Along for the Ride
Sarah Dessen
Let me just start by saying that I love Sarah Dessen. She is one of my favorite authors of all time (along with J.K. Rowling, Nicholas Sparks, Roald Dahl, etc.) and she is by far my favorite young adult and chick lit author. Her books are chick lit at its finest and Along for the Ride is no exception. This is the sixth book by Sarah Dessen that I've read and it seems that she keeps progressing further and writing better books as she continues into her career. And this is as it should be. I really liked Someone Like You and Keeping the Moon but I LOVED her last four books: The Truth About Forever, Just Listen, Lock and Key, and now Along for the Ride. I gave each of these latter four books five stars and they all made it onto my list of favorite books. All of them. And I cannot wait for What Happened to Goodbye.
Along for the Ride is narrated by an overly studious, ambitious, and intelligent 18 year old, Auden West (whose literary name reflects both the personalities and career paths of her divorced parents). She decides to go to a beach town called Colby to live with her father for the summer before she goes off to college at the prestigious Defriese University. The laid-back nature of the town and people she meets and befriends there teach her to loosen up and have some fun. Through many late-night adventures, she meets and falls in love with Eli and together they overcome their pasts.
One of the reasons I loved this book so much was because of the narrator, Auden, and how well I related to her. I, too, focus a bit too much on academics at times and even my parents often try to persuade me to have a little bit more fun. Also, like Auden, I am a night person and literally have only gone to bed before 4am once in the past two weeks since I'm on Christmas vacation and home from school. She also has one of the same major flaws as I do - not knowing how to accept failure and ask for a second chance. This is one of the most important pieces of wisdom in Along for the Ride. But there are so many more. I found myself taking note of page numbers quite often so that I could go back and read a paragraph or two that resonated in my mind.
I also particularly liked the imagery of the bikes that ran throughout the entire book. It was well done with relevant and significant metaphors and symbolic meaning but I never felt that it was ever TOO present or overused. The imagery, of course, begins with the cover and the title of the book. Many of the main characters work at a bike shop in Colby and ride competitively. One of the pivotal points in the novel is when Auden finally learns how to ride her bike. And Adam, one of the bike shop workers and a friend of Auden's, repeatedly tells her that "the bottom line is, what defines you isn't about how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike" (325).
I also enjoyed the parent/child dynamic between Auden and her parents and her stepmother Heidi. Her parents each had their own problems and it was interesting to see their characters develop throughout the novel, especially her mother. I found Heidi to be a surprisingly likable and admirable character. I loved the interactions between the four of them.
Other themes in this novel included judgements and first appearance, not fitting into stereotypes, one's childhood and past, the nighttime and darkness as a liberating escape, living up to expectations, a person's ability to change, and second chances. Both Heidi and Maggie, Auden's friend and coworker, greatly surprise Auden with their intelligence . She immediately judges them as stupid girly girls because they like pink, fashion, gossip and boys. Throughout the summer she is able to let go of her judgmental attitude (much like her mother's) and give people a chance to show her who they are. This also helps her realize that she can relax and have some fun every now and then, especially over the summer when she isn't in school. She learns how to interact with people and, most importantly, she learns that people can change if they are offered a second chance.
"Life is full of screwups….You're supposed to fail sometimes.
It's a required part of the human existence" (260) -- Eli
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys young adult literature, love stories, chick lit, or Sarah Dessen and to anyone looking for a great introduction into this genre or a new author to read.
More reviews to come!
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