Customer Reviews

This Lullaby (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(162)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This Lullaby is about Remy, daughter of an eccentric, romance writer mother who has been married five times and a dead, musician father whose only legacy is a song called "This Lullaby." Remy, having seen her mother go through husbands like kleenex, is jaded about love and relationships; every time she gets close to a guy, she dumps him.

Then along comes Dexter, who not only breaks her "no musicians" rule (he's in a band that sings - among other things - "The Potato Song"), he's also everything that drives her crazy.

Sarah Dessen's talent for character development shines through in this tale of first love. Her characters are flawed, dysfunctional, and so realistic that reading this book is like visiting with old friends. The topics tackled in This Lullaby are written both believably and in an utterly unique way, so that an old problem - "What do you do when someone doesn't like you back?" - becomes a fresh, new story with an ending that will satisfy both romantics and cynics alike.

Sarah Dessen quickly became one of my favorite authors after I read her books "Dreamland" and "Someone Like You". I was super excited when I found her new book, "This Lullaby", and settled down to read it right away.

I was not disappointed. This book is amazing! It made me laugh out loud in some parts (Dessen has remarkable prose, and just her word choice and descriptions make for a humorous time), gave me butterflies in others, and had me feeling pretty sorry for the characters during certain scenes.

Remy has got the guy thing figured out -- once the first heady, romantic feelings start to fizzle and "cracks" begin to appear in the guy's personality, Remy's out of there. Remy has plenty of experience -- her father left before she was born, leaving her with his sappy one-hit-wonder, "This Lullaby". Not a great gift, considering the lyrics "I will let you down." Plus, Remy's mother, a romance author, is now on her fifth marriage -- "This time it will work, Remy." But Remy doesn't share her mother's hopeful outlook on love.

Then she bumps into Dexter, quite literally. She avoids him as much as she can, but he manages to pop up everywhere, and just where she needs him the most. He's the exact opposite of her usual guy -- messy, clumsy, and, of all things, a musician like her father. She runs away from him until he crashes through her bedroom window, and she finally decides to take a risk with this guy.

They're a couple from then on. But Remy's done this before -- have a fun time with a guy through the summer, move on in September. Remy wants to head to Stanford in the fall leaving nothing messy behind her -- but Dexter might make this hard.

The Dexter/Remy romance is just perfect. Dexter is far from being the perfect guy, but that enhances it. The ending is not picture-perfect, but we are left with plenty of hope for our couple's future.

Dessen has scored another winner with this book. I recommend it wholeheartedly. :)

Remy has never been involved too long with a boyfriend, but who can blame her? Her mother is about to start her fifth marriage! Remy has actually come to believe that she has a heart of stone and that love is not real. When shes least expecting it, she meets Dexter, her complete opposite. Hes a musician which has always been a warning sign for Remy considering her father, who is long gone, was one himself. Dexters clutter and vices soon make up a part of Remy shes been missing.
This book will teach you that first impressions can either be everything or nothing. It is the ideal book for teenage girls who need a good novel to keep them interested for awhile. I found I could relate to a lot of what the characters were going through. Their antics will melt your heart and give you a good laugh. After reading This Lullaby, I was so motivated that I continued on to reading three other books by Sarah Dessen: she definitely won me over!

As a high school media specialist, I like to read many of the books I purchase for my students. I haven't been disappointed by Sarah Dessen yet! Her works are so true-to-life and easy to relate to that my students love her!

In "This Lullaby," Remy experiences many of the things high school students do: boyfriends, girlfriends, jobs, parent relationships, what to do after high school, and the infamous last summer before she's off to college. I think readers will be able to relate to Remy's view on her mother's fifth marriage, her close-knit group of friends, and her feelings toward Dexter, her last loose-end that needs to be tied up before she goes to college.

This book definitely kept me turning the pages and I look forward to reading more from Sarah Dessen soon!

If put down in a nutshell, the plot of this book might sound uninteresting, cliche, or something equally bad. However, I have read other books by Sarah Dessen as well, and this is by far the best. And not only is it the best of her books, it's also one of the best teen novels I've read in a long time. THIS LULLABY is the story of a girl who has grown up with a mother who takes on husbands "the way other people change their hair color: out of boredom, listlessness, or just feeling that this next one will fix everything, once and for all." Remy never knew her own father even, and all she has of him is the song, "This Lullaby," that he wrote one the road the day of her birth.

By the time she graduates from high school Remy has developed a careful schedual for all relationships she enters in to, and never allows any boy to get close to her heart, convinced that it is better to keep all guys at arms length so that they are unable to hurt her. Then, while planning her mother's fifth wedding, Remy meets Dexter, a boy who has so many qualities she dislikes. Though at first reluctant, Remy is eventually charmed by Dexter, who's shoelaces are always untied, and who insists on challenging people to do things such as eat ten bananas, or name more states than him before a specific lady is through picking up her dry-cleaning. Remy still believes that love is foolish, but Dexter helps her to learn otherwise.

As I said, the plot sounds quite cliche. However, it's a lot more complicated than all that, the writing is superb, the dialouge is at times very witty and entertaining, and this is an all around enjoyable book. I was completely engrossed, and reluctant to put it down even when I was in desperate need of something to eat. Towards the end I felt as though I couldn't read fast enough, and I felt a kind of ache in my chest because I was so drawn into the story. Definitely one of the best books I've read in the past year.

Recommended for readers ages 13+, mainly because some of the language may be inappropriate for those who are younger and more innocent.

If you haven't read any of Sarah Dessen's previous novels then you're in for a real treat. In "This Lullaby" the main character, Remy, has completely given up on love and all of its aspects. She even has a formula, if you will, that she uses to dump her boyfriends.
The novel starts with Remy planning her famous mother's fifth wedding. Her mother, Barbara Starr, romance novelist extraordinaire, hasn't been able to get any of her previous marriages to work but has high hopes for this one to Don, owner of a local Toyota dealership. And Remy introduces "This Lullaby", the popular song written for her by her biological father, which is still played by local musicians today.
Remy has just graduated from high school and is going to attend Stanford in the fall. In order to leave "without any attachments", Remy carefully plans to dump her current boyfriend, Jonothan, so she can accomplish her goals this summer-leaving her home and starting a new life on the west coast with no ties to her past.
Her friends, Chloe, Lissa, and Jess, support her and her pessimism about love until she encounters one boy that throws off her carefully structured world.

Sarah Dessen is brilliant in her newest novel. Her witty style and sense of humor are prominent once again. This is a great summer read for anyone who enjoys a good laugh and a great story full of twists and turns with a stunning conclusion.

This was really a well written book about a cynical teenager and what love means to her... which was nothing for most of the book.

Remy thought that she was strong to stop herself from falling in love and ending any relationship that started getting deeper but then she realized that real strength is needed to not stop from getting too involved but in taking the risk. It takes guts to make yourself vulnerable to another person and depend on someone emotionally. It was quiet touching the way she kept fighting falling in love and in the end she realized it was not in her hands at all.

Oh and Dexter! What a guy to fall in love with? He was as unorganized as Remy was organized. I loved the way he kept bumping into everything all the time.... His shortcomings were all so endearing. I couldn't help falling in love with him too!!! That incident when Dexter was drunk and Remy heard his conversation with his friend while hiding inside the car... that really made me cry!

His sense of humor was amazing. Made me laugh out loud so many times. In fact the whole book was full of many funny and original dialogues.

Remy's mother was another impressive character. In the beginning she came out to be quiet a weak person but in the end I really liked her. And I really think it takes courage to let yourself fall in love after 4-5 failed marriages.

In this book there was a lesson for all the cynics of the world that you can never be sure in a relationship that it's going to last forever but that should not stop you from falling in love and giving life a chance to find a love that could last forever.

This is the kind of book you would like to read again and again.

I loved this book and have probably read it more than 10 times, but there were definitely some flaws you may want to be made aware of.

While this is hard even for the best of authors, the plot seemed 'common' if you will with its cynical heroine who becomes a 'believer' in love after meeting a certain someone... While Remy and Dexter did finally break up midway, they got back together (of course).

For certain people, it might bother you of some of the explicit words used but it's not anything to wince about because books like Gossip Girl have swear words used a ridiculous amount of times (which has not staggered their popularity). Also, the characters go to 'Bendo', a club a lot in the book which some parents might find disturbing but in my personal opinion, it's not books that are the cause of some teenagers' behavior (and I'm not saying all teenagers act like the ones in these books!)

Also, the title of this book doesn't seem quite fitting. Her father left her a legacy, a song he wrote dubbed "This Lullaby" but I don't quite think that in real life a song your late father left you would matter so much in somebody's life. But that's just me. However, it did make me pick it up and wonder why an author would title a book that.

And now the good things...

First of all, the way she wrote it grabbed you in right from the start. The character is a cynic, so she's very blunt about every snide comment and the little details make all the difference. Barbs between her friends Chloe and Jess are amusing and the diversions from the actual plot are very nicely added along the way for a smooth transition so the whole thing won't seem completely love-love-love. While this is indeed a YA novel, I think that (mature) kids could read this as well because anything you might find "inappropriate" they probably already know about and as I mentioned, there are lots of diversions from Remy and Dexter's relationship, and even when it's centered on Remy and Dexter's relationship, Sarah Dessen somehow managed to make it seemed so comical and wholly lighthearted at the same time.

I have read all of the other Sarah Dessen books, and I'd probably say this is one of the best, not necessarily in the plot but how you feel while you read it. That Summer (and is by Sarah Dessen) is definitely worth checking out, and if you're worried about R-rated content, you won't have to worry much for that one. Topically, That Summer is Sarah Dessen's first book.

Also, I had 2 friends of mine to read this. Both of them were unable to complete it. One of them apparently reached no more than Chapter Ten and the other, Chapter Six. Apparently it was 'boring' and one didn't understand why she was so cynical. I disagree heartily with both of them (and let them know it) but I thought it might be a topic of interest for you people who bother to take the time to read these reviews!

Last night, in spite of a migraine headache, I stayed up to finish THIS LULLABY by Sarah Dessen. That is a testament to how engrossing her novels are.

The main character, Remy, does not believe in love after watching her mother go through marriage after marriage. Remy never knew her father, a rock star who wrote a song for her called "This Lullaby" which was a smash hit but included the line, "I will let you down."

Remy is hesitant to get too close to people. Having seen so many men come in and out of her mother's life, she thinks that most people will hurt you and that most relationships are only temporary, so why get attached? She prefers to push them away instead - until Dexter stumbles into her life, pursues her and refuses to let her run away.

Though Remy is not a romantic girl, she's had her share of boyfriends. Though she may be cyncial, she is not cold nor a "loner," enjoying the company of her three very different friends, Jess, Chloe and Lissa; her mother, a writer; and her older brother, who is slowly changing due to the influence of his prim and proper girlfriend. Remy has a life, a job, a love for Zip Diet Coke. After working her tail off in high school and proving everyone wrong about her, she has a future at Stanford.

This book accurately shows how the summer between high school and college can change a person - and how, though others can influence you, you have to want to change in order for it to be true and beneficial.

I highly recommend all of Dessen's novels, with SOMEONE LIKE YOU and THIS LULLABY being the best of the bunch. Realistic and unpredictable, heartbreaking and heartwarming, THIS LULLABY is a must-read.

While I enjoyed the lightness of this read, I just can't love this book. I would definitely recommend it as a happy read and to someone who likes a love story. I love a good love story, but this one didn't catch my interest. Don't get me wrong at the end of the book I still got the "Oh, that's a good way to end it" feeling, just not the "Wow, that floored me even though I expected it" feeling.

Remy's character is very cynical about love, and I really enjoyed seeing her transformation. She had a really cool personality, and sounds like someone who would be my friend but definitely not me. But, the fact that she just kept pushing Dexter away kinda bothered me. I was wondering why she couldn't just see the relationship for what it was, love. I get that she had issues with it because of her mom, but I still couldn't push someone away like that and I have see my fair share of troubles with divorce. And while Dessen's writing was very interesting I didn't find anything really deep about it this time around. Yes, she had family issues, but the goal was really more her resolving them by being in a relationship, not coming out and telling her mom her problems or doing something that stood up against the issues. It was kind of like, well if you are in this relationship with Dexter you won't have family issues anymore. That is a complete lie, in my opinion. It was also really hard for me to understand her issues with her father who died when she was young. He sounded like a jerk, but she was always flip-flopping around on what she thought of him. Of course he is her father and I will admit sometimes I love my dad, but sometimes I hate him. Overall Remy's character was confusing, but entertaining, and I did really love her. It was probably the overall plot and chain of events that didn't really thrill me.

It took me a really long time to read this book, probably because it was very predictable and I didn't find myself clinging to it to find out what happens next. I won't stop reading Dessen's work because the last two books I have read by her were rather bland (I read Just Listen in 2008) and Keeping The Moon is still my all time favorite book. But I definitely won't be as anxious to grab up her next new release.