Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Once and for All by Sarah Dessen

1 review

imlaurenshelton's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

As a teenager, I enjoyed Sarah Dessen on multiple occasions. My favorite book of hers will forever be Lock & Key. I admired how she had the talent to talk about serious matters with grace and poise, highlighting the subject of the content matter rather than creating flash to draw readers in. So much about this book I love, first and foremost the revolving door of weddings (because I will always enjoy a good book with a wedding). I love  Louna’s mom. I’m a hardcore fan, I think she’s funny and I completely understand her bitter (“cynical”) outlook on life, especially after what her husband did, but look at what she (and William) managed to do, while raising a child. William is the touch of love that’s needed throughout, always giving comfort and gentle nudges where needed. I sympathized with Ambrose, I saw a lot of my brother in him - especially with the tape dispenser scene. He’s just a young man trying to do right and people find him pre-emotive my annoying; of course there are some things he just gets utterly wrong, such as his revolving door of women and dates and animal theft behaviors. He’s the perfect charming, main-character-loves-to-hate love interest. I did not care for Jilly, I thought she was pretty self-centered and from my perspective, most of her actions towards Louna had an end-goal of helping herself out. As for Louna herself, she’s a character where my feelings get complicated. From what she experienced, I understand her anguish and bitterness towards love - but I don’t understand her dislike of Ambrose, not really. If she was someone who truly admired and believed in love and the process of monogamy, I would understand the dislike. However, she was built up as a cynical character who learned to hate love after listening to her mother and William after all these years. What Ambrose does shouldn’t affect her feelings about him, and yet she hates him instantly (coincidentally when he decides that he likes her). Her character was very wishy-washy, and maybe that’s in part to the consistent time jumps back and forth from present to a year ago. 
At the end of the day, everyone gets their HEA and I did enjoy the book. However, I took off a star for the teenage sex (I don’t care if it happens in real life, I don’t like the idea of pushing teens to have sex) and the unlikable-ness of Louna. I think there’s an issue where all the supporting characters are more well-liked despite their flaws and the main character is meh. I would recommend this even still to anyone looking for a lighthearted summer romance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Mass/school shootings and Car accident

Minor: Sexual content, Cursing, Alcohol, and Death of parent

This book, for its majority, is lighthearted and sweet. There are a few things to be wary of though. There is mention of school shootings throughout, none in graphic detail, but

one of these shootings did result in the death of the main character’s boyfriend. She struggles with her grief throughout the novel, it being only months after the death.

There’s also underage drinking, alcohol in general, cursing, and teen sex (mentioned after the fact). There is also a mention of her father dying from a car accident when she was a toddler, which she has no emotion about because she never knew him. But

later this comes full circle, as her current love interest is thought to have been in a car accident (he wasn’t) and this scene may be disturbing to anyone who has experienced the like.