Someone Like You

All we need is love. These days, it’s hard to find a love story where the plot really stands out. In the book Someone Like You, written by Sarah Dessen, romance and reality are a terrific mix. Set in a high school, teenagers can easily understand the issues and aspects of this book, such as teen pregnancy, death of a friend, and family troubles.

Halley Cooke and Scarlett Thomas have been best friends for years and still are till their junior year in high school. Halley has always been the one that needed Scarlett’s help, making Scarlett the one that was more outgoing, but this time, it’s Scarlett that needs Halley to be strong for her. After an accident and many more life changing events, the time comes when Scarlett needs Halley to be strong for her, and Halley knows she can’t let her down. This all happens while Halley is falling for Malcon, who seems to be the perfect boy for her, but is he really? The plot for this book is deep and meaningful. It shows the reader just how friendship and love can get you through the toughest problems.

In Someone Like You, Sarah Dessen uses a great amount of description for the characters’ external and internal traits. For example, a line from the book would be “Scarlett had always been the stronger, the livelier, the braver. The girl who punched out Missy Lassiter , the meanest, most fiendish of the pink-bike girls that first summer she moved in, on a day when they surrounded us and tried to make us cry.” Her descriptions give a clear picture of how the main characters in the story act and look. Dessen also describes a person’s feelings in a detailed manner. One of my most favorite lines, from Halley’s point of view from the story is “... and I felt it for the first time. That exhilaration, the whooshing feeling of being on edge and holding, the world spinning madly around me.” The words she picks to phrase the sensation of Halley’s emotions truly display a feeling of wonder and happiness.

“Dessen has a perfect ear for the immediate daily details of a middle-class teenager’s home, school, job, party scene--- the elemental push and pull of family and friends.” Booklist quoted, a magazine specifically made for promoting books and DVD titles each year. Someone Like You has also won titles such as ALA Best Book for Young Adults and SLJ Best Book of the Year. It has a wide range of teen readers because teenagers in high school can definitely relate to this.

I would recommend this book to people who just love reading about drama and romance. Someone Like You meets the criteria of romance that every reader looks forward to. The book isn’t hard to understand and the words written flow easily. Someone Like You is one of the many books in the romance genre that are intriguing and relatable. Not only do I recommend this book, but I recommend Sarah Dessen, the author, as well.