Being in college doesn’t mean you just have to read classic and academic literature all the time. Yes, you can read young adult novels and you can admit it! But, if you are a little bit concerned about how the majority of YA stories are the same – even though they are not – I have a tip for you: Sarah Dessen.
Sarah Dessen wrote over a dozen novels, is always on The New York Times’ bestsellers list and won a lot of awards, like the 2017 Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association for outstanding contribution to young adult literature. She’s also called “Queen of YA fiction”. Nothing bad, huh?
According to Bheatrys Cruz, a Biology Graduate Student at Goiás Federal University (UFG), YA novels have to be attractive to the youth, otherwise they would be teen fiction. “A large number of novels are predictable, we can tell what’s going to happen next with the character. Sarah Dessen’s are different, because the problem is always beyond the young romance and family issues. They’re about the friend we make along the journey to grow up and seeing things how they are and not how they affect us.”
Beatriz Borges, Law Student, agrees: “Sarah tells about the changes we pass through when we start to date or conflicts between friends and get to the bottom of it.”
Although her books are unlike others from the genre, they are very relatable. The novels are very vivid and the stories bring back some youthfulness memories and reflections about those past memories and see them in a greater perspective. Being older and read this kind of books are ways to learn about ourselves and show that we all need someone to be there for us, whether it will be a parent or a good friend.
After all this, take a look at the titles and choose a Sarah Dessen’s novel to be your next bedside book:
Credits: sarahdessen.com
In Brazil, That Summer (Aquele Verão) and What Happened to Goodbye (O que Aconteceu com o Adeus) were published by Editora Moderna; Saint Anything (Os Bons Segredos) and That Lullaby (Uma Canção de Ninar) are from Companhia das Letras. At first, Just Listen (Só Escute) was published by Editora Farol, but it will be released again in october by Companhia das Letras, as well.