When I looked at the blurb inside the flap of Sarah Dessen’s The Truth About Forever at the library, the mention of "a boy with a past" very nearly made me cringe and shove it back on the shelf. I've read one too many novels about the bad boy who either turns out to have a heart of gold or eases the main character off of the yellow brick road. As it turns out, Wes is my favourite character. He tells his 16-year old younger brother to use his inside voice, he sculpts scrap metal, and he knows just how to make a girl feel better.

Okay, you might say, but you didn't know that at the library. Why did you take a chance?

Because the blurb wasn't about a girl learning to love, or rebelling against her parents, or trying to escape the overwhelming shadow of a sibling. It was about a girl struggling to find her voice, which, when you look at it, encompasses all three possible situations. It looked like a book about a real person. I didn't realize just how hooked I was until page 208, when Wes and Macy, the main character, are eating waffles and sniffing their syrup-scented pencils.

If you’ve ever felt like your voice was lost in the mire of high school politics, you’ll see your own struggle echoed in Macy’s. If the urge to dump greasy movie popcorn over the smartest arrogant girl in school has ever poisoned your mind, you’ll cheer for Macy when she hops the hurdle like a track star. And if you’ve ever felt like chaos is the best part of your life, you’ll chuckle at Macy’s boss, who is eight months pregnant and thrives on bedlam.

Not just another teen chick lit novel, The Truth About Forever is poignant and satisfying. It’s a book for a humid summer evening at the cottage, sitting on the dock and dangling your toes tantalizingly as the sun dips lower and makes you rush inside to read the final pages. The Truth About Forever is well worth the mosquito bites.

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