Dark fiction works best with some other emotions juxtaposed to really set off the tragedy of the situation and to make everything feel more real.Īlso, I had a really hard time accepting that her family, her neighbors, and Rina all failed to notice her downward spiral. Pretty much the only feelings I got from this were sadness and hopelessness. For one thing, I think the messages might have gone down better with a little bit more breadth of emotion. Much as I love Dessen's writing, I do not feel this is one of her best novels. Rather than helping her become her own person, Rogerson lets her live for him instead Caitlin remains a shell of a person. The portrayal of their relationship is realistic and utterly horrifying. Dessen shows the attraction such a boy possesses, while also conveying a definite message.
He deals drugs, bosses Caitlin around, and completely monopolizes her life. Rogerson Biscoe most definitely is a bad boy. Now, you know all those popular books these days about heroines dating bad boys with hearts of gold, who make their girlfriends into better people? This is NOT one of those. In her continuing search to be her own person and do things Cass never did, Caitlin begins dating a bad boy.
The reader can feel Caitlin's lack of direction and disconnection from the world. She both misses Cass and relishes the idea that now maybe she will shine for a change, but has no idea how to do that. When Cass makes the cheerleading team, having been pressed to audition by her steamrolling best friend, Rina, her mother gets involved the same way she always did for Rina. In the absence of Cass, Caitlin's overprotective mother switches her focus to the remaining daughter. Caitlin has always used her sister as a bit of an excuse not to excel or be special, knowing she could not measure up, and, without Cass around, Caitlin doesn't have any clue who to be.
In this case, however, the older sister isn't dead, merely gone, run away to who knows where.
As in The Sky Is Everwhere by Jandy Nelson, we begin with a girl living in the shadow of her perfect older sister.
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