The Truth About Forever

This is the rare book that brings together the two sides of me: mother and daughter. The mom in me wanted to wrap my arms around the main character and shelter her from all the pain, but the teenager in me understood the bumpy process she needed to go through to figure out who she needed to be. In my humble opinion, Judy Blume is the authority on teenagers and coming of age stories. But, dare I say... Sarah Dessen is this generation's Judy Blume. And I can say that with some authority, since I have a preteen daughter who I know would love this book and I devoured all of Blume's books during my own teenage years. Macy faces all the typical facets of teenagerdom, but all of that seems inconsequential when she witnesses her dad die. To cope, Macy surrounds herself with safety and routine. Unfortunately, safety is keeping her from living, something she's not aware of until Delia and her band of helpers come to cater one of Macy's Mom's parties. Then her "safe" boyfriend, gone for the summer to Brain Camp, sends her an email asking for a cooling off period. How do you cool off something that never had any heat?! Macy joins the catering crew and slowly comes back to life, bringing a damaged Wes, who lost his mother to cancer, on the journey with her. More than anything, I wanted Macy to embrace life and start enjoying youth, but I also wanted Wes to heal and be part of Macy's new life. One of the characters gives this advice in the book: "For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or ... years from now. You can never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count." Great advice for young and old, and I'd classify this book as making your reading time count! Thanks to Sarah Dessen's excellent story and character development, I can't think of a reader who wouldn't love this book. Okay, maybe male readers who only want action or people who insist a story must have a paranormal angle. And, wait, if you've never been a teenager, you might not understand. All others, get your box of Kleenex, find a comfortable spot to sit, and dive in. You'll be glad you did.

I love Sarah Dessen's characters, and the ensemble of 'The Truth about Forever' didn't disappoint. At first I wasn't sure I would like Macy, she seemed too meek and easily pushed around. However I was soon 'rooting' for her! The subject matter deals with grief and the strange things it does to us. Grief is universal but also unpredictable. And Dessen manages to capture that beautifully. We see various characters dealing with it in their own ways (some better than others). The book is also about being true to yourself, that sounds a bit corny, but it is handled really well, and certainly the hardest thing to do when you are a young adult. Despite the heavy subject matter; and Macy dealing with the loss of her father and the impact that has had on her family, it is still hilarious at times. Just like life I suppose. I really laughed out loud a few times. And found myself saying 'Aww', especially around one of the minor characters Bert. I loved him, he really wears his heart on his sleeve, whether it's with too much cologne or driving like a grandma! For Dessen fans there is a tie in with her other books. I love that- makes me feel like I am part of a secret club, and keeping in touch with old friends. But if you haven't read any of her other books it makes no difference to your enjoyment of the story I can assure you. It's just a little bonus for die hard fans! A great read for young adults, and those beyond- I enjoyed it immensely and am far beyond being a 'young' adult!

"But here was only one truth about forever that really mattered, and that was this: it was happening." The Truth About Forever is such a beautiful story that I wished I could live in Macy's shoes. I kept thinking to myself that this is going to happen or that is surly going to happen but it never worked out how I thought it would. That was both a good thing and a bad thing. Most of the time I wanted to throw this book across the room or throw this book at someones head or want to go inside the pages and throttle someone. If a book can get me to feel like that then it a page-turner and an amazing read. I would recommend this book for anyone who loves to read a story with no paranormal preference or want to read a story about real life situation and relationships then this is a book for you.

Sarah Dessen is absolutely phenomenal and her writing speaks to the soul. While many put her under the genre romance, I think that her books are so much nore than that. Family, friendship, loss, identity, self acceptance and of course, love. Hands down one of my favourite authors!

I read this book at the age of 15. I took it on holiday with me and literally read it about 6 or 7 times in the space of two weeks. I have never been able to finish a book, then turn it back to the first page and start reading it all over again, until I found this book. I have been a fan of Sarah Dessen from about the age of 14. I have read all of her books and even now at 22 I am still excitedly anticipating the release of her latest book. Back to this one. This has always been my favourite purely for the reason that it's exceptional. Sarah has the ability to make you feel what the character feels which I think is absolutely incredible and most authors don't accomplish it. The relationships between the characters was amazing and I actually felt like I was there, I was part of this weird little family that Macy had found. The storyline was brilliant. If I was to summarise it I would say, it's a coming of age story of a teenage girl feeling the pressure of school, family, work and annoyingly "perfect" boyfriend. She finds an escape from everything with an interesting group of people who would change her life completely. I can't really say anything else about it without giving too much away. All I can say is I don't think this book will ever get old. It has humour, it has sadness, and it has acceptance. It purely brilliant and I don't think I will ever tire of reading it. If you purchase a book today, make sure it's this one. You will not regret it.

LOVED this story. It was filled with all kinds of fun and quarky characters, but also characters who felt as real as the air I'm breathing. It hit so close to home with the main character grieving the loss of her father. The book dealt with grief and loss in a very real way, and helped me make sense of things I've never really thought through since facing similar grief of my own. It is a wonderful book, and I highly recommend to all.

My daughter loved these books

I bought this book because I love to read and found this a very good book and would read it again. The only thing I found was that even though they are different books they more or less follow the same story but with different characters and settings.