Dreamland

Dreamland
Sarah Dessen
250 pages
Publisher: Viking
Source: Library
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

I've heard several good things about Sarah Dessen's YA novels, yet it took me months to finally find one to read.  There were just so any to choose from, all different kinds of covers and plot descriptions.  What to choose, what to choose?  Then finally I just grabbed one at the library last week and now I've read my first Sarah Dessen.  Yay!

Dreamland was a great novel.  Caitlin's sister, Cassandra, runs away on Caitlin's birthday.  After she leaves, Caitlin feels like she has this hole of perfection to fill and struggles to find a way to be unique.  Soon she meets a strange boy, Rogerson, and they form a relationship that, despite his illegal activities as a pot dealer, starts out innocently enough.  But soon Caitlin is stuck in an abusive relationship that consumes her life and she struggles to find a way to make it better.

The reason Dreamland gets four stars from me was the slow start.  It took me until about halfway through the novel to get to a point where I couldn't put it down.  But once I didn't put it down, it was a great story.  Caitlin's struggle was very realistic and I actually think every high school girl should read this novel and teach herself a little something about abusive relationships.