A review by jazmin
This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

3.0

“I am coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and that a soft landing is never guaranteed.”

Book two in my Sarah Dessen binge-read unfortunately didn’t go as well as book one. I think that going into This Lullaby I had been comparing it too heavily to The Truth About Forever and was therefore let down by the fact that this book wasn’t able to make me feel the same was that one did.

⇢The Plot
One of my more significant reasons for not enjoying this book as much as I could have was the lack of a solid plot. The story essentially followed Remy’s growth (concerning her perspectives on love and relationships) over the course of a single summer which I guess in and of itself isn’t an uninteresting concept, but wasn’t one I really enjoyed because rarely felt relatable and met of the time I was just wondering why Remy was so stubborn.

The setup with Remy’s mother being the reason she had so little faith in love made sense, but it just wasn’t enough to convince me that we needed EIGHTEEN CHAPTERS of Remy refusing to open up, especially considering that Dexter had gone through a similar experience and come out unscathed.

I would have appreciated the book a lot more if there had been some other message or moral or conflict, but there wasn’t really, and my lack of investment in Remy’s decision meant that I wasn’t invested in any part of the plot.

⇢Remy and Dexter
I’m lukewarm about this couple. On the one hand, they weren’t nearly as well written as Wes and Macy, but on the other hand, they were basically the best part of the book. I enjoyed their relationship but once again, I think that Sarah Dessen doesn’t develop the romance in her novels enough for me to really be satisfied with the way the romance ends up. It was a bit different this time considering Remy and Dexter broke up and got back together but I still wanted more closure for them at the end of the book rather than that open-ended chapter.

“Some things don't last forever, but some things do. Like a good song, or a good book, or a good memory you can take out and unfold in your darkest times, pressing down on the corners and peering in close, hoping you still recognize the person you see there.”

As characters, Remy and Dexter were both good. Not fantastic, but still compelling and interesting. Remy was actually a pretty great protagonist, and even if I didn’t relate to many of her struggles I was able to appreciate how strong she was in the face of adversity and the way she dealt with the cards she was given. On the other hand, her pure stubbornness annoyed me basically every other page to the point where I didn’t even care about her arc happening slowly and just wanted her to wake up and realize how dumb she was acting. Overall: a good character, though.

Moving onto Dexter. First of all, WHY did Sarah Dessen name him Dexter of all things? Not that it’s a bad name or anything, but I don’t think it suited him one bit. Obviously I’m not gonna judge his character over his name but it just weirded me out.

Anyway, he wasn’t a bad character but I think he wasn’t developed as well as he should have been. In The Truth About Forever (I’m sorry I need to keep comparing this book to that one because it’s the only reference point I have) Wes was supposed to be mysterious and detached but that wasn’t the direction Dexter’s character was going in and I think we as readers could have benefitted fro getting to know him a little bit better. As much as I wanted Remy to wake up and believe in relationships, did I really care about her waking up for the purpose of dating Dexter? Eh. Because I was never convinced that they would make that great of a couple, BECAUSE I BARELY KNEW DEXTER?? EVEN NOW?? Now I’m just working myself up more so I’m gonna stop writing, but I just think Dexter’s character was a missed opportunity.

⇢The Side Characters
Honestly, not much to say about the side characters in this book, because they weren’t as solid as I had wanted them to be, so I can’t rave about them like I did last time. The band members were fun and all but just like Dexter we didn’t learn enough about them, and even Remy’s friends needed more screen time. The only side characters I think really added to the story were Remy’s family members, and I was actually pretty invested in all of them, which was nice.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ❦ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

MY LINKTREE ❦