“The Truth About Forever” by Sarah Dessen

This book is ideal for high school students as it provides a look at a very realistic teenager. Macy, the main character, is left to face the death of her father, yet she is terrified to show how heartbroken his death has left her. While still attempting to appear strong to those around her, Macy looks for anything she can cling to, only to rely upon a boyfriend who is far too focused on academic and career goals to build her into his life. Although Macy begins the summer with the intention of maintaining her boyfriend Jason’s job while he is away, she soon realizes that she must make herself happy rather than constantly caring for those around her. Macy has become dependent upon acting perfect in order to hide how much she is actually suffering, believing that her mother needs her to stay as strong as she is. She surrounds herself with perfection, such as her mother who compulsively cleans to distract herself, and her work oriented boyfriend who believes love to be an unhealthy distraction. When she meets Delia and the rest of the Wish catering crew, she soon finds comfort in disorder as they quickly handle disaster after disaster. While Macy initially holds back from the rest of the crew, even after her boyfriend cruelly breaks up with her via email, she soon begins to relax and enjoy her summer with the hectic catering crew. She begins to love the chaos, “So while at home I was still fine-just-fine Macy, wiping up sink splatters immediately and ironing my clothes as soon as they got out of the dryer, the nights when I arrived home from catering, I was someone else, a girl with her hair mussed, a stained shirt, smelling of whatever had been spilled or smeared on me. It was like Cinderella in reverse: if I was a princess for my daylight hours, at night I let myself and my composure go, just until the stroke of midnight, when I turned back to princess again, just in time” (Dessen 105). While Macy still sees the necessity in remaining perfect, she is able to let her guard down from time to time in order in enjoy herself.

I would like to teach this book, yet I feel that it would be valuable to teach it alongside a similar text of potentially higher caliber. I would classify this as an issue book of sorts, thus I might teach it alongside other high school issue books. While there are many elements I would be interested in exploring, I think that boys might be less interested in this work, thus I think it would work better as a suggested read or as a group book. Despite the light nature of “The Truth About Forever,” I think that it would still strike the attention of many students, and thus it is a valuable resource for my classroom. I would like to tentatively suggest this book to students who might have experienced loss, without necessarily pushing the book at them so that they feel uncomfortable.