Sarah Dessen

The author of 10 YA books about various teenage protagonists as they deal with growing up.


 * That Summer
 * Someone Like You
 * Keeping the Moon
 * Dreamland
 * This Lullaby
 * The Truth About Forever
 * Just Listen
 * Lock and Key
 * Along for the Ride
 * What Happened to Goodbye
 * The Best Ever After (to be released in 2013)


 * Alpha Bitch: Sophie from Just Listen (It's worth noting that she is the protagonist's ex-best friend).
 * Beast and Beauty: Annabel and Owen in Just Listen are mocked for this when they first begin spending time together.
 * Black Best Friend: Olivia in Lock and Key.
 * Bottle Fairy: Remy and her friends in This Lullaby.
 * Brand X: Ume.com, an obvious parallel to Facebook, is mentioned in several of her novels.
 * California University: "The U" that is mentioned in all her novels.
 * Character Development: Happens in all of the novels. Jason Talbot noticeably develops between Along for the Ride and What Happened to Goodbye.
 * Character Overlap:Frequently. The ones listed below are rare in how explicit the cameos are.
 * Remy, Dexter, and the The Truth Squad from This Lullaby cameo in Just Listen.
 * Jason Talbot from Truth About Forever reappears in Along For the Ride and Whatever Happened to Goodbye.
 * Heidi and Thisbe from Along For the Ride in Whatever Happened to Goodbye.
 * Continuity Cameo: See above.
 * Continuity Nod: Her books often mention characters from her previous novels.
 * Cool Big Sis: Cora in Lock And Key
 * Caroline in The Truth About Forever
 * Kirsten in Just Listen. Whitney takes awhile but eventually becomes this.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Remy in This Lullaby
 * Macy's mother in The Truth About Forever
 * Five-Man Band: The Wish Catering Crew in The Truth About Forever.
 * The Hero: Macy
 * The Lancer: Wes
 * The Smart Guy: Bert
 * The Big Guy: Monica
 * The Chick: Kristy
 * Team Mom: Delia
 * Genki Girl: Kristy in The Truth About Forever.
 * Good Girls Avoid Abortion:  is pressured to have an abortion, but she changes her mind at the last minute and keeps the baby.
 * Hair of Gold: Several characters from various stories (Annabel from Just Listen, Macy and Kristy from The Truth About Forever, Mclean and Debbie from What Happened to Goodbye, etc.).
 * Hidden Depths: A part of characterization of the supporting casts (All the people in the Wish Catering Crew in Truth About Forever, Maggie and Heidi in Along For the Ride etc.). Debbie in What Happened To Goodbye is a neat example where her Hidden Depths aren't a surprise to Mclean so much as to the other characters who have known her longer.
 * Insufferable Genius: Jason Talbot in The Truth About Forever
 * He shows up again in Along For The Ride and hasn't changed.
 * Bethany and Amanda, the girls who work at the Library Info Desk with Jason.
 * Lady Drunk: Ruby's mother in Lock and Key.
 * Ladykiller in Love: This Lullaby is a Gender Flip.
 * Loners Are Freaks: The opinion of Owen Armstrong held by most of Jackson High School
 * Love At First Sight: In This Lullaby, Dexter immediately falls for Remy and promptly tells her so. She, however, needs a lot more convincing.
 * Love Epiphany:
 * Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Dexter is a Guy version for Remy in This Lullaby.
 * The Wish Catering Crew from The Truth About Forever is this for Macy.
 * Maybe Ever After:
 * However, they reappear in Just Listen to give you a definitive answer.
 * Middle Child Syndrome: Inverted in Just Listen. Whitney, the middle daughter, is causing most of the family drama and thus Annabel, the youngest daughter, is overlooked.
 * Parental Abandonment: Ruby's mother in Lock and Key which leads to...
 * Promotion to Parent: Ruby's sister Cora comes in and cares for her.
 * Parent with New Paramour: In What Happened to Goodbye, Mclean's mother marries the basketball coach of her father's favorite team
 * Remy's mother in This Lullaby, who is a serial bride.
 * Auden's father in Along for the Ride, who has recently married and has just had a new child at the beginning of the novel.
 * Really Gets Around: Remy from This Lullaby. She inherited it from her mother, who has been married 5 times.
 * Rape as Backstory:
 * Same Story, Different Names: A criticism of her novels. The girl has an annoying, messed up family situation, girl doesn't know how to deal with it, girl meets boy, boy fixes everything in girl's hypothetical world, and then there's always that moment when Girl and Boy are going to have a falling out, but they'll be back together by the end. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing.
 * But of course, YMMV.
 * It got to the point, though, that when they made a movie out of her stories they went ahead and just combined two of the books.
 * Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: This Lullaby is a Gender Flip.
 * The Silent Bob: Monotone Monica from The Truth About Forever.
 * Tall, Dark and Handsome: Wes in The Truth About Forever.
 * Teen Pregnancy: The premise of Someone Like You.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Scarlett and Halley, in Someone Like You.
 * Uptight Loves Wild: This Lullaby
 * Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The exact location of the city where her novels take place is never revealed, it is even obscured by using made up names for universities.
 * Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Mclean, Auden, Thisbe, just to name a few.
 * Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Mclean, Auden, Thisbe, just to name a few.