That Summer by Sarah Dessen

For fifteen year old, almost six foot tall Haven, this is a summer of change -and not necessarily the happy kind. Her parents are divorced, her father is marrying the local "weather pet" and her sister Ashley, once her confidante, is preoccupied with her wedding to a guy with no discernible personality. Watching her mother avoid the former and play damage control throughout preparations for the latter, Haven is worried that she no longer fits in anywhere. What was once a perfect family of four will never be the same again. When Ashley's old boyfriend Sumner Lee comes back to town Haven is reminded of another summer, one in which her parents were happy, her sister was carefree, and everything seemed perfect. But was it -and can Haven ever learn to move past what once was?

This is my first Sarah Dessen book and I was pleased with it. It didn't blow me out of the water, but it was really pleasant, a humorous look at a teenager trying to figure out her place in life. It's because of this that I've waited a couple of months before attempting to write this review, as it's so much easier to hate a book or love a book than to borrow from Randy Jackson, American Idol judge, and declare it to be "just aight with me, dawg".

Sarah Dessen captures the teenage experience perfectly, as well as the awkwardness that comes from being an almost six foot tall giant amidst a sea of petite beauties. Haven is stuck in the middle of one of the worst times in anyone's life, that crucial juncture between childhood and adulthood, one foot in each, not really belonging to either. Unlike many people, she doesn't really have any family to lean on, as they're all preoccupied with their own lives. Thus, in Sumner , or at least the idea of Sumner, she's more motivated to regress to childhood and its seemingly happier times than to face the now even more uncertain years ahead.

I feel like this is thing that a lot of people do, not just teenagers. Aren't there times when we all idealize the past and try to recapture a part of it? The further back the events, the less we remember the imperfections and concentrate on the good times, the innocence of youth, and the lack of responsibility. What Haven initially remembers as perfection, gradually is revealed to be perhaps just as dysfunctional as her current situation. At fifteen, she's lucky to have learned that lesson relatively early.

http://thechickmanifesto.blogspot.com/2009/04/that-summer-by-sarah-dessen.html