Dreamland

No rating because my reaction is... complicated.

I've never read Sarah Dessen before, and I'm impressed with so much of this book. I like that what seems like the focus of the book at first--Caitlin's sister's disappearance--takes a backseat to her new relationship with Rogerson. I really like how realistically the abusive threads creep into the story--slowly cutting her off from her friends and family, his jealousy of anyone else she talks to--and how Caitlin accepts all of it without seeming like a weak Plot Point of a character. When the emotional abuse turns physical, the reader isn't at all surprised, and Caitlin's reactions seem very authentic.

But there are bits in the physical violence and its depiction that seem heavy-handed: the show more early scene in which Rogerson's dad hits him, Rogerson's claim of "you made me hit you because you were late" (not a direct quote)--there's not much subtlety there. I'd have almost preferred to not see the scene with his dad, and leave it a mystery of where he came by his abusive nature--showing that one interaction sets up a strong undercurrent of "he's like this because his father is like this" instead of "some people are just assholes on their own terms."

I think I'd also have preferred if this had remained at the level of emotional abuse, not just because it would remove the distasteful violence from my sunshine-and-lollipops existence: it's easy for physical abuse to escalate until someone notices (in this case, Rogerson beating Caitlin in her front yard), but it can be so much harder to spot--and extract someone from--emotional abuse. I remember being a teenage girl and wanting so much to be everything my boyfriend wanted me to be, including available all the time and interactive with nobody else but him. All those in Caitlin rang very true to me, and I think it's probably more common in teen relationships (and, frankly, adult relationships, too) than we adults want to think, so I would have liked to have seen this book stick with just that kind of "murky" abuse--the kind of abuse that's easy to identify once you're an adult and can read those checklists over and over and recognize your teenage self, but doesn't seem abusive at all as a teenager. After all, how can it be abuse if you're not being hit?

As I said, my reactions are complicated. I think it's an excellent book, very well done; that doesn't mean I didn't want more from it. show less

Dreamland’s about an abusive relationship so brace for a difficult though worthwhile read.

Caitlin’s more than a little lost after her sister leaves home without a word, at first meeting Rogerson is like a lifeline, at first…

Given her floundering state of mind Caitlin is initially drawn to the air of danger around Rogerson and to brief glimpses of vulnerability, however, Rogerson didn’t appeal to me even the tiniest bit, not ever, which I’m fine with, this isn’t a romance, he isn’t someone the reader is meant to be attracted to, Caitlin’s toxic relationship with him isn’t glamorized in any way. It isn’t made to seem like a relationship to covet or aspire to, you spend pretty much the entire novel cringing, wishing she show more would tell someone, wishing someone would see, fearing for her (and fearing with her, the scenes where she’s terrified of not being on time to meet Rogerson, you develop a knot in your stomach right along with Caitlin).

The other noteworthy thing about this book is that it doesn’t pretend that walking away is easy, that magically you’re healed, Dreamland takes the time to show the hard emotional work. show less

This is a raw read, but beautifully written. It is quite a journey, but I could really feel where Caitlin, the main character, is coming from, why she made the decisions she did, and how an abusive relationship could develop.

The relationship between Caitlin and her sister Cass is well done, and it is heartbreaking to read and feel with Caitlin when her sister leaves home. She is jealous of her, the seemingly perfect sister, but she loves her and they know each other really well.

The story gets difficult when Caitlin decides to remake herself, and be what Cass was not. She joins cheerleading, which she hates, and then meets Rogerson, the mysterious hair boy. She falls in love with him, and gets past his walls. But he is abused, and then show more the abuse begins with Caitlin. She goes into this dreamlike state, and tries to deny what is happening to her, that it is not the real Rogerson that does these things to her, but as they happen more and more, she hides it while desperate to be found out.

It really shows how someone abused can feel trapped, and not want to leave because they love the abuser, and often the abuser has a second side, who is sweet, smart, and loveable.

Dessen's writing is beautiful, and leaves you wanting more. show less

This book should definitely be required reading for health classes teaching about dating abuse. With her signature spot-on teenage voice, Sarah Dessen once again crafts a masterpiece. Her novels are not merely novels; they are works of art that I hope will last forever.

Caitlin’s perfect older sister, Cass, ran away from home on Caitlin’s sixteenth birthday. Brilliant, proactive, and beautiful, Cass was everywhere in high school. On the soccer field, leading her team to state victories. On the high honor roll. On the Homecoming Court. On TV to lead student protests. Caitlin is used to playing second fiddle to Cass, and maybe now that Cass has run away, she will be able to be noticed by her parents.

But Caitlin’s mom is still show more obsessed over Cass’ running away. To have something of her own, Caitlin joins the cheerleading squad at the insistence of her best friend Rina. Then she meets Rogerson. He isn’t like the other bland football players that all the cheerleaders date. Rogerson is sexy, dangerous, and secretive…and best of all, he is all Caitlin’s.

Caitlin’s relationship with Rogerson seems like the perfect way for her to break away from Cass’ shadow. However, she never anticipates all of the harm that Rogerson does to her, emotionally and physically. Can she not escape this abusive relationship because she is weaker than her sister?

While not everyone has gone through an abusive relationship, Sarah Dessen describes Caitlin’s thoughts and fears so genuinely that readers will feel as if they ARE Caitlin themselves. They will feel all of Caitlin’s pain and confusion, wrapped up in a world so well written that it’s easy to forget you’re reading a book. show less

Dreamland was a tough read. Sarah Dessen is no stranger to addressing the scarier side of teenage life, from divorce and remarriage to accidental death and teen pregnancy. Each of these she has addressed with optimism and aplomb, a certain "everything's going to be okay even if there's some uncertainty and upheaval involved" attitude that makes these scary life events less scary for her teenage readers.

Dreamland breaks with that tradition in that it is scary. Not horrifically, gorily scary, like there's bloody body parts strewn about and a ravaging zombie is after the heroine's brains --- subtly scary, scary in the undercurrents of the mind, the kind of scary that makes us realize how easy it is for Caitlin, and every girl and woman show more Caitlin represents, to fall "down the rabbit hole" (as Meghan says) and into Caitlin's way of life. It isn't a slippery slope kind of scary, like A doesn't necessarily lead to B; but when A leads to B, and B to C, and C to D, E, my friends, is inevitable --- in a plunging headfirst over a cliff in to a black abyss way. I won't say I've walked a mile in Caitlin's shoes, but I have been far enough to know how fast that abyss can creep up. And it's scary enough that as a grown, college-educated, married woman, I had to go dig through laundry and find one of my husband's rugby shirts that smelled sufficiently like him in order to psychically protect myself and finish the book. When the fear got a little too close, I pulled the shirt collar up around my ears or went to change over a load of laundry, seeking reminders of safety in ordinary, everyday things. Caitlin's life is not my life, I remind myself.

Caitlin's story might be scary, but it is necessary. It has to be this scary to jolt teenage girls, their parents, even their teachers in to seeing, and indeed looking for, the Caitlins in their lives. There are more Caitlins out there than we like to think about, girls and grown women adrift in life, one way or another, who latch on to the first person who seems to care about them; they put down an anchor; and suddenly a storm comes up, a perfect storm, and it is that very anchor that threatens to tear them apart. They can't move; they can't get away; they think they're safer where they are than where they were; even as they drown, they believe they're safer this way. Hopefully Dreamland can open our eyes to the plights of the silent-suffering Caitlins in our lives. Who are they? Will we see them before it's too late? Will we have the courage to reach out and save them from the storm?

Edit, April 2010: I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't reevaluate the number of stars I have given Dreamland. If I could be so powerfully affected by a story, then perhaps it really deserves something more along the lines of 4 stars instead of 2. It means that Dessen has successfully harnessed the raw emotion of an incredibly emotional situation and set it loose on us. If I am assigning stars on how well the book was written, that may very well be the case. But if I am assigning stars based on my enjoyment of the book, and the likelihood that I would enjoy reading the book again, then the review should remain exactly as it is, with only 2 stars. show less

So this was a short book to get through (only 260 pages) but it left a big impact. I thought at first that things moved a bit slow, but once you get to the meat of the story, you won't be able to put this down at all. You are going to just be shocked and dismayed at the things that are going on with the main character (Caitlin) throughout this book.

"Dreamland" opens on Caitlin's birthday when she and her parents realize that her older sister Cassandra has ran away to be with a guy she fell in love with after like three weeks. Cassandra does not go to Yale and stays away from her family and refuses to talk to them. Caitlin is left adrift since she is not used to being her, without her perfect older sister nearby to emulate. This leaves a show more hole in Caitlin where a boy named Rogerson Biscoe (his name even sounds douchey) steps in. Before Caitlin realizes it, somehow her whole life becomes Rogerson.

I felt for Caitlin. Her mother becomes a barely functioning person at first, and her father is in denial after her sister runs away. She's trying her best to not be a problem, that even means not complaining when no one celebrates her birthday. She's talked into joining the cheerleading squad by her best (and only friend) though she doesn't want to and after she starts seeing Rogerson, her grades fall and she's spending most of her time getting high with him and his other friends. It's like a slow roll to another world and Caitlin doesn't know how to or even want to really get out of it. That is until Rogerson hits her the first time. And then the book goes dark. Because you read about Caitlin's justifications, her fear, her starting to realize after a while that even when she's perfect that Rogeron really just wants a reason to hit her. I wanted to scoop up this fictional character and hug her.

Dessen does a good job of showing Caitlin realizing that she's in a bad relationship, but not really knowing how to get out of it. And with her parents still focused on other matters, it becomes easy for her to fool them into thinking everything is okay with her.

Dessen always has recurring characters in her YA books and I swear that Rogerson was in Lock and Key (which I also loved). Too bad no one ran him over with a car.

I also love how Dessen shows all of these women in this book in relationships they call "love" but honestly are not. Or at least I would not call them love between two people who trust and respect each other. Cassandra's life is a mess and her deciding that her parents put all their hopes into her to have her run off with some dude did not endear her to me at all. Even Caitlin's best friend who is only defined when she is dating someone I found a bit sad. So when Caitlin even when she realizes that Rogerson hitting her is awful and she doesn't think she can keep hanging on to him, I get why she hid what was going on and kept trucking along with it. That's cause she's told over and over again that love is the answer even when the other person is not right for you. I think a little window opens up a bit when Caitlin finds out another friend of hers finally had it with her deadbeat boyfriend and left him.

The writing was raw and honest. And I loved how you had Caitlin slowly coming into her own and realizing that maybe her sister was not as perfect as she always thought.

The ending was a surprise and I love that the book didn't just take an easy way out with and everything was super okay with everyone, the end. show less

Dreamland is a book I’ve had sitting on myself for a very long time. Tough topics scare me on occasion and it can be difficult for me to pick up a book I know is going to be an emotional and raw read.

Sarah Dessen mentioned many things at the beginning of Dreamland especially that brought me back to my childhood. Things Caitlyn did with her sister and certain other nostalgic things. The situations that made me reminisce are what got me reading through the first half of the book. I knew from the summary what was supposed to unfold in Dreamland, I was surprised at what point Caitlyn’s life started to fall apart. This didn’t make me not like the book in the least, but the anticipation for horrible things to happen added to the show more suspense.

Once Caitlyn’s relationship with Rogerson starts to go South, you can see Caitlyn’s relationships start to change with everyone else around her. Nothing happens overnight, it’s a slow progression everything around her changes.

I feel a bit guilty about the next thing I’m going to say. Sarah Dessen made me feel empathy for Caitlyn, but also for Rogerson. Hopefully feeling like this doesn’t make me a horrible person and I’m hoping others have felt the same way while reading this. When we get a look into Rogerson’s home life, his relationship with his father is what made me have sympathy for him.

Right before Cailtyn begins dating Rogerson, her sister Cass ends up leaving home out of the blue to start her life somewhere else and cuts off contact completely with her family. Cass leaves Caitlyn with a dream journal as a birthday present. Through the months of Cass being gone and Rogerson treating Caitlyn the way he does, Caitlyn starts to use her dream journal as a way to talk about her relationship with Rogerson in letters to her sister. We only see a few of these while reading the book, but these letters and notes were the roughest to read for me. I guess having Caitlyn spell out to someone what was happening to her just got to me.

Dreamland made me think about what I might be overlooking and missing in my day to day life…that freaks me out a bit. Not knowing something horrible is going on right under your nose and not recognize it, that would crush me. show less