The Rest of the Story

April 29, 2019
Dessen explores her signature themes of family and romance in this layered contemporary novel driven by anxiety-prone protagonist Emma Saylor’s curiosity about her late mother’s life. Emma’s mother, who succumbed to an overdose in 2011, left Emma and her father clinging to each other, her father deeply reluctant to discuss Emma’s mother and her family. Years later, unexpected circumstances land Emma, now 17, on the shores of the lake her mother grew up on for a several-week stay with maternal grandmother Mimi. There, she finds two communities (one working-class, one wealthy), spends time with cousins she didn’t know she had, and meets the handsome boy whose father was once her mother’s best friend—all while hearing stories, seeing photos, and discovering long-held secrets about her mother’s wild teenage years and a single, terrible loss. Dessen takes her time building Emma’s life on the lake, developing each familial relationship from the ground up, and illuminating layers of newness and personal, familial, and class conflict as Emma searches for bits of her past. A rich, patient story about a teen girl who craves family and an understanding of her roots after suffering a tragic loss. Ages 13–up. Agent: Leigh Feldman, Leigh Feldman Literary.

May 15, 2019
Prolific author Dessen (Once and for All, 2017, etc.) spends summer at the lake. Seventeen-year-old Emma's dentist father has just remarried, 10 years after divorcing Emma's addict mother, who later died of an overdose. Between memories of her mother, her anxious father, and Nana, her wealthy, patrician, paternal grandmother, who helped raise her, Emma's grown up more than a little anxious herself. Unexpected complications mean she has to spend the three weeks of her father's honeymoon with her mother's side of the family in the resort town where they live. Emma's mother was raised there, but Emma hasn't visited in years. The family runs an inexpensive motel on the original, working-class side of North Lake; Emma's parents met when he taught sailing lessons at the more modern, highbrow resort area called Lake North. Emma finds a place in North Lake, working and playing with her idiosyncratic cousins and their friends, but her sense of belonging is disrupted when her dad returns and he and Nana force her to move to the rich side for two weeks. There's a mild romance, mild drama, and a large cast of teenagers having a good time. Most of the characters are reasonably well drawn, though Emma's anxiety never feels particularly acute. The rich kid/poor kid developments sometimes feel stereotypical, and excepting one secondary Asian American character, everyone defaults to white. Not earthshaking but pleasant and an easy read. (Fiction. 14-18)

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June 1, 2019

Gr 8 Up-Emma Saylor's sheltered life is jostled when her summer plans are canceled last minute and her father scrambles to find her lodging before heading out of the country. With no options left, Emma crashes with Mimi, her maternal grandmother, whom she last saw years earlier at her mother's funeral. Vacationing at Mimi's lakeside motel with unfamiliar family leads Emma to reconnect with relatives who may be the key to discovering how her mom's life, and addiction, impacted the whole family's history as much as her own. Dessen has a vivid way of exploring a character's features, feelings, and flaws that leaves readers wanting more. Emma's a deceptively simple narrator whose complex reality is revealed slowly as she uncovers a new side of her family tree. Emma collects stories of her mom's childhood and her parents' relationship, leading her to reevaluate all the ways a person can love someone. At the same time, her realistic struggle of how she deals with anxiety is undeniably relatable for teens today. Ultimately, it's the budding friendship with local boy Roo that pushes Emma to see that understanding your family's past can make all the difference in accepting the memories and identity of those you hold dear. VERDICT A beautiful addition to Dessen's repertoire, and an examination of conflicting social classes, strained familial relationships, and delightfully evolving romance that is unforgettable.-Emily Walker, Lisle Library District, IL

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Narrator Rebecca Soler captures the self-confidence of 17-year-old Emma Saylor Payne. She is secure in her father's love and remarriage, and she has made peace with the death of her mother from a drug overdose. But that's before she learns she'll spend three weeks at North Lake, her mother's childhood home, with a large family she doesn't remember. As these weeks open her up, Soler expresses Emma Saylor's many transformations--her questions about wealth, her feelings of being overwhelmed by and then connected with family, her experience of first love, and her truer understanding of the romanticized stories her mother once told. Soler's narration reflects the constancy of Emma Saylor's wit, the many attitudes of the relatives who surround her, and the changes experienced by all the featured characters. S.W. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

May 1, 2019
Grades 9-12 Emma Saylor Payne has always been Emma to her dad's side of the family. Her mom called her Saylor, but her mom, an addict who'd been in and out of rehab, has been dead for five years now and was divorced from Emma's father five years before that. But then a twist of fate leads Emma to spend the summer at her mom's childhood home North Lake. At North Lake, Emma?though everyone here knows her as Saylor?reconnects with the family she hardly knows and learns about the mother she can barely remember and the place where her parents met, which is divided sharply into two worlds: the wealthy vacation spot her father visited and her mother's working-class community. And she begins to realize that she's not the girl she?or her father?has always thought she was. With one foot in her father's world and one in her mother's, Emma Saylor tentatively navigates issues of class, addiction, and identity. Hers is a summertime journey of self-discovery, family secrets, and first love, and it's exactly where Dessen shines brightest.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Dessen, a reliable best-seller, a Margaret A. Edwards Award winner, an all-around big deal?do you even need us to tell you?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)