Keeping the Moon

Keeping the Moon
written by Sarah Dessen



I know this was one of her earlier books, and as her earlier books go, it is one of the ones I like more, but the writing style is in need of improvement. Along the way, one can easily trace Dessen's writing style from this to her more recent works and see how much it's changed for the better, but for the sake of this review, the writing style of Keeping the Moon is pretty juvenile (ex: the first sentence of the work is "My name is Nicole Sparks.") I feel like a lot of really great characters were created in this work, but they don't go anywhere, don't do anything. Nothing much happens, and it's really a story stuck in transition. We get to see the very beginnings of Sarah Dessen's words of wisdom that we are so familiar with by now. The other really great thing about the characters is their names. I mean, main love interest's name is NORMAN, and that is not a name you see very often--so much personality! Overall, Keeping the Moon is a good start, but needs more. It's emptier than Dessen's other books. Nicole is overdramatic, but so boring! I think it may have been a more interesting book had it been set in Morgan or Isabel's point of view even, rather than Nicole's. Good start, but could have been better.

Rating: 3/5