The Disenchantments by Nina Lacour YP FIC LACOUR

Colby has it all figured out, has had the same plan for years: tour with his best friend Bev’s terrible awesome band for their senior summer and then backpack through Europe together. Bev changes everything when she announces that instead she is going to start college in the fall and all his dreams are shattered and get used to it.  Now Colby begins the last summer of freedom on a heartbreaking, life changing road trip.

Like Everything You need to Survive the Apocalypse, (which I just reviewed) this is a definite ‘have a hanky handy’ read.  The cover tricks you with light-happy-summertime image that makes you think this will be a fun summer romp. No.  Suuuuure, there’s loads of fun in this book, but it’s also a very genuine and real look at first love and first heartbreak and why you will almost always have to abandon certain dreams to grow up.  The characters feel like real people and have their own drives and backgrounds beyond what they mean to Colby.  This makes the book come alive and lets different readers take different things form the book, because different readers will likely identify with different characters.  Heck, I identified with different characters at the end of the book than for the middle or the beginning.  This is one of these great coming-of-age, love-and-loss books like The Big Crunch (YP FIC HAUTMAN) or How to Say Goodbye in Robot (YP FIC STANDIFOR)that I’ve reviewed previously.  It didn’t move me or grab me quite as much as LaCour’s first novel Hold Still. This one is certainly just as good, so some readers will probably even like it better.  DEFINITELY read both.  LaCour is definitely shaping up to be one of the best new voices in realistic fiction for young adults. 

You can check our catalog for The Disenchantments here.

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Beloved young adult author, Sarah Dessen, recently published her ninth book, Along for the Ride. This story focuses on recent high school graduate, Auden, who slowly begins to realize all the things she missed out on during high school because she chose to focus on her education. Spending the summer with her father, step-mother, and newborn baby sister, in the remote cottage, beach-side community of Colby, only furthers this realization. During her last summer before going off to attend university, Auden, works at her step-mother’s boutique, which exposes her to a whole new world of “girl”: gossip, boys, and friendship.

Auden, in addition to having missed out on many social forays of teen-dom, also suffers from insomnia. She hasn’t slept normally for years, and she spends her night driving around the small cottage town drinking coffee. These all-night adventures eventually lead to a friendship with Eli, a local loner, who also seems to also suffer from insomnia. Both have emotional obstacles they need to overcome, and during the summer they learn to rely on one another and face the many things that may hold them back from living the lives they desire.

Similarly to other Dessen works, this story is character driven. Readers will find themselves attached to the characters and the world in which they live. Other books in the Moore Young Adult collection by Dessen are: That Summer, Lock & Key, Just Listen, The Truth about Forever, This Lullaby, Dreamland, Keeping the Moon, and Someone like You.