I liked a lot of this one, the friendships, the depiction of an emotionally bruised family, the little things like the french fry obsession and the yum yums, there were just areas here and there that I wanted more fleshed out.

This isn’t the plottiest of novels, it’s more focused on characters and relationships than on page turning happenings so I imagine some readers will find it slow or meandering particularly since it’s on the long side for contemporary YA. There was a repetitive feel to the story, but I wasn’t bored with it nor did it feel draggy (as has been the case for me with some contemporaries of this size), I guess I was in the right mood for following a character through their everyday life, it felt realistic that someone’s day to day would kind of be a repeated pattern only occasionally doing something outside her norm that slightly alters her course.

The other really realistic area to me was the family dynamic, anyone with a sibling who takes up a lot of the oxygen be it for good or bad reasons will relate to the way Sydney is often lost in the shuffle or at other occasions pays the price for her sibling’s actions and how the happiness or unhappiness in her home is dependent on whatever is going on with her brother at any given moment. I understood all of that to an almost uncomfortable degree. That aspect I would have given five stars for getting it very right.

I’d probably give two stars or less to the Ames situation. He’s the brother’s best friend, immediately gives off bad vibes to Sydney, her friends, and the reader, yet for the majority of the book her parents treat him like family. This guy, who has a history nearly as checkered as the brother’s, who is only a couple years older than Sydney, is trusted to stay alone overnight “babysitting” seventeen year old Sydney. I get that the mother liked that this guy is a yes man, agreeing with everything she says, and he’s a connection to the son who is slipping away from her, still, Ames just came off as so obviously smarmy and I had a hard time fathoming any parents, no matter how caught up they are in their own emotions over their son, would think it’s safe to leave their teenage daughter alone for the weekend with a twenty something guy. I needed way more of an explanation for how and why they trusted him so thoroughly.

There is a romance here, I was okay with their chemistry, but the emotion between them never really advanced beyond a surface level, same goes for feeling like I didn’t know him all that well beyond surface stuff like he’s good at repairing things and he’s lost weight. There was rarely enough depth to their interactions, certainly not depth in comparison to Sydney’s friendship with Layla, which I guess is why I kind of resented it when not only did their friendship take a backseat to the romance, the romance also hindered the friendship and for a reason that to me felt contrived.

While I had no problem with how things wrapped up for the characters, the ending did feel somewhat rushed, like the final page coming to an abrupt halt and stuff with the parents that was more summed up than shown. This wasn’t a matter of wanting tidy bows put on anything, there were just certain conversations that felt so vital to the story and having those conversations left mostly to the imagination shortchanged the reader a bit. ( )

You can't read YA and not have read at least one of Sarah Dessen's twelves (TWELVE!) novels. Her latest, Saint Anything, came out just a few weeks ago and rocketed to the top of the New York Times list, and it's clear why. This was a different direction for Dessen, a bit of a turn from her usually fluffy romantic writing and a chance for her to grapple with some darker edges of growing up.

Sydney has always lived in the shadow of her big brother Peyton, the charming young man who couldn't see his way out of trouble when he needed to. This eventually lands him in prison for drunk driving and injuring a 15-year old boy, paralyzing him. Still, even with Peyton out of the house, Sydney feels invisible. Her Mom is hyper-focused on making sure Peyton is taken care of (even though you know, he's being punished), and her Dad has no backbone when it comes to her Mom so he instead just goes on lots of work trips.

Due to the infamy that comes with being associated with a drunk driver, Sydney decided to switch out of her private school and into the local public where she can feel even more invisible and carry her guilt without the added benefit of everyone knowing why she feels that way. However, the world has other plans for Sydney when she becomes friends with Mac and Layla Chatham and ends up becoming a part of their little universe, willing or not.

What I loved about this novel, is that the romantic relationship between Mac and Sydney was not the main event. Rather the main event was Sydney. Just Sydney. Sydney and Layla's blossoming friendship and how that affected her friends from Perkin's Day, Sydney and her relationship with her mother who's intense need to protect and cater to Peyton has left her daughter in the background. Sydney and her journey in learning to speak up to those around her and say what she's really feeling. For much of the book, I was fighting against Sydney, wanting her to yell at her mom, to yell at Ames (her brother's creepy friend from rehab who won't leave even though Peyton has), to FIGHT for something. However, I realized that this was not Sydney's nature - Sydney's strength was in her quietness, in her ability to understand that it's not about her as frustrating as that might be.

If you follow Dessen on twitter (and you should), you will know that her journey to Sydney's story was a rather long one. She abandoned a novel before writing Saint Anything, and found herself in an unfamiliar place where she didn't have a story in mind. After taking a much needed break and some soul-searching she found her way to Sydney and the story she needed to tell - and I'm so glad she did. ( )

While so many things about this book frustrated me, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of it. Sarah Dessen knows how to tell a story, and she did it here brilliantly.

This book isn’t even about that much, but that didn’t stop me from needing to know how it was all going to turn out. I’ve become accustomed to the mothers in these books being insufferable— this mother was up there with the worst of them. I hated her SO MUCH. But Sydney wasn’t easy either. It’s tough for me to relate to a character who is so passive— letting life happen to her, rather than her leading a life. And it made me realize that most of Sarah D’s main girls aren’t the best things about her books— it’s the side characters. All the side characters in this book were much more interesting than Sydney. Who even is Sydney? I don’t know and I just sat through 8 hours of audio book. ( )

One of my all-time faves! Mac is so sweet! ( )

I didn't ever want to put this book down because the characters felt like friends and I wanted to keep reading about their lives.

Sydney was so much fun to read about. She was self-assured and confident but her hesitance and selflessness made her incredibly easy to feel a kinship with. She transfers high schools at the beginning, partially due to her parents' changing financial situation which made her a good one right off the bat.

She quickly falls into a group of friends, each with their own fun personalities, yet maintains her friendship with a couple of her old classmates. At the same time, she interacts with her brother Peyton, currently in jail; his best friend, who is creepy off the bat but adored by Sydney's parents; and her mother, lost now that her family isn't model perfect.

The relationships in this book were the type that had my stomach fluttering from the most PG interactions, which to me really exemplifies how strong Dessen's writing is. Dessen's locations were also well described and there were some scenes, such as those in the forest, that I could imagine extremely vividly.

The saint trope was well-played--subtle but touching--and a few of the end results had really subtle foreshadowing that allowed me to guess them before they happened.

This book had a lot of hype and I had high expectations based on other works I've read by Dessen. However, it exceeded them and this might be my favourite Dessen book yet. ( )