In Sarah Dessen’s book, Along for the Ride, the main character, Auden is faced with a summer living with her father, stepmother, and new half sister, Thisbe who is only weeks old. Auden describes her life before the summer as one full of academic progress and perseverence due to her parents pushing her to strive for greatness. As such, she has never had a social life; friends, experiences, and boyfriends are all things that she watched other people have, while she stuck to her academia. When she moves in with her father and stepmom, the neighborhood kids, who have all been friends since grade school befriend her hesitantly. They don’t know how to approach her, as she just comes off as if she is better than these other kids. One kid, Eli, is the only one to get through to her. He is known to be a sort of recluse after a tragic episode that the whole town knows about, and sees Auden everywhere. The two, both insomniacs, silently decide that spending their nights together is much better than spending them alone. In turn, they get to know each other on a very different level, and Eli takes it upon himself to show Auden the childhood she never got the chance to have.
Though the book had immense potential, and I had heard good things about it, I just had a hard time getting into it. I had read other Sarah Dessen books before that I enjoyed, but this one just didn’t do it for me. The characters were very predictable and rather infuriating at times. There were some sections of the book that I just didn’t think was believable. I could call almost every major plot before it happened because it was too cliche and easily forseen. While I was looking for a bit of a romance novel, I was not expecting this one to be so dense. The romance was sparse and I was left angry with Auden half the time. While she had so much promise at the beginning of the novel, she later turned to annoy me. Most of the characters in the novel, while well rounded and not necessarily flat, just seemed oblivious to incidents that happened around them. Girls didn’t realize boys were falling over for them, Auden’s brother changes abruptly for a girl that doesn’t even seem to have feelings for him, and Auden’s parents are both stubborn and can’t seem to hold relationships with anyone else, especially Auden. What irritated me most about Auden’s character was the relationship she had with her parents. The two parents talk down to her, condescending her, never giving her a chance to be a person, and she just sits there and takes it. She never speaks her mind, even when others tell her she should. She just lies down and takes their harsh comments. Her parents both seem to be rather awful people in general, and it’s a shame that they’re never told just how awful they really are.
Though the book had immense potential, and I had heard good things about it, I just had a hard time getting into it. I had read other Sarah Dessen books before that I enjoyed, but this one just didn’t do it for me. The characters were very predictable and rather infuriating at times. There were some sections of the book that I just didn’t think was believable. I could call almost every major plot before it happened because it was too cliche and easily forseen. While I was looking for a bit of a romance novel, I was not expecting this one to be so dense. The romance was sparse and I was left angry with Auden half the time. While she had so much promise at the beginning of the novel, she later turned to annoy me. Most of the characters in the novel, while well rounded and not necessarily flat, just seemed oblivious to incidents that happened around them. Girls didn’t realize boys were falling over for them, Auden’s brother changes abruptly for a girl that doesn’t even seem to have feelings for him, and Auden’s parents are both stubborn and can’t seem to hold relationships with anyone else, especially Auden. What irritated me most about Auden’s character was the relationship she had with her parents. The two parents talk down to her, condescending her, never giving her a chance to be a person, and she just sits there and takes it. She never speaks her mind, even when others tell her she should. She just lies down and takes their harsh comments. Her parents both seem to be rather awful people in general, and it’s a shame that they’re never told just how awful they really are.