Keeping the Moon Reviews - Portrait Reviews

Keeping the Moon By Sarah Dessen
Review by: Amanda

Colie Sparks is fifteen years old and has already had a lifetime of not fitting in, no matter where she goes. As a child, she and her mother were both overweight, which got her teased mercilessly every time she moved to a new school. Her mother developed a fitness program though, and the two of them slimmed down dramatically. Now, settled in Charlotte, North Carolina, Colie is ridiculed for something she never did instead of her weight. Her mother sends her to stay with her eccentric Aunt Mira for the summer, and Colie doesn’t really get her hopes up. She’s used to being the new girl and the one everyone picks on. Imagine her surprise when she lands herself a job, a couple of friends, and a better understanding of herself.

This novel is in the same vein as all of Dessen’s stories: a teenage girl finds that her entire world is changing and she struggles to grasp at it. What I love about this novel, even though it’s not my favorite from her books, is that it doesn’t spend as much time focusing on a boy. Of course, there is a boy, because if you are a teenage girl in one of Sarah Dessen’s books, chances are you are experiencing first love, but he isn’t the main draw for the book. The real story is about Colie becoming friends with the two young women she works with. They are a pair of best friends who couldn’t be more different. And for Colie, who has never had real friends, they are a mystery. She learns a lot about what it means to be a friend, and what it means to be accepted. It’s a great story about understanding what it means to be happy in your own skin.