Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
Genre: YA Realistic Romance
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I’m going to be completely honest with you: I
was taken aback at this book. Sarah Dessen always manages to take such
emotional problems and make them seem simple, and I love that about her books.
She manages to reduce everything down to something so small, and yet so
influential to everyone. Of course, this book did an equally excellent job at
doing so as her other novels. However, Saint Anything seems different. I don’t
know if it’s because I am older and more mature now, seeing as I read most of
her other books in 6th and 7th grade, but I do know that Saint
Anything seemed much more mellow and realistic than her other novels. (Also, I
haven’t read any of her other novels in quite some time, so I might not
remember.)
You know me, though. I relate to every single
character out there, and I’m always searching for my literary twin (by the way,
I have thousands). So I’m going to say this once again: Sydney seemed like
another literary twin of me. She was shy, calm, always thinking about others,
and feeling guilty even for things that she didn’t cause. And she was lonely.
Her depiction of her sadness was so similar to how I feel. Of course, there
were aspects of her that were nowhere near similar to me, like her inability to
stand up for herself. (Not that I didn’t like that, it was a necessary
component to the story—I just don’t have that same problem.)
I loved the ease of all of the relationships
in Saint Anything. Sydney just eased into her friendship with Layla, eased into
her relationship with Mac, and she held onto her old friends as well. I loved
how easy it seemed, because it’s nice to see that sometimes relationships with
others aren’t as difficult as they are for me.
Overall, this book was so very good and
entertaining. I loved it so much, and I loved the mellow tone that was uncommon
for Sarah Dessen’s books (or so I remember?). Reading this book just made me
crave pizza and lollipops (I like grape!), and that’s when you know that it was
a well-written novel.
4 stars.
