Sarah Dessen

Dreamland (reissue)

Rahmat Junaid

It was OK. I didn't think it was 5 star material though.

Dreamland

Raven K

Janna Romano

Jeannette Ordas

I really would have loved to give this book 3 and a half stars, but I'll bump it up a notch since this book made me cry (tho I do cry reading most YA novels). I gobbled this book up in an evening and will definitely add the rest of Sarah Dessen's novels to my library hold list.

Haylie

it was quite sad, but anything sara dessen is great.

Talia Dominguez 

The book is split into three parts.

Part I: Cass Caitlin O'Koren has just realized that on her 16th birthday, her 18 year old sister, Cass, has run away. Everybody completely forgets about Caitlin's birthday. Her parents are broken-hearted, since she was supposed to attend Yale two weeks later.

Everyone searches for Cass, but she soon makes a call saying she is with Adam, her boyfriend. Her father is furious, saying he had better expectations for her. Later on, Caitlin's friend, Rina, asks her to join the cheer leading squad, but Caitlin keeps refusing. Caitlin gives in and makes the squad, much to Boo's dismay. Caitlin's mother is very excited. Caitlin says that it's probably best to take her mind off Cass' departure.

It turns out that Caitlin hates cheer leading, but she remains on the squad because of her mother, who sees Caitlin as Cass' replacement. On her 1st game at half-time, Caitlin goes to the top of the pyramid. While on top, she hears someone calling Cass's name. So, while thinking of Cassandra, Caitlin reaches up to find the scar from the shovel incident. She feels it, then falls to the ground, and someone from the bottom of the pyramid, runs out from under everyone to catch her. Luckily, the worst injury out of the pile of cheerleaders is a broken nose.

Later on, Caitlin meets a boy named Rogerson Biscoe at the car wash, who is a drug dealer. They meet at a party. They make out in the car, and soon become a couple.

Part II: Rogerson Caitlin and Rogerson's relationship becomes more physical. Rogerson introduces Caitlin to drugs and a woman in her mid-twenties named Corinna. They become fast friends and begin to smoke pot.

Caitlin begins to forget school which causes her to not attend classes and fail every class possible. Rogerson helps her with this, claiming that "he knows everything."

Caitlin soon begins to be abused by Rogerson when she does not tell Rogerson where she is and when she is seen talking to other boys. Caitlin begins writing in the gift that she received from Cass, a dream journal. Caitlin begins to see Cass in a TV show that Cass's boyfriend works on. Caitlin's mom engages in the show, not caring about what's happening but finally seeing her daughter again.

On Christmas Eve, Catilin finally agrees to sleep with Rogerson. She says later in the book that whenever they have sex it is the only time she feels safe.

One day, Caitlin's friend, Rina, decides to take her out for some fun. They go to Rina's step fathers' lake house, but Caitlin was terrified because she knew that Rogerson was waiting outside of her house. She tried calling him, but he never picked up the phone.

Caitlin walks away and heads home. She sees Rogerson parked in front of her house. She gets into his car and Rogerson becomes angry with her and and begins to abuse her, until she is literally pushed out of the car. He continues to abuse her until Caitlin's mother shoves Rogerson away from her and calls for help. One of the neighbors calls the police,and Rogerson is arrested.

Part III: Me Caitlin joins the Evergreen Rest Care Facility after Rogerson is arrested. She comes in because of drug addiction, and after all Rogerson did to her, she still loved Rogerson. She begins counseling and begins a slow improvement.

Caitlin gets a letter from her friend, Corinna, saying that she left her longtime boyfriend, Dave, and is in Arizona living her life, trying to forget her past. She says she hopes to see Caitlin again soon. She also gets a letter from her sister, Cass, saying that she did not want to go to Yale. She was having a tough time and wasn't happy with her parents' plans for college, which explains her sudden departure.

She also said that she was never perfect and that she envied Caitlin for having always been able to make choices. At the end of the book, Caitlin comes home a better person, and her family throws her a party with Cass as a special guest.

Gisela Ayala 

I was not expecting what I read in Dreamland from a Sarah Dessen Book. I'm not a big fan of her books, but my bookish friend knows which ones to recommend and this one was one of the good ones. 

Dreamland was a fast read and surprisingly the characters were super interesting, especially Caitlin the main character. I just felt so so sad for her, the whole time- and usually I'm into bad ass girls who kick butt and grab life by the balls. BUT I understand that her situation, it's probably difficult. It gave me perspective. The only character I felt like I couldn't connect with in the story was Rogerson-and it's not because he's done horrible things and is the antagonist of the story but because I didn't get enough of his back story or his personality too much. His character, although a wild card, was missing something for me. I love compelling villains/antagonists that have really in depth character development just as much as the protagonist of the story, but I don't think there was much development with him- he was just there. BUT maybe Dessen did that on purpose? Either way I wanted to punch him in the throat. 

Other than that the story moved me, and the thing that tugged at my heart strings the most was Caitlin's relationship to her parents and her neighbors. Once of the last chapters with her mom, I shed a tear or two, for sure. I'm lying- I was full on ugly crying. Gosh, mothers are heaven sent.

Nicole Dykeman

This entire book was just weird for me...I didn't get it. I had a hard time relating to Caitlin and understanding her and her choices.

I REALLY didn't get how her and Rogerson happened. They met and five minutes later they were kissing. That really caught me off guard and confused me. All of a sudden Caitlin's life is focused on Rogerson and I just didn't get it.

The concept is beautiful and the story is so truthfully told but i’d have to re-read it to really grasp it and be able to give a more honest review! 

Jaleah Halcomb 

Allison Garrett

A good quick read. Unlike other books written by Sarah Dessen, from the beginning you're rooting against the romantic interest. At first it was hard for me to really see where she was going with this, but as I caught on I realized what a great story it is and what a wonderful point she is making. It made you think about how hard it is to get away from relationships like these. Not the usual Dessen, but still a great story and book.

Suz Corso

this was very different from sarah's other books but is overall my favorite. the beginning was a bit boring but once you get through the first two or three chapters, you can't put this book down!

Megan Wills

The beginning of the book didn't have a trigger warning and I feel like it should. I loved the book but some people might need a trigger warning for this one.

After her older sister runs away, sixteen-year-old Caitlin decides that she needs to make a major change in her own life and begins an abusive relationship with a boy who is mysterious, brilliant, and dangerous.

A Novel

Jimena Vázquez Oliver

** spoiler alert **
           I had a giant knot in my stomach the whole time before the first time Rogerson hits Caitlin, and everything after that felt like a sucker punch to the gut. Absolutely heart-wrenching.

Megan Leprich

This has been and will probably always be one of my favorite Sarah Dessen books. I love that this was a "darker" style of writing instead of the normal happy, romance type books she normally writes.

On Caitlin's birthday she wakes up to discover her older sister Cassandra has disappeared. Cassandra was supposed to be heading off to college and had just spent the weekend shopping with their mother for dorm stuff. The only thing she leaves behind is a dream journal for Caitlin. After always being second best to her perfect sister, Caitlin decides to try out for the cheerleading team with her best friend Rina and makes the team. Then she meets Rogerson and is introduced to a world she's never been in before. Caitlin slowly starts falling in with the wrong crowd and with drugs, and then Rogerson starts hitting her. 

I loved this book for the fact that it is one of her darkest novels and it touches on domestic abuse. Definitely a great read.

Kaele Perkins 

Amazing. I love everything Sarah Dessen writes, but I was always a bit wary to start this one. I knew this was her not-so-happy book, and that worried me. But this book was indescribable. I loved Caitlin. I related to her wanted to live up to expectations, and feeling invisible, and not knowing how to tell others how you’re feeling. I loved the way this book was broken up. We see the deterioration of both her relationship with her sister and Rogerson. And finally we see her focusing on herself and building herself back up. Realizing that she needs to put the pieces back together. Wonderful, heartbreaking story. Another masterpiece by Sarah Dessen.

Cortnie

Holy gut-wrenching sobs, Batman!

Sarah Dessen has easily claimed the top spot of my Favorite Authors List. The first book I ever picked up of hers was Lock and Key, and I was in love from almost the first instant. She writes in first person, which isn't a lot of people's cup of tea (and I used to hate reading books written in this point of view), but it's something that has come to comfort me in an odd sense of the word.

Dreamland is about a girl named Caitlin O'Koren, whose older sister Cass has run away. Cass has always been the "perfect" sister, and her running away leads to her mother sort of stepping out and becoming distant. Caitlin starts to feel the need to fill up the empty spaces that Cass has left behind, and when she can't quite fill the shoes, she seeks out doing things that her sister never did. It starts simple, with cheerleading, and eventually, we're following her into a whirlwind love story where she meets Rogerson Biscoe, someone completely different from all the plain-Jane jocks she goes to school with.

Rogerson knows everything. She can ask him a trivia question, and he always has an answer. He convinces her to start smoking pot and follows him on his drug runs, but towards the end of the book, we figure out that Rogerson isn't exactly the kind of guy everyone presumed him to be- instead, he's much worse.

Caitlin goes through a great task of finding herself again, and becoming okay with the person she sees in the mirror.

In the end, the book has a happy ending (thank God), but there were several times when I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it. My heart broke for the character, it was believable, and it gives an interesting look into relationships as a whole- and how difficult it might be when opening up about something when all you can do is blame yourself.

Five out of Five stars, and easily one of my most favorite books.

Destini Baylis Adams

* This Contains Spoilers*

“I understood those mermaids. I didn’t care if they sang to me. All I wanted was to block out all the human voices as they called my name again and again, pulling me upward into the light, to drown.” (p.168)

Dreamland is about a girl named Caitlin who is always in the shadow of her older sister Cass. On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Cass runs away and this starts a journey of Caitlin trying to fill Cass’ place while being unlike her at the same time. She meets Rogerson and is instantly attracted to him-once they start dating, he hits her.
This book could have been phenomenal, but I feel as if it barely scratches the surface on such a serious topic- one that needs to be presented to young people. The rushed scenes and easy predictable plot points are big issues with this book! To some extent, I could not tell if this story was supposed to plot or character driven.
The character’s feel one dimensional and the main protagonist, Caitlin is not likable. I am not saying that Caitlin’s lack of likability would make her story any less impactful. In fact, it would have made this more impactful had the writing been better. I think that Caitlin was ‘too aware’ of the abuse and how she was changing---which makes the suspense and tension in the story fall thin. I think it would have been better for Dessen to write the story in Third Person instead of First Person, so we can get a camera like view of Caitlin’s journey and actually see the transformation while using her thoughts as a means for tension. I also think that with Third Person- we could get into the head of Rogerson(in an occasional omniscient narration) to fully flesh out his character. He seems like a paper-thin villain(Dad hits him, he hits his girlfriend, he gets caught, blah blah, the end.)- and it’s boring. If he was more complex, we could see/understand why Caitlin would want to stay with him when he hits her, we could understand why he does this(not condone), and he would feel more real thus add anticipation in every scene he is in. With Caitlin being unlikable plus Rogerson’s paper-thin antagonism, the story falls flat drastically. 
I also think that Dessen could have been more subtle in her build up and shown more scenes with Rogerson&Caitlin instead of Caitlin telling us about the two of them. I do think it’s fine to tell as well as show in novels, but when a writer only “tells!” the book becomes a chore to read. The story concept is good, but the execution was filled with holes.

Milana Marie Waller

In a quite literal sense, Sarah Dessen is really the ong of the best contemporary authors, just because her stories are so realistic and simple that they’re so easy to believe. The characters are easy to relate to because their lives aren’t any more eventful as ours are. 

Sometimes her books drag on a bit, this book being one of those I thought, but I always enjoy the thought processes portrayed through Dessen’s characters.

Dreamland (reissue)

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