Characters

Ruby

Ruby’s character was really unlikable to me. She had no other personality traits other than the fact that she can’t accept help or advice, she’s extremely negative, she lets her past affect everything she does, and she has no hopes, dreams, or aspirations. She’s rude to anyone who shows her any kindness and she clearly fulfills the “I’m not your average teenage girl” trope. In fact, she even says it, out loud, on page 342.

I’m not exactly sure what Sarah Dessen was going for with Ruby, as a character. There were some points where it seemed like Ruby was supposed to appear as a young adult, years ahead of her age group, with a past that has forced her to grow up too quickly, then she turns around and adds this line: “I’d gone light-headed when she’d only just mentioned the word uterus.”

Ruby, as a character, was very unlikable to me

Nate

Nate was the most developed character in this book, in my opinion. The progression of his character was done really nicely and the details of his backstory and his father’s abuse were foreshadowed and revealed really well. I also liked that Dessen represented the emotional side of abuse, which is overlooked a lot in teen fiction, especially when it comes to male characters. The physical abuse did come to play in the end, but it was nice to see that Ruby did recognize and try to help Nate solely based on her knowledge of the emotional abuse, which is super rare in fiction.

HIs character was really admirable on the basis that he worked really hard and tried his best to be understanding and empathetic. It was nice to see a male love interest that wasn’t just a broody bad-boy, like Marshall from the beginning of the book. The boy-next-door thing has never really been my cup of tea, but this book did it really well and used that aspect to its advantage without overdoing it.

Cora & Jamie

Cora and Jamie were two of my favorite characters in the book. I admired them both for different reasons, but they shared some similar characteristics that really connected me to them. I loved Cora’s backstory, with how she got into a good college and escaped her mother, intending to become really successful and save Ruby, but while slowly losing sight of her sister, still managing to build a happy life and find someone who she really loves (a.k.a. Jamie).

On the subject of Jamie, his positive outlook on life was really refreshing, and it was cool to see an adult character in a YA book who wasn’t discounted as an unlikable character purely because they were older than 18. His optimism in every situation was really cool, because it wasn’t forced and it wasn’t denial, but it was acceptance and action based on what the circumstances were. This was shown especially in the case where he brought up college while alone with Ruby, and proposed a totally viable set of options for her and just asked her to have the tiniest bit of faith in herself (which she scoffed at, obviously, because she’s her). He wasn’t the problematic type of step-parent-y type of character who was just oblivious to everything about teenage life and just got in the way all the time, which was really nice to see for a change.

Ruby’s Mother

Ruby’s mother, despite playing a massive role in this story overall, wasn’t there for most of the book, which is totally fine, because we did get to see an acceptable amount of development for her character throughout the book. The way Ruby and Cora remember their mother, and the memories that are sort of described in the book do a good job of forming her as a person, rather than a one dimensional puzzle piece of a sob-story.

However, I really didn’t like how the book completely glossed over the fact that she was not only emotionally abusive, but physically abusive. In fact, I don’t remember reading the word “hit” or anything close to it until the very end of the book, which is kind of a big detail to leave out. The absence of clarity on that end made the end of the book really disturbing because, no matter how you play up the mother’s tragic backstory and no matter how many ways the daughters try to forgive her, you can’t ignore that she abused her own children. I, personally, cannot accept a redemption arc for a child-abuser, no matter how sad or troubled she was.

We don’t even need to talk about how she also made Ruby think that Cora had just left her behind to fend for herself with her abusive mother, and then when that was knowledge shared between the two of them at the end, they just.. didn’t care? Like, Ruby was shocked for a second and then she was back to “well, my mother was afraid”. No. Just no.

Side Characters

Some notes on the side characters and the main character, ruby’s, relationship with them.

Heather and Ruby’s relationship was really refreshing. In a Y/A book, it’s really rare to see a relationship between an ex and a current girlfriend that isn’t “I hate you because.. you dated him in the past” or “I hate you because you’re dating a guy I broke up with”. I liked that their interactions weren’t hostile and it was just like “it is what it is”. I especially liked the aspect where they sort of connected because of what they knew about Nate.

Most of the characters were either completely unmemorable or totally overlooked. It seemed as though they were only means to their own ends, which were really simple themes that the reader could have picked up on very easily by themselves, but were still explained in excruciatingly in-your-face conversations between the side character and main character. More on that later.

Harriet and Reggie’s sort of romance.. thing, was built up very badly and was very clearly only there to give Ruby this eventual awakening near the end of the book that prompt’s her to realize how ridiculous and hypocritical she’s being about the situation with Nate. It was really disappointing, especially since there was no elaboration on what actually happens between them after Ruby has this epiphany. It just sort of goes away once it serves its purpose, which is kind of like the rest of the “subplots” in this book, if you can even call them that.

Writing

There isn’t much to say about the writing in this book. Sarah Dessen is a beloved author, and I’m sure that she deserves to be, but there wasn’t anything groundbreaking about her writing that I could see, at least, not in this book. Her vision for Ruby was kind of inconsistent throughout the book and her distrust in the reader to draw their own conclusions from events that happen in the story is very prominent. She felt the need to explain every single theme or take-away the reader was supposed to extract from every event and subplot and conversation, to the point where there was no freedom of interpretation for the reader. That just bothered me more than anything, but I can forgive that, as it is Young Adult Fiction and she might have just done that because younger readers don’t always read critically.

Plot

There wasn’t really any major plot in this book. I can’t really point out a climax or even a main conflict, other than Ruby’s struggle to come to terms with the fact that she’s no longer in the hands of her mother and that she now has a world of opportunity in front of her. The book was very much character driven so I can see how plot may have fallen through the cracks, but it was so underdeveloped that I doubt this story will have stuck in my mind a year from now.

Representation/Symbolism/Theme

Theme Conveyance

As I’ve mentioned before, the themes in this book were impossible to miss. Mainly because the author felt the need to decode each and every one in its own pointed dialogue sequence between one side character and Ruby. It was very frustrating to have the meanings and symbolism told to me, rather than be left to interpret and dissect the subplots and events on my own to find the messages in them, but I can see how she might have done this in order to make the themes reach her younger audience, which don’t always read critically because they’re more focused on the love story or the drama in YA. 

Symbolism

The symbolism in this book, like the themes, were very much told rather than shown. The whole symbol with the key was explained multiple times throughout the book, and each time it was different, which wasn’t exactly confusing, but it was kind of exhausting after the third time having it brought to my attention. There was a good amount of use of symbolism in this book, and I appreciate that, but again, I could have lived without the constant explanation.

Tough Topics Mentioned

I really really appreciated the way Dessen approached the topic of abuse in the case of Nate and his father. Their whole dynamic was really interesting and was portrayed well and it was the only real part of this book I felt actual care for. The build up for this subplot was done really well and there was a perfect amount of background information to make it feel like a real situation in the reader’s mind. 

In the case of Ruby and Cora’s mother, however, I didn’t like the fact that the physical abuse was just an afterthought, like it was just an extra detail thrown in at the end. I also didn’t like that the mother got her own sort of redemption arc that ended with her (spoiler alert) going to rehab and hinted that Cora and Ruby forgave her after all she had done. Like sure, she’d had her own share of pain and hardship, but there is never an excuse to beat and torment your children, or anyone for that matter. I just couldn’t get past that piece of the puzzle enough to process the rest of the information handed to me by the end.

Overall Thoughts

Would I Recommend?

No, unfortunately. I gave this book a 2.5 out of 5 stars because it just wasn’t really memorable to me, the characters were either unlikable or overlooked, and the plot was non-existent. This book just isn’t worth your time. There are so many amazing 400-page books you could read instead of this one.

Read A Book By An Author You’ve Never Read

This author most likely deserves the place she has in the YA world, because, for a YA book, this was alright. I don’t imagine this is her best, as this isn’t actually one of the most popular ones I’ve seen of hers, but it was okay. There were a couple of good things about this book, but they didn’t outweigh the bad things in my opinion.

Disclaimer

This is in no way meant to insult Sarah Dessen or anyone who enjoys her work or even this book. It takes a lot of work to write and release a book, no matter what’s in it, and I completely acknowledge that you may love and cherish this book, and respect that. If your opinion is different than mine, this isn’t meant to influence your opinion, it’s simply meant to offer a different perspective. This review is based on my own perception and experience while reading this book, which will be completely different than yours no matter what. 

With that being said, thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts surrounding this book, and if you liked this and want to participate in this challenge, here is the information you need. You can read more reviews by other talented writers and readers if you check out the hashtag #10weektbrchallenge here on Tumblr or over on Instagram, where I’m updating on the challenge as well.

Also, thanks to Greg for donating through my ko-fi page! Your support is greatly appreciated.

Happy reading and writing! x

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