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saania jamal ✧'s Reviews > Along for the Ride
Along for the Ride
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saania jamal ✧'s review
bookshelves: fictional-non-fiction, romance-shomance, cliched-fothermucker, massive-disappointment, quick-reads, contemporary, read-regret, yawn, remind-me-why-im-still-reading-this, decent-timepass
Dec 19, 2016
bookshelves: fictional-non-fiction, romance-shomance, cliched-fothermucker, massive-disappointment, quick-reads, contemporary, read-regret, yawn, remind-me-why-im-still-reading-this, decent-timepass
And the award for my most vanilla book of 2016 goes to...
I think I get it now. The whole appeal with Sarah Dessen and the million or so romance books she's churned; she's no Stephanie Perkins but reading her work is just so easy. Or at least this one was, my first one yet.
But more than easy, it was boring. Mundane. Unexciting. VANILLA.
Just like vanilla ice cream, it's enough to have me gobbling it up in one go, but doesn't quite manage to leave a satisfied mark like chocolate would. (Of course, this analogy is entirely redundant if vanilla happens to be your favourite flavour and you hate chocolate.) (In which case, WHAT ARE YOU?)
In fact, let me add to that comparison: with Along For The Ride, I thought I ordered a nice, rich scoop of caramel, drizzled with hot fudge and whipped cream abound, but what I got instead was a $1 cone from McDonalds.
I feel like this story held so much potential. Auden's personal problems dealing with family issues, social situations, insomnia, even as far as cycling (yes, I am 18 and only just learned how *insert gasp*)— they were all things I could directly relate to within some depth. And so I went into this hoping I could take away something profound, and if not, then learning things from a different perspective at the very least. No good book is a "good book" unless it leaves an impact on its readers some way or the other.
But this? It did nothing for me. Absolutely nada, zero, zilch. Unless you count feelings of frustration over a wasted 6 hours and lost sleep as anything. The entire storyline boils down to having no important point to it at all and if it's meant to be a semi-inspiring "coming of age" novel, then it's done a gosh damn shoddy job of it. The one tiny aspect that I did appreciate was the concept of how teenagers should be given the freedom to find their own niche, figure their own life out without the pressure from parents –or anyone else at all– to follow a certain path. Also, how appearances and gender stereotypes are a complete and total sham.
Buuuut.
While well-written, that message was lost amidst poor execution with a yawn-worthy plot and a ridiculously detached romance (seriously, I have more chemistry with the subject chemistry than these two do with each other and that's saying something).
You're better off going to Ikea and shopping for furniture (something I missed in favour of reading this) than hopping along for this ride; that'd be more adventurous than Eli and Auden's late night adventures ever will be.
Final rating: 1.5 stars
_________________________
Book song: Flume - Quirk
_________________________
I think I get it now. The whole appeal with Sarah Dessen and the million or so romance books she's churned; she's no Stephanie Perkins but reading her work is just so easy. Or at least this one was, my first one yet.
But more than easy, it was boring. Mundane. Unexciting. VANILLA.
Just like vanilla ice cream, it's enough to have me gobbling it up in one go, but doesn't quite manage to leave a satisfied mark like chocolate would. (Of course, this analogy is entirely redundant if vanilla happens to be your favourite flavour and you hate chocolate.) (In which case, WHAT ARE YOU?)
In fact, let me add to that comparison: with Along For The Ride, I thought I ordered a nice, rich scoop of caramel, drizzled with hot fudge and whipped cream abound, but what I got instead was a $1 cone from McDonalds.
I feel like this story held so much potential. Auden's personal problems dealing with family issues, social situations, insomnia, even as far as cycling (yes, I am 18 and only just learned how *insert gasp*)— they were all things I could directly relate to within some depth. And so I went into this hoping I could take away something profound, and if not, then learning things from a different perspective at the very least. No good book is a "good book" unless it leaves an impact on its readers some way or the other.
But this? It did nothing for me. Absolutely nada, zero, zilch. Unless you count feelings of frustration over a wasted 6 hours and lost sleep as anything. The entire storyline boils down to having no important point to it at all and if it's meant to be a semi-inspiring "coming of age" novel, then it's done a gosh damn shoddy job of it. The one tiny aspect that I did appreciate was the concept of how teenagers should be given the freedom to find their own niche, figure their own life out without the pressure from parents –or anyone else at all– to follow a certain path. Also, how appearances and gender stereotypes are a complete and total sham.
Buuuut.
While well-written, that message was lost amidst poor execution with a yawn-worthy plot and a ridiculously detached romance (seriously, I have more chemistry with the subject chemistry than these two do with each other and that's saying something).
You're better off going to Ikea and shopping for furniture (something I missed in favour of reading this) than hopping along for this ride; that'd be more adventurous than Eli and Auden's late night adventures ever will be.
Final rating: 1.5 stars
_________________________
Book song: Flume - Quirk
_________________________
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Reading Progress
August 23, 2014
– Shelved as:
to-read
August 23, 2014
– Shelved
August 23, 2014
– Shelved as:
fictional-non-fiction
August 23, 2014
– Shelved as:
romance-shomance
December 18, 2016
–
Started Reading
December 19, 2016
– Shelved as:
read-regret
December 19, 2016
– Shelved as:
contemporary
December 19, 2016
– Shelved as:
quick-reads
December 19, 2016
– Shelved as:
massive-disappointment
December 19, 2016
– Shelved as:
cliched-fothermucker
December 19, 2016
– Shelved as:
remind-me-why-im-still-reading-this
December 19, 2016
– Shelved as:
yawn
December 19, 2016
– Shelved as:
decent-timepass
December 23, 2016
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-7 of 7 (7 new)
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by
Chelsea
(new)
Dec 19, 2016 12:50PM
The only book by her I've enjoyed so far was Dreamland. Everything else was so blah and boring.
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Yeah most of Dessen's I like it but nothing ever interesting or profound happens. The only one of hers I love is This Lullaby, it's less vanilla then her usual and more grown up.
I think, if you put her in the context of late 90s early 00s, you will begin to see her appeal. She was there before Stephanie PErkins, and Rainbow Rowell, etc. I admit, the only reason I read her last few were for nostalia purposes.I do think shes good, but I don't think she's amazing.
I'm not a fan of Sarah Dessen's books either. She seems cool, but her books are bland and boring to me. I just could not connect to her characters at all.
I agree her books are SO damn boring, i don't get the hype of her books.. I also gave it 2 stars
I think I get what your saying. And if you read a lot of her books like I have you find they are all so similar that it's pointless wasting your time reading them. Actually what I recommend you should do is read Just Listen by Sarah Dessen. It's her best book by far. The originality of the book is really what makes Just Listen stand out from all the rest of her sloshy, same-as-all-the-rest romances. And to be honest your quite right about Sarah Dessen being so easy to read. I actually read her books when I want to take a break from dramatic and intense books because the pace of Dessen's books are slow and simple. I think it really depends on what you were looking for but on a lot of judgements you made I agree with you
exactly my thoughts as well. Couldn't have said it better
