**A Heartwarming and Thought-Provoking Novel**

I recently finished reading "Say Anything" by Sarah Dessen, and I must say it was an absolute delight. The story revolves around Sydney, a teenager who is struggling to come out of her shell and find her voice. She's been carrying the weight of guilt and responsibility for her brother's actions, which has taken a toll on her life. With the help of her family and friends, particularly Miss Chadam, she begins to learn to let go of her feelings and speak up.

One of the things I loved about this book is its focus on friendship and relationships. Sydney forms close bonds with her classmates, including a band, and finds solace in their company. She also develops a romantic connection with a boy named Mac, which is sweet and tender. The author skillfully weaves together these relationships to create a narrative that is both engaging and relatable.

**A Cautionary Tale of Family Dynamics**

However, the book takes a darker turn when Sydney discovers her father's past and his involvement in covering up her brother's misdeeds. This revelation exposes the flaws in their family dynamics and forces Sydney to confront the harsh realities of her situation. The author handles this sensitive topic with care, avoiding gratuitous details and instead focusing on the emotional toll it takes on the characters.

The character of Ames is particularly noteworthy, as he becomes a confidant for Sydney's mother, Payton. However, his behavior raises eyebrows, and it's clear that he has a sinister agenda. The author expertly builds tension and suspense around this plot point, keeping the reader on edge until the very end.

**A Powerful Exploration of Guilt and Redemption**

Throughout the book, Dessen explores themes of guilt, redemption, and the importance of speaking up. Sydney's journey is one of self-discovery, as she learns to let go of her feelings and take control of her life. The author's portrayal of Sydney's emotional struggles is both authentic and relatable, making it easy for readers to invest in her story.

One of the most satisfying aspects of this book is its exploration of closure. Sydney takes a significant step towards healing by apologizing to the boy whose life was ruined by her brother's actions. This act of forgiveness is not only cathartic but also serves as a reminder that holding onto guilt can be debilitating. The author skillfully conveys the importance of confronting the past and seeking redemption.

**A Love Letter to the Power of Human Connection**

Overall, "Say Anything" is a wonderful novel that celebrates the power of human connection and relationships. The characters are well-developed and complex, with each one bringing their unique voice to the story. The author's writing is engaging, and the pacing is expertly handled, making it easy to become fully immersed in the world of this book.

The title "Say Anything" refers to a classic 1960s song by Paul Simon, which has been covered by numerous artists over the years. In the context of the story, it serves as a metaphor for Sydney's journey towards self-expression and connection with others. The author cleverly weaves together themes of love, friendship, and family dynamics to create a narrative that is both poignant and uplifting.

**A Book That Will Leave You Feeling Inspired**

If you're looking for a contemporary novel that explores life lessons in a sweet and relatable way, then "Say Anything" is an excellent choice. The author's writing style is engaging, and the characters are well-developed and complex. With its exploration of guilt, redemption, and human connection, this book is sure to leave you feeling inspired and motivated to take control of your life.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone today I'm here to do a book review I haven't done one of these in forever I feel like because I just haven't been reading but I feel like my reading strink is back on so that's good news anyway the book I will be reviewing today is sa anything by Sarah Jen this just literally came out and I was so fortunate in the fact that penguin sent me a um review copy and it's hardback and it's beautiful and yeah if you guys don't know I love s and she's probably favorite contemporary author of all time I've read every single one of her books probably more than once I started a sid desent book club a couple years back and had to leave it but maybe I'll go back to it one day and I just love sides and books the reason why is because they're light books but they always kind of have like a lifelong lesson in them like the m is usually a female and there is some sort of love in it but a lot of her books the love isn't primarily the focus but it's more about learning about themselves you know learning a lesson and all that and stuff so yeah I'm happy to say I adored this book it's definitely one of my favorite sides books by far which I was so excited to read it but I was kind of worried because her last book The Moon and more I liked but I didn't really love it but so I just ate this one up like I gobbled it whole and I never want to let it go because it is awesome anyway let's get on to the book I'm going to read you the book flap and we're going to get on to the review has always felt invisible she's grown accustomed to her brother Payton being the focus of the family's attention and lately concerned Payton is handsome and charismatic but seems bent on self-destruction now after a drunk driving accident that crippled a boy Payton serving some serious jail time and Sydney is on her own questioning her place in the family and in the world then she meets the chadam family I hope I said that right drawn into the warm chaotic Circle Sydney experiences unquestioning acceptance for the first time there's ovesc and Lea who constantly falls for the wrong guy Rosies who's had her own Fall From Grace and Miss Chad even though who who even knows alien is the heart of the family but it's with the older brother Mac quiet watchful and productive that Sydney feels that that Sydney feels seen really seen at last first part of this review is going to be spoiler free that I will get into some spoilers so yeah overall like I said I love this book it's about Sydney now Sydney is going through a rough patch of her life like it said in the book her brother Payton was struggled with up and down it's like Payton's the type of guy that will walk into a party absolutely ARR looks at him he like lights up the room he's curious atic everybody likes him everybody wants to be him but Payton kind of falls into some bad things like drugs and or pills and alcohol and stuff and he eventually gets better but then one night he kind of relapses and he goes he goes home but he's driving drunk and he hits a boy that's riding a bike and he cripples him so he gets sent to jail now with that Sydney kind of goes invisible she's always felt invisible and then Payton going to jail really increased it more for her and that's because her family really focuses her attention to Payton now I say her family I mainly say her mother her mother really really really put all of her time all of her care all of her attention to Payton you know she wanted to make sure jail was okay for him she wanted to visit him as much as she could she was very very nice to him which I was like this is weird like I mean he did something I get that he's you know your son and stuff but he did something bad and he needs to learn his lesson in prison but she was just really like seeing it more of like he went away for college almost more than he went away for jail so because of that um Sydney got really really invisible you know and her dad really didn't say much and he really never did in the whole book honestly but Sydney just kind of fell away and So eventually what happens is Sydney goes to a public school and she meets Leila and all these people um and she has a new group of friends she meets ilila and Lila is part of family like I said in the book but her family owns this pizza place which this book just makes me want to go there and like work there and live there and the family's just awesome there's Le who I loved Lea Lea was such a great character she got f for the wrong guy and she was just still so nice and warm and then there was Rosie who's had some problems similar to kind of pton but she's getting back on track but she's still kind of cold but she's opening up more and then there's um the mom I forget her name we just call him is chadam and she was just amazing she was diagnosed with Ms she has been for a while even though she's ailing she's just so nice and she took time to talk to Sydney she took time to listen to her to try to understand her to try to offer her advice and then there's mac that's the brother of the family and I loved him Mac was just he's one of my favorite guys from all Sid's books he really reminds me of the guy Wesley I think and the truth about forever from SES and as and he's watchful and quiet and just kind of deep and Mac was just I loved Mac I love the relationship between sigy and M between Sydney and Mac I'm I'm probably not spoiling they didn't know that they eventually get together because it's a seres book but but I like how she usually takes her time with the relationship she more focuses on the characters more so the relationship and in this book I feel like this whole book was about Sydney trying to become less invisible to let everyone around her know that she's there and she's you know has a purpose and all this kind of stuff she wants people to know she's there that she wants to come out from being invisible and Mac really helped her with that he helped you know for her to see who she was and Lea helped with it the whole family really helped her and she just got amazing friends from that school like there was a band that they were all in and it was just really really awesome I loved all the side characters I forget that one guy's Eric I think and there was Irv I think I love them both they were awesome but I just I really love this book it was just a really good book for learning to come out of your shell to finally speak what you have been feeling for so so long you know a lot of us keep our feelings deep inside me especially and sometimes it's good just to let it go even though it might might hurt people around us but you need to like speak what you feel and for Sydney you know she's been struggling because pton is her mom doesn't see that pton has done something horrible as in like that boy and she doesn't even mention it at all and you know Miss chadam helps with that and Sydney feels like she's carrying all the guilt for that because her family's really not doing anything so she's feeling all the guilt from hurting that boy and that she didn't do it but she feels like she has to take on her brother's guilt yeah going to keep that really short I would say definitely read this this is a great summary read well not summary it's not really beachy or anything I feel like you can read this any time of the year but overall I loved it I go a five out of five sah does not disappoint me there have been a couple books that I read by her that I haven't really loved but overall I love all her books yeah pick it up for sure if you're looking for a contemporary book where life lesson but still kind of sweet nice say anything is amazing so yeah that's the spoiler free now I'm just going to talk a little bit briefly about the spoilers I want to talk about that guy Ames Ames was Payton's friend he met him in rehab and all that kind of stuff and Ames just kind of fell into Sydney's family like his her mom confided in Ames a lot because he had been where pton was and all this kind of stuff and Ames was just downright creepy which is beyond me that the parents didn't see that at all like they would go out of town and they were like a is going to stay the night with you with a 16-year-old girl and he's like 20 and I'm like that's weird I would never do that that's just really odd and just I kept waiting for things to happen and build up with that like I'm like this is going to reach a point and it's going to be bad and it did and I I love the way it was handled with her father I thought that was great he finally stepped up and did something about it the whole book he was comment just like yeah yeah I I that and I was like dude come on do something that's your daughter so I'm glad that he was out the picture but creepy um what else Mac I love the way Mac and Sydney's relationship developed it was slow it became like a a friendship and then it became like a friendship and then it developed into something more and it was really sweet and they just said a lot of sweet things to them and I like at the end of the book they were just together they really didn't have any problems which I enjoyed they just you know she was going through her things he was going through H thing his things and they just kind of just melded together almost and I just really like that and I love the end where she finally went up to that guy David's house and she wanted to apologize to him and his whole family for what her brother did and she wanted to feel some closure for that which I thought also was awesome and AA and I think the guy's name is Eric I hope I'm right they eventually got together I knew that was going to happen and I was excited because I was like they still obviously like each other so yeah I think that's all the spoiler things I want to talk about oh let's say anything I love the name of the book I didn't know what the it was referencing and then the whole pendant thing what Ma would wear and the whole family would wear and then he found her one and then the carousel on it you're like what the heck do that means because they found this old Carousel in the woods it was really really good I like um if you guys have read say anything please let me know down in the comments what you think definitely pick up your copy because um it was amazing and I will tell to you guys later bye oh my goodness I've been really wanting one of these a lot like it's insane it's one of the like book candles thing I think it's from an Etsy shop it's ahello everyone today I'm here to do a book review I haven't done one of these in forever I feel like because I just haven't been reading but I feel like my reading strink is back on so that's good news anyway the book I will be reviewing today is sa anything by Sarah Jen this just literally came out and I was so fortunate in the fact that penguin sent me a um review copy and it's hardback and it's beautiful and yeah if you guys don't know I love s and she's probably favorite contemporary author of all time I've read every single one of her books probably more than once I started a sid desent book club a couple years back and had to leave it but maybe I'll go back to it one day and I just love sides and books the reason why is because they're light books but they always kind of have like a lifelong lesson in them like the m is usually a female and there is some sort of love in it but a lot of her books the love isn't primarily the focus but it's more about learning about themselves you know learning a lesson and all that and stuff so yeah I'm happy to say I adored this book it's definitely one of my favorite sides books by far which I was so excited to read it but I was kind of worried because her last book The Moon and more I liked but I didn't really love it but so I just ate this one up like I gobbled it whole and I never want to let it go because it is awesome anyway let's get on to the book I'm going to read you the book flap and we're going to get on to the review has always felt invisible she's grown accustomed to her brother Payton being the focus of the family's attention and lately concerned Payton is handsome and charismatic but seems bent on self-destruction now after a drunk driving accident that crippled a boy Payton serving some serious jail time and Sydney is on her own questioning her place in the family and in the world then she meets the chadam family I hope I said that right drawn into the warm chaotic Circle Sydney experiences unquestioning acceptance for the first time there's ovesc and Lea who constantly falls for the wrong guy Rosies who's had her own Fall From Grace and Miss Chad even though who who even knows alien is the heart of the family but it's with the older brother Mac quiet watchful and productive that Sydney feels that that Sydney feels seen really seen at last first part of this review is going to be spoiler free that I will get into some spoilers so yeah overall like I said I love this book it's about Sydney now Sydney is going through a rough patch of her life like it said in the book her brother Payton was struggled with up and down it's like Payton's the type of guy that will walk into a party absolutely ARR looks at him he like lights up the room he's curious atic everybody likes him everybody wants to be him but Payton kind of falls into some bad things like drugs and or pills and alcohol and stuff and he eventually gets better but then one night he kind of relapses and he goes he goes home but he's driving drunk and he hits a boy that's riding a bike and he cripples him so he gets sent to jail now with that Sydney kind of goes invisible she's always felt invisible and then Payton going to jail really increased it more for her and that's because her family really focuses her attention to Payton now I say her family I mainly say her mother her mother really really really put all of her time all of her care all of her attention to Payton you know she wanted to make sure jail was okay for him she wanted to visit him as much as she could she was very very nice to him which I was like this is weird like I mean he did something I get that he's you know your son and stuff but he did something bad and he needs to learn his lesson in prison but she was just really like seeing it more of like he went away for college almost more than he went away for jail so because of that um Sydney got really really invisible you know and her dad really didn't say much and he really never did in the whole book honestly but Sydney just kind of fell away and So eventually what happens is Sydney goes to a public school and she meets Leila and all these people um and she has a new group of friends she meets ilila and Lila is part of family like I said in the book but her family owns this pizza place which this book just makes me want to go there and like work there and live there and the family's just awesome there's Le who I loved Lea Lea was such a great character she got f for the wrong guy and she was just still so nice and warm and then there was Rosie who's had some problems similar to kind of pton but she's getting back on track but she's still kind of cold but she's opening up more and then there's um the mom I forget her name we just call him is chadam and she was just amazing she was diagnosed with Ms she has been for a while even though she's ailing she's just so nice and she took time to talk to Sydney she took time to listen to her to try to understand her to try to offer her advice and then there's mac that's the brother of the family and I loved him Mac was just he's one of my favorite guys from all Sid's books he really reminds me of the guy Wesley I think and the truth about forever from SES and as and he's watchful and quiet and just kind of deep and Mac was just I loved Mac I love the relationship between sigy and M between Sydney and Mac I'm I'm probably not spoiling they didn't know that they eventually get together because it's a seres book but but I like how she usually takes her time with the relationship she more focuses on the characters more so the relationship and in this book I feel like this whole book was about Sydney trying to become less invisible to let everyone around her know that she's there and she's you know has a purpose and all this kind of stuff she wants people to know she's there that she wants to come out from being invisible and Mac really helped her with that he helped you know for her to see who she was and Lea helped with it the whole family really helped her and she just got amazing friends from that school like there was a band that they were all in and it was just really really awesome I loved all the side characters I forget that one guy's Eric I think and there was Irv I think I love them both they were awesome but I just I really love this book it was just a really good book for learning to come out of your shell to finally speak what you have been feeling for so so long you know a lot of us keep our feelings deep inside me especially and sometimes it's good just to let it go even though it might might hurt people around us but you need to like speak what you feel and for Sydney you know she's been struggling because pton is her mom doesn't see that pton has done something horrible as in like that boy and she doesn't even mention it at all and you know Miss chadam helps with that and Sydney feels like she's carrying all the guilt for that because her family's really not doing anything so she's feeling all the guilt from hurting that boy and that she didn't do it but she feels like she has to take on her brother's guilt yeah going to keep that really short I would say definitely read this this is a great summary read well not summary it's not really beachy or anything I feel like you can read this any time of the year but overall I loved it I go a five out of five sah does not disappoint me there have been a couple books that I read by her that I haven't really loved but overall I love all her books yeah pick it up for sure if you're looking for a contemporary book where life lesson but still kind of sweet nice say anything is amazing so yeah that's the spoiler free now I'm just going to talk a little bit briefly about the spoilers I want to talk about that guy Ames Ames was Payton's friend he met him in rehab and all that kind of stuff and Ames just kind of fell into Sydney's family like his her mom confided in Ames a lot because he had been where pton was and all this kind of stuff and Ames was just downright creepy which is beyond me that the parents didn't see that at all like they would go out of town and they were like a is going to stay the night with you with a 16-year-old girl and he's like 20 and I'm like that's weird I would never do that that's just really odd and just I kept waiting for things to happen and build up with that like I'm like this is going to reach a point and it's going to be bad and it did and I I love the way it was handled with her father I thought that was great he finally stepped up and did something about it the whole book he was comment just like yeah yeah I I that and I was like dude come on do something that's your daughter so I'm glad that he was out the picture but creepy um what else Mac I love the way Mac and Sydney's relationship developed it was slow it became like a a friendship and then it became like a friendship and then it developed into something more and it was really sweet and they just said a lot of sweet things to them and I like at the end of the book they were just together they really didn't have any problems which I enjoyed they just you know she was going through her things he was going through H thing his things and they just kind of just melded together almost and I just really like that and I love the end where she finally went up to that guy David's house and she wanted to apologize to him and his whole family for what her brother did and she wanted to feel some closure for that which I thought also was awesome and AA and I think the guy's name is Eric I hope I'm right they eventually got together I knew that was going to happen and I was excited because I was like they still obviously like each other so yeah I think that's all the spoiler things I want to talk about oh let's say anything I love the name of the book I didn't know what the it was referencing and then the whole pendant thing what Ma would wear and the whole family would wear and then he found her one and then the carousel on it you're like what the heck do that means because they found this old Carousel in the woods it was really really good I like um if you guys have read say anything please let me know down in the comments what you think definitely pick up your copy because um it was amazing and I will tell to you guys later bye oh my goodness I've been really wanting one of these a lot like it's insane it's one of the like book candles thing I think it's from an Etsy shop it's a\n"