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Review: Along for the Ride

Along for the Ride Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was so incredibly contemporary. It was so… Life. Normal. It made me aghast as to how someone would even think to write something so mundane. Like, what was the spark? The initial idea that drove Dessen to write this? Especially considering the fact that she had apparently already written eight other books more-or-less exactly like this one. Getting paid was certainly the motivation, but that’s not what I’m asking.

Anyway, this was my first Dessen novel. I have known of her ever since I was in fifth grade, and even back then she had so many books that they spammed my local bookstore’s online catalogue. This annoyed young me, and I swore to boycott this nuisance author. Fast Forward to now, and I just want to see what all the fuss is about.

I didn’t think this book was bad. I just think it got kind of boring after 200 pages of nothing, and then the realization that I still had almost 200 more pages to go did not help. Things happened, it’s just that… None of it mattered, I suppose. It was just things that happen to anyone, in everyday life… Which is what this whole genre is about, so I can’t really fault it. If you’re someone who doesn’t read contemporary novels but want to get into the genre, I don’t think this would be a good starting point. It’s… Too contemporary.


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