The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen Book Review
“What if I get hungry? he asks
I’ll bring you a snack, she tells him.
What if I’m thirsty?
I’ll fetch you water.
What if I get scared?
I’ll order the posters away.
Finally he asks, What if that’s not enough? What if I need something else?
And she replies, Whatever you need, I will find a way to get it to you. I Will give you the moon, and more.
(pg. 21-2)
About
Author: Sarah Dessen
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
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Synopsis
Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.
Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo’s sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.
Emaline’s mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he’s convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby?
Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she’s going?
Sarah Dessen’s devoted fans will welcome this story of romance, yearning, and, finally, empowerment. It could only happen in the summer.
Review
Spoilers Contained Below
To the Dessen Dreamers,
Summer is always the best time to pick up a Sarah Dessen book 😊
I reread this book of hers because I couldn’t quite remember what happened, but then when I started, it all came flooding back in bits and pieces.
I just want to start by saying I really like the cleverness of the title and how it’s about different relationships.
First and foremost, it was about Emmaline’s relationship with her mom and how her mom got pregnant with her when she was a teen. The father wasn’t a pretense in Emmaline’s life until later on, but the mom had always made sure that Emmaline had the moon and more—-more of a life than she had. Because the mom had a baby young, so she wanted more for her daughter. She also knew Emmaline’s father’s tactics and didn’t want her to get too close to him because she knew that the father would hurt her like he hurt the mom. The mother-daughter relationship was really special, but I would have liked to have seen it more because it was only given sporadically throughout the book. I think the mom only had moments where she seemed more like a sister to Emmaline, sneaking into her room and fighting with her, but I would have liked to see more of that closeness that they obviously had. One moment that I loved reading was after Emmaline drove away from talking to her father, she pulled up to the office and her mom was there, waiting to embrace her in a hug because that was everything the mom feared—-Emmaline being hurt by the father. So it warmed my heart how the mom was there for her even if they did just have a fight.
Emmaline’s father is a man I can understand. I think like with what Theo said, he felt embarrassed that he couldn’t make good on his promise to pay for her education when he knew he failed her for most of her life. I got where he was coming from and that he was going through a lot with the divorce, but that didn’t excuse his actions for not reaching out to his daughter to try to explain it to her, let alone missing her big day on graduation. I didn’t like how cold and distant he acted and then all of a sudden came back into her life like nothing happened, because something did. What kind of father wouldn’t go to his own daughter’s graduation because of a pride thing? Like suck up your pride man, your daughter just wanted you to SHOW UP!! SHOW UP 👏🏼!! I swear, Emmaline had more maturity and understanding in her heart than her father did in his pinkie.
And it hurt my heart to watch her want her father’s approval so much and to also gain a relationship. Emmaline’s relationship with her father is the most complex and dynamic thing about this book. Because I relate a lot with what she feels about her father. My parents are divorced and one parent hardly talks to me. In the back of my mind, I always think, what could have that relationship been if it was “normal” or “healthy?” And I remember when that person tried to communicate with me at first, it was hard because I had a lot of pent up anger and emotions. But then it gave way to wanting this picturesque relationship all daughters have with said parent. But no matter how hard either of us tried or didn’t try, it was never going to be what we wanted of it. And some relationships can’t be fixed, but we have to move on and make peace with it. We have to realize we have so many other relationships in our life with people who actually want to be in it and no one who wants to be in your life will make an effort to not be. The father never made an effort. The only real reason he did was because he felt guilty and like Emmaline was a burden to her, like a problem he had to fix. And that broke my heart for Emmaline because she was his daughter, she shouldn’t be a burden or something he should feel the need to owe anything to. If he really cared he would have reached out and tried harder to make things right. But he only made things right when it was convenient for him. That is not love. That is use—that is the way people act to make themselves feel better, not others.
Throughout the book, I could feel Emmaline wanting so badly to have this perfect relationship with him. And it’s the way she studied so hard to get into a good college in the first place—-so she could make him happy—because if she made him happy, then he would be proud of her, and if he was proud of her, it would feel like love. But I really think he didn’t care. Does he love her? I think a very selfish part of him does. But I think he feels guilted into it because it’s what “fathers” are supposed to do. He didn’t love her love her. Emmaline deserved better.
One of the things Emmaline brought up that I loved was the difference between a dad and a father. For me it’s the difference between a mom and a mother. I don’t know how to best explain it, but if you’re like me, you know word choice is everything. Calling someone mom and dad is the truest form of a parent—-someone who raises you, takes care of you, and is always there. Calling someone mother or father is like an extension of what a mom and dad should be, but don’t really live up to, but you still need to call them something. It’s the parents who still love you (hopefully), but from a distance. Word choice is everything. And just because you give birth to someone, doesn’t make you a mom, or if you gave genetics to a baby, doesn’t mean you’re a dad. It’s the way you care, show up, and persist that earns you the title of what you’re called.
No offense to any parents out there at all. But this is more for any kid or person who gets it; not all parents have the same respect—-title. It’s something you earn.
The father also sucked in the way he treated Benji. I could not understand why Leah, the mom and the father’s girlfriend, would want Benji to stay with that bag of dirt. He’s a dud! The father always made Benji feel little and like a nuisance. He should have made Benji feel loved. There was one part where the dad was working and Emmaline came over and Benji was doing magic tricks and balloon animals, and I’m here thinking, “What a sad kid!” I mean, he’s playing by himself, with himself, because he’s bored in the house in the hose bored and he’s so FREAKING lonely. And then to make it worse, the dad said to Benji that he couldn’t talk to him until after lunch, so when Emmaline walked into his office, he thought it was Benji and the dad was so flipping mad and I wanted to hit his head! But then when he realized it was Emmaline, he calmed down? That’s not right ☹️. So if Benji walked into the room, the dad would have hated it? I say call CPS!! This guy shouldn’t be trusted with kids. And don’t even get me started on how he told Benji that he couldn’t have fried food, but had to eat a salad. Give the kid a break! I get it, his health matters and it’s good to start healthy habits young, but really? Let the kid LIVE!
I really liked how Emmaline stepped up as a big sister and bonded with him. In the beginning it was highly awkward because here was a sibling she was actually bound by blood to, yet she felt like she didn’t even know him. I liked how she took him to mini golf and watched over him at all these places. I thought it was beyond sweet how Benji was so eager to help her work or to help anyone, really. The kid just wanted to help out and to have some friends. And he was such a trooper! He gave Emmaline water bottles and cold towels and he helped set things up for different events. He’s such a good kid and he deserved so much more!
What broke my heart the most about Benji was how he was put in the middle of the divorce. I know what that’s like. At ten, I know what that feels like. There’s so much you’re going through when you’re ten and divorce is the last thing any kid needs to go through. It made me sad that Benji knew about it and how he opened up to Morris about his parents splitting. Poor kid just spit it out like it was a fact of life! He wasn’t even supposed to know! But if there’s one thing you can’t say about kids, it’s that they are unaware. They know things. They’re not dumb! I wanted to hug Benji whenever he talked about how his parents would fight or how he didn’t want to think of the end of the summer because it would mean leaving his sister and this place he came to love. It would also mean actual change with the divorce.
“It was the very nature of summer. So many long, lazy days when blissfully, nothing changes, and then everything does, all at once.”
I really liked what Sarah Dessen said here. Because summer does feel like a limbo period where people are relaxing and trying to push away work and expectations to just have fun. And in life you need a break. But then when it comes for life to start back up again—-when summer ends—-it brings about so much change just . . .like . . . that. It goes from swimming at the beach for countless hours to the next day, packing up school supplies and setting alarms to go back to school.
For Benji, it meant having his whole life change. Who would he live with? Where would he be? Would he move schools? And that’s terrifying as a kid, to not have that sense of stability at home or your environment. For Emmaline, it was her going off to college—taking the next steps in life. And that’s beyond scary to go from being in a bubble of what high school is, to going to something as big as college. Even if it was a local university, it was still going to be a big change. I’m a lot like Emmaline because I grew up in a small town near the beach where a) most people stay after high school or b) can’t wait to get off of this “rock” fast enough. I stayed. I went to my local university and even if it was an hour from where I lived, the whole environment was vastly different. I was in a dorm by myself with people I didn’t know, a roommate I had no clue who she was because she was out of state, and it was genuinely the first time I was out on my own. Having that sense of independence for the first time and not knowing where I was or what I was doing, I was shaking in my bones. I was just a small five foot Asian girl who was SCARED. And I lived in the same state. Because no matter where you go, you realize there is so much more out there after high school. In high school, you truly do live in this bubble where you think everything that’s important is dances, popularity, friends, parties, fitting in, or your GPA. But when you’re out of it, NONE OF THAT MATTERS. You don’t get school dances (most of the time); no one cares if you’re popular, heck, you’d be more surprised if you shared the same class with someone more than once; you have a whole diverse pool of friends to choose from, which can be overwhelming; partying becomes your own responsibility to do safely; fitting in is non-existent because no one fits in out of high school, we’re all just people in the world trying to get by; and GPA, no one cares what your GPA in high school was. NO ONE. And it’s such an awakening that needs to be had and it also goes well with what Sarah Dessen does with the title—-the moon and more. There is so much more to life than what we see. We see the moon and how far away it is. We see “life” or our “future” so far away and we see it for how we envision it or want to see it. But there are things beyond the moon that aren’t visible to us—-more. There are things in our lives that are beyond us that we can’t see and that are our path that we might take one day. The moon and more.
Emmaline’s relationship with Theo also showed her the moon and more. If I’m being completely honest, I really, truly, did not feel the love with this relationship at all. I didn’t care for the relationship because it just didn’t seem authentic or genuine. It just seemed like a distraction or a fall back after Emmaline broke up with her long time boyfriend, Luke. I think Emmaline just wanted to not think about her feelings or the future, so she went along with Theo because he was new and someone different, someone temporary. He was limbo.
I think Theo as a person, was highly eccentric. Not in a bad way. But I didn’t fully like him. There was something that was hard for me to find a connection with in him and for me to like him. He just felt off. He kept making excuses for Ivy and how she was a good person and I get it, he loved his work, but still he couldn’t see how Ivy was being a real disrespectful person and even if she is angry and that’s how she is, the way Ivy acted was in now way justified to Emmaline. If Theo was a real person, he would have stood up for Emmaline and her getting treated with kindness. I also didn’t like how——-I don’t know the word—–cocky?, he was.
“Oh, I’m Theo and I’m from New York where everything is bigger and more fast paced and you’re from this ridiculously small town and you don’t know anything blah blah BLAH.”
SUCK MY TOES 🤪!
I don’t care if he lived on a small Spongebob island in the middle of the sea, he doesn’t get to go around talking like he’s a big shot to anyone just because he comes from a big town. The square footage of where you come from does not equate to making a person more superior. It doesn’t. It means absolutely nothing. I just wanted to Socker Bop his head! 😂
OOOOOH, and don’t even get me started on how he would say things to Emmaline about how she didn’t know anything because she was from Colby and he was from New York. Or how he got UPSET at her because his PETTY badonkadonk didn’t get into Columbia and she did. WHAT A PETTY PERSON!!! THAT’S A RED FLAG AND YOU RUN!!! IF HE’S NOT HAPPY FOR YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENT AND MAKES IT ABOUT HIM, I SAY DROP HIM!!! Girl, Theo should have fell to his knees in joy when you told him that you got into Columbia. He should have been weeping and throwing fireworks, the whole nine yards. No, what does he do? He goes all Hulk and derates her for not choosing Columbia when she chose a school in Colby that she could afford all because he didn’t get in. So he made her feel bad about it.
I get it, it sucked! You didn’t get in, but don’t you EVER make someone feel bad about their choices because you feel sucky.
And I honestly wasn’t a fan from the minute he popped a kiss on her in that toaster aisle. Honestly, it was unprofessional and uncalled for. It had no romantic spark or precedence whatsoever. I didn’t like their whole, let’s wait until midnight to actually date or kiss or whatever because it just felt gross. Gross in the way that I didn’t really think Theo liked her that much. He just liked the idea of a girl with him. I mean, there was no spark. No love. Nada.
His big dates that he made a big deal about?
DISGUSTING.
Didn’t like them.
It’s a no from me.
Honestly, it felt like Emmaline didn’t even like those dates either and she just went along with it because she was avoiding her feelings and just wanted to date around. Honestly, did she even like him like him? It didn’t seem like it. I didn’t get that vibe from her. I really was not surprised when they had yet another fight about everything outside of Colby and him living in a trailer and having his dream job and blah blah blah. I was happy they were done because they didn’t click in the first place. It felt like she was dragging through this relationship and she really didn’t need him in the first place.
Don’t even get me started on how disrespectful Theo was at times about Colby. Like if bro doesn’t respect where you come from, he won’t respect you.
I really liked Luke and Emmaline’s relationship even if they did break up. I didn’t like how Luke was pegged as a cheater because he seemed like a good guy. He also seemed like a sex-driven player and that he was just thirsty from all those days he spent shirtless in the sun, so I guess, I kind of didn’t really like him either because of how he messed up. If he’s calling another girl because he ain’t getting any action, then you RUN. That’s DISGUSTING.
But I liked how they were still there for each other and how they were able to keep things platonic. I think they make a better friendship than a relationship. It was cute.
Emmaline as a person seemed very closed off and hurt She gave me a lot of sad girl vibes because she wanted a relationship with her father, she just had a breakup, she was dating someone all wrong, and she was going to go to college. I get it. She had every right to feel what she felt and to feel sad, but I think she needed to talk to someone who understood her. Or a therapist because she was bottling a lot of things up.
She had good friends like Daisy and Morris. I didn’t really feel Daisy and Morris’s relationship, but it was cute how Morris tried to keep the relationship alive rather than giving up on it.
There’s something about Morris’s character that didn’t sit well with me. Not in who he was, but the way people treated him. People, Emmaline herself, called him horribly slow, he had to be given direction on what to actually do instead of doing it, he was a bad worker, or he processed things at a sloth’s pace. As an education major who took a lot of Special Education courses, to me, I don’t know, but I think Morris might have a low level intellectual disability based on how Sarah Dessen described him. And if that’s the case, it really didn’t bode well with me how people perceived or treated Morris because they just didn’t understand him. All abilities run on a spectrum, and Morris might live with an intellectual disability where it might be hard to process things, it might take more time and direction to tell him what to do, but the people in his life were rude to him and presumptions about who he was. There’s also a lot of gray area with Morris’s character and his upbringing. It would have been nicer to know more about Morris’s parents and backstory as it would have helped me understand if he did live with an intellectual disability.
Morris was a good friend even if Emmaline didn’t think the best of him. I liked how he was there when Emmaline needed someone to talk to about breaking up with Luke. And Emmaline was a good friend for looking out for him. She helped him get multiple jobs.
The ending was sweet because it showed how Benji and Emmaline maintained a positive relationship once everything changed. And it emphasized that life will change, but some things stay the same.
Anyway, what was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part?
What was your favorite childhood book read to as a child? Anything I mentioned that you want to discuss more about? Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕
I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this.
And as always, with love,
Rating
3.54 Full Bloom Flowers
Characters: Emmaline’s a character you can connect with in a lot of ways and my heart really goes to her and everything she has been and is still going through.
Plot: The complexity that Sarah Dessen tackles in this book is a fresh spray of ocean on your face with the background of a good summer.
Writing: I love the descriptive way Sarah Dessen puts you right in Colby living along with everyone.
Romance: Didn’t really feel the spark with the romance, but I did appreciate the relationship Emmaline had with Benji.