Reviews: (by author)

Dessen, Sarah. The Truth about Forever. New York : Viking, 2004.

Macy Queen feels like she will forever be known as "the girl who saw her dad die." But this summer, when her carefully constructed façade dissolves, she learns the Truth About Forever. It has been two years since that horrifying morning when she found her father collapsed on the street. Macy is living her perfectly structured life as a straight A student and with the model boyfriend. She decides if she just keeps a calm collected presence, no one willl feel sorry for her anymore. But fine-just-fine Macy isn't really fine.

In her sixth novel, The Truth About Forever , Sarah Dessen, has created another character that teens will fall in love with. From the first few pages your heart will go out to Macy as she lets the reader in on a secret she won't dare tell anyone-- she misses her Dad. We accompany Macy on a summer of surprises as she comes to terms with her father's death and her own growing up. True to Dessen style, what will really keep teen girls turning the pages is Macy's summer romance with the tall dark handsome artist, Wes.

As her boyfriend Jason sets off to Brain camp, Macy resigns herself to spending the summer working at the library and studying for SATs. After spending sleepless nights and lonely days, (her absent mother deals with their loss by working around the clock), she reaches out to Jason in an e-mail. He suggests they take a break from their romance, citing her clingingess. He is the last person she has to turn to.

Just in time, Macy meets a group of unlikely friends at her new job at the chaotic family-run Wish Catering Company. Each quirky Wish Catering sub-character offers comic relief and teaches her how to live again. A little more than a friendship evolves with fellow crew member Wes, as the two begin an on-going game of truth. For the first time, Macy opens up about her father and Wes shares his pain over the loss of his mother. As the two fall in love, obstacles arise when her mother objects and Jason returns.

The story climaxes in a frenzy of emotion and activity. In the calm after the storm, Macy and her Mother are able to begin living again. As Macy runs free on the beach she learns that forever is right here, right now.

The beauty of this story is experiencing the unique ways people deal with grief. Though the story is told in the first person by Macy, we get to know each character through their dialogue and nuances. The author uses these sub-characters to explore themes of impermanence, gratitude, fallibility, and humanity in a way that will really get teens thinking.

Dessen has a gift for delivering a realistic teen voice. At first, I thought maybe she put too many three syllable words in Macy's mouth: "My mom and I just weren't that effusive." But I guess Macy is studying for her SAT's after all. Dessen hits your heart with one-liners that may seem too grown up for a kid to be saying, but in Macy's case she has had to grow up fast: "Grief can be a burden, but it can also be an anchor. You get used to the weight, to how it holds you in place." And: "I'd long ago learned not to be picky in farewells.if you got a goodbye at all."

Dessen's style is simple and flowing, but at times unimaginative. The strength of the book is the rich dialogue that creates emotionally explosive scenes that read like a play.

There is enough inward and outward conflict to make yet another of Dessen's books a teen favorite.

 

Shelley Moreno, June 2006