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This Lullaby
Binding: Hardcover
Author: Sarah Dessen
Manufacturer: Viking Juvenile
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Features:
Average Rating: 4.5
Total Customer Reviews: 215
List Price: $16.99
Our Price: $11.55
Sales Rank: 211397
Product Description
Remy always knows the perfect time to give a boyfriend "The Speech" telling him it's over-after the initial romantic whirl, but before the reality of an actual relationship hits. Her friends tease that her boyfriend tally is nearing the triple digit mark, but she's a girl who knows just how to avoid any messy emotional entanglement. After all, she's had the example of her five-times-married mother to show her what not to do.
So what, then, is it about Dexter that makes it so hard for her to follow her own rules? He's everything she hates: messy, disorganized, much too vulnerable, impulsive, and worst of all, a musician like her father: the father Remy never knew, the father who wrote a famous song for her, the father who disappeared from her life.
Sarah Dessen's most captivating novel yet introduces readers to a girl who believes her heart is made of stone-and the boy who proves her wrong.
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Users Product Reviews: |
Product Review Summary: A bit too depressing for my taste "This Lullaby" was my first Dessen book and will probably be the last. It has nothing to with the writing, but this kind of slightly depressing YA chick lit a la Jennifer Weiner is simply not my cup of tea.
This book is normally described as a super sweet romance, but it never felt like one to me. Rather, it was a story of a girl disillusioned in love who finally allowed herself to open herself up to an honest relationship with a man.
There was really nothing wrong with this story. The characters were very well drawn in comparison to those in many other YA novels I've read. They were compelling and understandable and their relationships with each other felt real. Dexter as the main male lead was extremely likable. Remy appeared a little harder to understand and appreciate. For her 18 years of age she was awfully negative and cynical and I found it very hard at times to remain in her head, because it seemed to me she never took any pleasure in anything, even in her short relationship with Dexter. Maybe I would have understood her better if her personality was explored more thoroughly: Why exactly was she so angry with her father, after all, he never did her any harm, he died when she was just a toddler? What made her clean up her act and abandon her promiscuous life style and drug use? Why, with all her disillusionment in love, did she keep having these 2-months romances? What exactly did she want from these relationships? I also wanted to know more about Remy's friends, especially about always in a background Jess, and about Chloe, who was as cynical as Remy, but what was her reason? And lastly, these 4 girls seemed strangely too mature and jaded for their age. Throughout the book I kept thinking that if you take the words "high school graduation" and "college" out of the story, you basically get on your hands a group of "Sex and the City" girls.
"This Lullaby" was by no means a bad book, it was a fast and engaging story, but it left me fairly unsatisfied and not really inspired to read any other books by the author.
Product Review Summary: Predictable, but still excellent (Warning: This is a bit spoilery)
I'm starting to notice the Dessen pattern that's been pointed out a few times. Girl has family problems. Girl meets boy who helps her get over family problems. Awkward cringe-worthy moment when girl and boy go separate ways. Family problems lessen, or are figured out. Girl and boy get back together with two pages to spare.
This Lullaby is no different. Remy Starr (who has an amazing tabloid-star name) likes guys - she likes them a lot, but not enough to stick with them. She knows when to give them the break up talk and it usually comes right before things get too serious. She has to though, she knows love doesn't work out in the end, as proven by her mother's four failed marriages. She's strong and single-minded; she speaks her mind and can be harsh to others, but still caring to her friends. Then she meets Dexter, a guy she'd normally not go for. Messy, annoying at times, and clumsy, he bounces his way into her life and helps her loosen up. But with her move across the country for college looming ahead, she knows Dexter will only be temporary. That is, until she realizes that she might have been wrong about love all along.
The book is cute, and harsher than others I've read by Dessen before. Stronger language, and the main character isn't necessarily "good." She's had a sordid past, one she's trying to get over and I liked that she wasn't perfect or inherently wonderful. And Dexter was cute, with his haphazard lifestyle. Of all the Dessen boys, I could probably see myself liking him the most.
The story was pretty simple and straightforward. What I liked most, though, was Remy's relationship with her brother, a minor character. He had a not-so-innocent past as well, but got over it and moved on to better things. I liked their ongoing banter, their brother/sister bond.
My main complaint is that I wish the ending was longer. It felt a bit rushed, the last chapter. Everything was tied up, yes, but I wanted more. I guess that's actually a compliment as well - wanting more.
Overall, the book was fun. If you like any of Dessen's other books, you'll like this.
It's a decent pattern in the end - predictable, yet reaffirming that things will always be ok. Just in the nick of time.
Product Review Summary: Liked it very much, although... This book is very good in my opinion.
I love Sarah Dessen`s books, despite the fact that I only read two, but I plan on reading every single one of them. And I have friends who read them too.
The only flaw I saw to the book is that at the beggining Dexter (the "male main character") seemed a little stalkerish. I was like: if a guy did that to me I`d be freaked out. But then, when you get to know him, you realize he is certainly not a stalker. Although, I didn`t fall in love with him. It wasnt like in "Along for the ride", where the guy was Eli, who I totally loved since the beggining. In this book I wasn`t sure if I wanted Emily to be with Dexter. Being honest, I didn`t like him very much.
But I liked that fact, because I connected to Emily, and despite the fact that I didn`t connect with Dexter, the book still appealed to me, and I couldn`t stop turning pages.
I dont know how I feel about the ending. It`s like Sarah Dessen`s endings: open. Very open. Although this one was very: ?. I want to know what will happen. I think now its all up to my imagination.
In conclusion, this book is a good one (like all Sarah Dessen`s books). Read it if you can.
Product Review Summary: Fast Delivery Awesome seller. Got the book earlier than was estimated. And it was in the condition that I had ordered it in. I would definitely buy from this seller again. Thanks a bunch!!
Product Review Summary: sounds sweet, but has depth Much like the lullaby of the title is a typical over-played sappy song, Remy's story begins as a typical teen story (girl with messed-up family struggles to come to terms with love). However, both have the makings of something deeper and more meaningful in the hands where they eventually fall. Remy doesn't know what to think of the singer/songwriter father who died before she met him. She knows exactly what to think of her artsy-flighty mom, at least until a new marriage begins to change her. She used to know what to think of her brother until his girlfriend started teaching him to wear shirts with collars and *iron them*! Her gal pals all have comfortable roles in their friendship and she knows what they expect from her. But as high school ends, things are changing. Relationships end both as expected and unexpectedly, so new opportunities open. Should you take a chance on a feeling that flashes through you in a second? Should you stand by the logic you've spent years developing? What happens if neither choice leaves you happy?
This outshines some of Dessen's other teen stories and has the courage to give readers an unconventional ending. As an adult reader, it's 4 or 4.5 stars for me, but the teens in my classes think it is much more of a 5 (or, according to one, a 6!) This is a good shelf selection for grades 8-12. Although Remy has been a wild child and continues to use her fake ID to purchase drinks, she is changing, so the book isn't likely to bother parents too much.
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