Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

TL;DR Sydney finds her own shadow to cast

TBR #1211, added May 1, 2015

library hold placed 9/18/16, #10; received 10/1, #8

finished 10/11/16

I've had such a long streak of fantasy books that I definitely needed Saint Anything. The last contemporary book I'd read before it was All the Feels back at the end of July. Which is actually a pretty solid streak for me, to go for so long without getting anything relatively fluffy to lighten things up.

And I was a little scared going into it, because with my past experience of Sarah Dessen books (and ones like hers), they're never quite as fluffy as I want. There's always something that goes wrong and gives the books a somber tone -- which isn't bad, theoretically, but it tends to be predictable and definitely keeps the book from being truly fluffy.

I was actually wrong about Saint Anything in that regard. I was waiting so much for everything to come crashing down, and it never really did. There were roadblocks and setbacks but they were never earth-shattering; they felt normal. They felt like everyday things and not "my world is ending". It was nice and just what I wanted out of the story.

I liked the characters and their growth over the story, and I think it was realistic that they didn't really change all that much. It wasn't a very long period of time but we got to see the changes in Sydney's family and her own branching out into her own identity. She ends up with such a good group of friends and they're not always in agreement with each other. They fight and try to head in opposite directions sometimes and that felt lifelike to me.

The subplot regarding Ames wasn't resolved as well as I was hoping but I think it's also fairly realistic in how it just dropped off -- both because it would drag the plot out longer and because, unfortunately, those kinds of subplots in real life tend to get swept under the rug. Which is very disappointing. But, because it wasn't quite the main plot of the book, I'm willing to let it be left unresolved for the most part.

TL;DR I think the ending in general was a little lackluster, but overall I really enjoyed reading Saint Anything and I'm glad that Sydney had an overall happy ending. I think I'm most likely to recommend this one out of all the Sarah Dessen books I've read. (Which, to be honest, I think it's been a while since the last one I read.)