Sixteen-year-old Macy Queen is looking forward to a long, boring summer. Her boyfriend is going away. She's stuck with a dull-as-dishwater job at the library. And she'll spend all of her free time studying for the SATs or grieving silently with her mother over her father's recent unexpected death. But everything changes when Macy is corralled into helping out at one of her mother's open house events, and she meets the chaotic Wish Catering crew. Before long, Macy joins the Wish team. She loves everything about the work and the people. But the best thing about Wish is Wes—artistic, insightful, and understanding Wes—who gets Macy to look at life in a whole new way, and really start living it.
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Source: borrowed/School Library
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kindle
Others by the Author: Along for the Ride; Just Listen; This Lullaby; What Happened to Goodbye (Recently released)
After reading The Truth About Forever, I really get why it's attracted all this acclaim! So many have said that The Truth About Forever is one of Dessen's best books, and after getting to know Macy, watching her befriend THE BEST PEOPLE ever, and fall for the funny, artistic Will whom she can just be herself with, I am one of those people. I believe in my review for Along for the Ride, I said that I was officially a fan. Now, I'm beyond hooked. There's just something fabulous about Dessen's detailed, yet uncomplicated writing, about her stories that are always fastened with hilarity and meaning, that keeps me going back for more of her work! I don't think I'll stop, either, until I've read all of her books. Donneven try to stop me.
It's evident that Dessen has a true grip on what is to be a teenager, especially when I get beautiful characters like Macy to tag along with, like Kristy and Monica and Bert to form friendships with, and Wes to fall in love with. They are some of the best group of characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading - Macy with her insecurities and underlying depth and sorrow, Kristy with her straightforwardness and cheer, Monica with her comical monotone responses and blank state, and Bert with his oh-so-adorable geekish ways. On top of that, I loved getting to know Wes, all his quirks and secrets and pains. As Macy and Wes got to know each other, I couldn't help but fall for Wes right along with Macy.
Plot-wise, another of the best aspects of Dessen's writing is her way with character-driven plots. Her books sway toward self-discovery and the mending of a dysfunctional family. I felt terrible for Macy and all that she's been through. I can't imagine having been close to someone, only to have that someone be torn away from me. Especially someone within my own family, someone whom I love. It broke my heart to watch Macy struggle to suppress these feelings, to be unable to reach her mother, who is also still grieving their collective loss in her own way. I thought Macy's sister brave, for being willing to feel, for trying to improve the circumstances between herself and her mom and Macy. I couldn't help but want to reach out to these people! I felt myself getting teary-eyed a few times...
Overall I'm happy with the result of everything that happened. The way Macy and Wes's deep friendship eventually shifted to something much more, to something that was there all along. The closeness that developed between the most unlikely trio of girls. I loved submersing myself into something beautiful and heart-wrenching and funny. It felt wonderful to read a such a... normal story, something that's emotional, that I can relate to and that I can connect with. The Truth About Forever is far from a dull and plain and insignificant read. Instead, it's a powerful story that brought to me my newest favorite characters! Sarah Dessen, keep up the awesomeness!
Recommended?
Of course if you're a Dessen fan and enjoyed some of her other works, you will love The Truth About Forever! Also Sarah Ockler fans, especially those who loved Twenty Boy Summer, could enjoy this one as well. If you've already read this one, you should give Jandy Nelson's The Sky is Everywhere a chance!
"Look. We both know life is short, Macy. Too short to waste a single second with anyone who doesn't appreciate and value you."
"You said the other day life was long," I shot back. "Which is it?"
"It's both," she said, shrugging. "It all depends on how you choose to live it. It's like forever, always changing."
...Kristy continued, nodding at [Monica],"...It's all in the view, Macy. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You can never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count."
Monica, lighting another cigarette, nodded. "Mmm-hmm," she said.
"What you have to decide," Kristy said to me, leaning forward,"is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, would this be how you'd want to have spent it?"
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