The Truth About Forever -- Sarah Dessen

The Truth about Forever, by Sarah Dessen, is a very inspirational novel about a teenage girl finding her place in life after a tragic situation. Macy is a seventeen year old girl whose father has passed 18 months ago. Her mother, a successful real estate agent, is coping with the loss without showing emotions. Her sister, Caroline, who is living in Atlanta with her husband, dealt with the loss very emotionally. Caroline has a more reasonable way of remembering her father currently and decides to renovate her father’s old beach house so the three of them can visit it on the weekends like old times. When Macy’s father died, Macy cut off connections with almost all of her friends, in fear of having to deal with loss again. Macy’s boyfriend, who keeps her in order, is off to Brain Camp for the summer, leaving her with his job at the library, which she despises. Little does she know that her life is about to change in a major way.

While Macy is at one of her mother’s open houses, she meets the pregnant boss of Wish Catering, who is supplying and serving the refreshments for the event. This woman, Delia, is frantic because of her chaotic job. She asks Macy for help in the kitchen and soon later offers her a job. Although Macy declines because of her library job, Delia tells her that the offer still stands if she ever wants to take it.

A couple weeks later, Macy’s boyfriend emails her and suggests they take a break. She is devastated and in a time of need, she turns to Wish Catering and takes the job offer. While at this job, she meets Wes, Delia’s nephew and a worker at Wish Catering. He is dealing with the same emotional pain she is (his mother passed away six years ago). They become friends and play an ongoing game of Truth, which involves—you guessed it—telling the truth. Through this game, they learn some of each other’s deepest secrets, including what Wes worries about the most and Macy’s grossest moment. With the help of Kristy, one of Macy’s friends from work (who believes Macy and Wes are secretly in love), Macy and Wes become good friends. However, their game of Truth and their friendship are put on hold when Macy’s mother (who needs everything to be in order) realizes that Macy has quit her library job and lost her structured boyfriend. She decides that Macy’s new friends are a bad influence on her and grounds her from seeing them as well as working at Wish Catering. Macy is crushed and astounded by her mother’s decision and goes back into her dormant-like state, staying in her room most of the rest of her summer. However, when Wes and Macy reunite, their true feelings for each other begin to show...

I thoroughly enjoyed The Truth about Forever. Sarah Dessen is a fantastic writer and her stories are always inspiring. This novel shows the harsh realities of different ways to cope with losses and how friends can be so influential and supportive in times of need. I was curious about how Sarah Dessen came up with the topics of her novels, so I did some background research. Although Sarah Dessen didn’t experience any events as life changing and significant as the ones in her novel, she did very much enjoy high school and gossip, which is where she got most of the ideas for her novels. I would recommend The Truth about Forever, as well as any novel by Sarah Dessen, to anyone interested in reading an inspirational story.