Along for the Ride

Dessen, Sarah. 2009. ALONG FOR THE RIDE. Narrated by Rachel Botchan. New York: Penguin Group USA Recorded Books. ISBN 978-1-4407-3027-6

Before she starts college in the fall, Auden impulsively decides it’s to get a break from her haughty controlling mother and spends the summer with her novel-writing father, his new young wife, Heidi, and their new baby, Thisbe, at their beach house in the tiny town of Colby. As she begins her summer “retreat” receiving occasional calls from her vagabond brother, she realizes not all is well with her father and Heidi and ends up reliving her insomniac nights, avoiding the turmoil at the beach house and the colicky baby, by driving from coffee shop to coffee shop. To help out and get out of the house, Auden starts doing the books at Heidi’s boutique shop, Clementine’s. Always having had to be a grown-up and feeling like she’s on the outside looking in, Auden watches and listens as the other employees, who’ve also just graduated from high school, chat away about benign frivolous things that in her mind, really don’t matter. As the summer progresses she develops friendships with “store-goers” and falls in love with another insomniac, Eli, who’s facing challenges after his best friend’s death. While fulfilling “quests” like learning to ride a bike, starting food fights, bowling for the first time, and going to the prom, Auden recaptures her youth and learns that “failing sucks, but it’s better than the alternative…not even trying.”

Rachel Botchan’s narration is perfectly suited the main character Auden capturing her teenage attitude, thoughts, and awkward personality. Susie Wilde (2009) states, “Botchan perfectly renders the teenage dialogue and emotionally charged situations upon which Dessen has built her reputation.”

The author Sarah Dessen accurately portrays the personality of Auden, a young adult that escapes from life’s stresses by exceeding at academics and her evolution to the realization that “people change.” “Taut, witty first-person narration allows readers to both identify with Auden's insecurities and recognize her unfair, acerbic criticisms of people (Kirkus 2009).” Her secondary characters also have substance as they deal with their own hurts and triumphs through typical teenage events like bonfires with alcohol, deciding what to do after work, and learning there’s more to life than bikes and jeans. This book offers readers an opportunity to examine relationships between families and friends. Comparing and contrasting these characters can give readers insight to their relationships with their own families and friends. Young adults will enjoy this witty, light-hearted novel about teens that are smarter than their parents and growing up.

Along for the Ride was included on the 2010 YALSA Teens’ Top Ten list and was nominated for two of the 2010 Indigo Teen Read Awards in Canada.

References

Wilde, Susie. 2009. “Audiobook Reviews.” AudioFile Magazine. http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/dbsearch/showreview.cfm?Num=47119 . (accessed on September 28, 2011).

2009. "ALONG FOR THE RIDE." Kirkus Reviews 77, no. 10: 198. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed on September 28, 2011).