes!"...then I was like, "What?!?"
Caletti uses one of the dogs in the story, Jupiter, as a metaphor for life. I can see why she did it, and the dog's **major spoiler **
The wedding week is just too crazy to sum up ... I don't know.
Well, if you like all the other Deb Caletti books, you'll still like this one. I made the mistake of reading her best one first, and just slowly going downhill from there.
** Spoilers from here on out ... ***
I think there was just too much going on. A mom, dad, a new step-dad, brother, aunts and an uncle, a toddler, two former almost-step dads, new step sisters, 3 friends, grandparents, a random Asian dude, great aunts, a few dogs, a hot new love interest, the old, steady boyfriend, the crazy hippies....GAH! It was hectic and crazy.
I think that's what she was going for, as this was a weekend Cricket's mom was getting married to an awesome guy. They're all thrown together at a B&B on the Washington Coast. Moving, a new marriage, new family, the 'end of an era' so to speak...it was foreshadowing.
Lots of flashback and back story because this is, The Story of Us. Cricket spends the whole book thinking back to her life with her family, and how it changed when their neighbor Janssen becomes her brother's best friend and her savior/boyfriend. I actually liked her journal scenes when she was writing to Janssen, but it was a whole lot of telling, not showing.
She's taking a break from Janssen, and the whole book we're told she 'did' something to cause the mini break-up, but never told what it was. She feels terrible, and you can tell she wants to mend the fence and rebuild the bridge and get back together with him.
This is resolved, on one of the last few pages, and it's given 1/2 of a page. I was like, "Yes!"...then I was like, "What?!?"
Caletti uses one of the dogs in the story, Jupiter, as a metaphor for life. I can see why she did it, and the dog's **major spoiler **
The wedding week is just too crazy to sum up ... I don't know.
Well, if you like all the other Deb Caletti books, you'll still like this one. I made the mistake of reading her best one first, and just slowly going downhill from there.
December 5, 2012
Deb Caletti. I don’t know how she does it, but it’s like she can read my mind. I swear, she knows exactly how I feel, and then takes all those jumbled, mixed-up emotions, sorts them out, and turns them into something insightful and beautiful. And that’s what I always come away with from Caletti’s books—insight. Insight into my own life and into life in general. Her books are wonderful that way.
I actually didn’t know the plot of The Story of Us before I started reading it. I’m at that point where I pick up Caletti’s books without needing to know what they’re about. And she came through this time too. I think The Story of Us is her best book so far. It has this perfect blend of humor and serious issues, love and conflict, permanence and change. It’s just an all-around solid book.
And you know what surprised me about this book? That it wasn’t a swoony falling-in-love story but I liked it even more because of it. Romance is pretty much a requirement in a book if I’m going to like it, and there is romance in this story—it’s just not that butterflies-in-the-stomach, first love kind of romance. After all, Cricket and Janssen have been together for years, and Janssen isn’t even in the book except for one page at the end. It’s a deeper and more subtle romance as Cricket tries to sort out what she wants out of their relationship and out of the future. And can I just say, JANSSEN. That boy. He doesn’t even have to be in the story for more than the one page he is for it to be obvious that he’s everything that’s kind and good. Seriously, I’ll take him if Cricket doesn’t. And that hottie Ash isn’t too shabby either.
And I loved Cricket’s family. They’re funny and quirky without taking it too far and becoming caricatures. They feel real, and as I read along I felt more and more like I was part of their family—that I really knew them. How does that even happen? Talented authors, that’s how, I guess.
Overall, a solid contemporary YA. It’s a little on the slower and more reflective side, but I never felt like the story dragged at all. If you’ve read any of Caletti’s books before, you won’t be disappointed, and if you haven’t read them, I think this is a good place to start.
Book Light Graveyard
I actually didn’t know the plot of The Story of Us before I started reading it. I’m at that point where I pick up Caletti’s books without needing to know what they’re about. And she came through this time too. I think The Story of Us is her best book so far. It has this perfect blend of humor and serious issues, love and conflict, permanence and change. It’s just an all-around solid book.
And you know what surprised me about this book? That it wasn’t a swoony falling-in-love story but I liked it even more because of it. Romance is pretty much a requirement in a book if I’m going to like it, and there is romance in this story—it’s just not that butterflies-in-the-stomach, first love kind of romance. After all, Cricket and Janssen have been together for years, and Janssen isn’t even in the book except for one page at the end. It’s a deeper and more subtle romance as Cricket tries to sort out what she wants out of their relationship and out of the future. And can I just say, JANSSEN. That boy. He doesn’t even have to be in the story for more than the one page he is for it to be obvious that he’s everything that’s kind and good. Seriously, I’ll take him if Cricket doesn’t. And that hottie Ash isn’t too shabby either.
And I loved Cricket’s family. They’re funny and quirky without taking it too far and becoming caricatures. They feel real, and as I read along I felt more and more like I was part of their family—that I really knew them. How does that even happen? Talented authors, that’s how, I guess.
Overall, a solid contemporary YA. It’s a little on the slower and more reflective side, but I never felt like the story dragged at all. If you’ve read any of Caletti’s books before, you won’t be disappointed, and if you haven’t read them, I think this is a good place to start.
Book Light Graveyard
July 14, 2014
I love me a good love story. But this story I felt hard to connect too. I couldn’t quite grasp Cricket or her way of thinking.
Plot: This is about a girl named Cricket who is trying to figure out what love is. She is unsure what love is or unsure if she could love someone. Being hurt in her past, Cricket thinks a lot. I think sometimes too much. Like she over analyzes things instead of taking it for what it is. She finds it hard to trust and well, it forces her to run away. The plot has a lot of things going on. There is the impending wedding, her family moving, dealing with new step-siblings, and of course, Cricket thinking of her first love.
Love/Friendship: The main reason I had such a hard time liking Cricket is that, she couldn’t see what was right in her face. Like, she saw it, but she couldn’t believe it. So she question it. Even though the reader doesn’t get a perfect picture of her first love, by the way she describes him you can tell that this guy loves her. He was there for her in a way that no one wasn’t. And then there is Asher. I really felt like this guy was just a filler. He was there at the right time and right place. Is he for Cricket? I don’t think so, but Cricket does. I really dislike her bouncing of feelings going on here.
Ending: The ending I was disappointed in. I was hoping that Cricket would make a decisions but she just left things weird. She wrote lots of letters to her first love yet she was with the other guy. I just don’t get it.
Overall, this book is okay. I think I would have enjoyed the book a bit more had I been able to make a better emotional connection to Cricket. I felt like her actions weren’t really justified to anything else. I just couldn’t understand her.
Plot: This is about a girl named Cricket who is trying to figure out what love is. She is unsure what love is or unsure if she could love someone. Being hurt in her past, Cricket thinks a lot. I think sometimes too much. Like she over analyzes things instead of taking it for what it is. She finds it hard to trust and well, it forces her to run away. The plot has a lot of things going on. There is the impending wedding, her family moving, dealing with new step-siblings, and of course, Cricket thinking of her first love.
Love/Friendship: The main reason I had such a hard time liking Cricket is that, she couldn’t see what was right in her face. Like, she saw it, but she couldn’t believe it. So she question it. Even though the reader doesn’t get a perfect picture of her first love, by the way she describes him you can tell that this guy loves her. He was there for her in a way that no one wasn’t. And then there is Asher. I really felt like this guy was just a filler. He was there at the right time and right place. Is he for Cricket? I don’t think so, but Cricket does. I really dislike her bouncing of feelings going on here.
Ending: The ending I was disappointed in. I was hoping that Cricket would make a decisions but she just left things weird. She wrote lots of letters to her first love yet she was with the other guy. I just don’t get it.
Overall, this book is okay. I think I would have enjoyed the book a bit more had I been able to make a better emotional connection to Cricket. I felt like her actions weren’t really justified to anything else. I just couldn’t understand her.
Read
December 31, 2012I had to skim through a lot of the dog stuff because I just can't handle it. My older dog is in great health, but is in double digits age-wise,so I've become even more sensitive to stories involving aging pets. About 90 pages in I had to set this down and hug my Saoirse Dog for a good ten minutes. I will say that unlike the vast majority of YA novels that include a pet, this is in no way manipulative nor a plot device to simply illicit an emotional reaction. It's real and very sensitively handled. I was surprised by the reason for the rift between the narrator and her boyfriend (it's revealed late in the book) and the family issues aren't as neat and tidy as I'm used to reading in YA these days.
FYI: despite the pink cover, this is not a romance, rather it's about love and family in all their permutations.
Edit: I suggest reading the author's essay about the inspiration for this book - http://debcaletti.com/archives/662 (bring Kleenex)
FYI: despite the pink cover, this is not a romance, rather it's about love and family in all their permutations.
Edit: I suggest reading the author's essay about the inspiration for this book - http://debcaletti.com/archives/662 (bring Kleenex)
August 15, 2012
Seriously one of the worst books I've ever read and I read about a book a day so that's saying a lot. From the get go I just couldn't relate to all the metaphors she used for EVERYTHING. And don't get me wrong I love dogs but I felt like this whole book was actually about Jupiter not Cricket.
Cricket and her boyfriend Jannsen have some fight and we don't even know what it's about until the end. Worst of all she never actually makes a decision. The book has no ending. It ended like it began with no decsion made and both their lives still on hold. And what about Ash? Because he was waiting on her too about her decision with Jannsen so where does that leave him? In the land of nowhere apparently. And don't even get me going about the emails. They dragged on for days and I seriously either skimmed or skipped them completely.
Never read anything by this author before and after this it's probably safe to say I won't try her again. A waste of a day. Pointless book went nowhere.
Cricket and her boyfriend Jannsen have some fight and we don't even know what it's about until the end. Worst of all she never actually makes a decision. The book has no ending. It ended like it began with no decsion made and both their lives still on hold. And what about Ash? Because he was waiting on her too about her decision with Jannsen so where does that leave him? In the land of nowhere apparently. And don't even get me going about the emails. They dragged on for days and I seriously either skimmed or skipped them completely.
Never read anything by this author before and after this it's probably safe to say I won't try her again. A waste of a day. Pointless book went nowhere.
April 30, 2013
WHAT IS THIS?!?!?!?! WHAT IS THIS??!?!?!?!?!
Terrible, Awful, Horrible. Honestly, I love my fluffy, cutesy teeny-bopper novels more than just about anyone but this one was boring. I'll even read the pure, guilty-pleasure fluff, but it has to keep me interested at least. This book was boring. Also, I think you have to have a shared affinity with Cricket of Dogs or you will not enjoy this. Too much dog-talk! I like dogs, but I don't want to read a whole book about them. Oh, ya, that's right...I said Cricket. The Mc's name is Cricket...I should have known this wouldn't end well.
Also, how about some happier endings...or at least more closure.
I'm not giving up on Deb Caletti. She is talented and writes the stuff I love. This book just didn't resonate with me.
Terrible, Awful, Horrible. Honestly, I love my fluffy, cutesy teeny-bopper novels more than just about anyone but this one was boring. I'll even read the pure, guilty-pleasure fluff, but it has to keep me interested at least. This book was boring. Also, I think you have to have a shared affinity with Cricket of Dogs or you will not enjoy this. Too much dog-talk! I like dogs, but I don't want to read a whole book about them. Oh, ya, that's right...I said Cricket. The Mc's name is Cricket...I should have known this wouldn't end well.
Also, how about some happier endings...or at least more closure.
I'm not giving up on Deb Caletti. She is talented and writes the stuff I love. This book just didn't resonate with me.
July 7, 2013
Can I give this one 5 stars for prose and 3.5 stars for story? There were so many gorgeous passages, I had to break the pen out to underline more than once. I rarely do that, but there were so many times I thought Caletti explained things beautifully and I was left wondering "wow! I wish I had read/known this way earlier in my life." It would have made navigating relationships so much easier.
Any suggestions on what my next Caletti read should be?
Any suggestions on what my next Caletti read should be?
November 30, 2012
This book was okay. I thought some of the plots were a little confusing. "The Story of Us" is about Cricket who has to figure out what exactly she wants from her relationship with Janssen, which she somewhat ruined. I would recommend this book to freshmen and up, because they are more likely to understand this book.
July 3, 2012
Absolutely incredible book. My only complaints:
1. THE DOG DIED. I FREAKING LOVED THAT DOG AND IT DIED.
2. She didn't end up with Jenssen. Which would be fine but
3. She didn't end up with Ash either.
4. The ending was a bit rushed and kind of shaky.
5. THE DOG DIED.
1. THE DOG DIED. I FREAKING LOVED THAT DOG AND IT DIED.
2. She didn't end up with Jenssen. Which would be fine but
3. She didn't end up with Ash either.
4. The ending was a bit rushed and kind of shaky.
5. THE DOG DIED.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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