Saint Anything Book Review

Synopsis:

Title – Saint Anything (Goodreads – Amazon – BarnsAndNoble)

Author – Sarah Dessen (Goodreads – Website)

Classification – Young Adult Fiction

Summary – Sydney’s older brother just got in trouble and sent to jail. Now Sydney is left trying to find her way to work through the whole situation: her parents’ attention is now on her and she is just worrying about the victim. With a school change comes new friends who help her through her journey.

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Thoughts: ***warning: spoilers!**

This was a wonderful book! I picked up this book after seeing it on the new releases list at the library. I recognized the author’s name but it wasn’t until more than halfway through the book that I googled the other books written by Sarah Dessen.

The main character, Sydney, was a down-to-earth teen – a refreshing change from whiny teens who obsess over boys and talk back to their parents. Personally, I would want to be her friend. I loved that Dessen wrote with a darker side (Sydney’s brother being away in jail) that did not overshadow other characters or themes. I later found out that this theme was close to Dessen because, while the brother was gone, she felt that her writing was ‘gone’ (ew.com).

That Ames character — I wanted to know what the heck he was up to and why he was so weird. I also wanted to know how Dessen was going to connect the title in the story. For both of these, it took a while but was worth the wait.

Throughout the whole book, I was rooting for Sydney’s happy ending. I loved the romantic element but didn’t feel like it dominated the book, which is exactly why Dessen doesn’t believe her books don’t completely fit into the romance category (ew.com). I didn’t know how Dessen was going to conclude the story but it ended up being perfect. Sydney did her “time” gracefully and Dessen wrapped up Sydney’s story in a neat little bow.

With this said, I was devastated when I read Sarah Dessen’s blog post that she isn’t currently writing (sarahdessen.com).  Ahh!! I’d love to see another book from her in the future.

Conclusion:  Great book! Sarah Dessen has done it again.

What did you think?