Sunday, March 21, 2010

Dreamland

Dreamland


Strange, sleepy Rogerson, with his long brown dreads and brilliant green eyes, had seemed to Caitlin to be an open door. With him she could be anybody, not just the second-rate shadow of her older sister, Cass. But now she is drowning in the vacuum Cass left behind when she turned her back on her family's expectations by running off with a boyfriend. Caitlin wanders in a dream land of drugs and a nightmare of Rogerson's sudden fists, lost in her search for herself.

Why do so many girls allow themselves to get into abusive relationships--and what keeps them there?

I will be the first person to tell you I'm not a huge Sarah Dessen fan. I started to read one of her books once and was just not into it at all. I will now say that was a snap judgement on my part completely. I'd heard so many people gush about her, but then either you like her or your just not sure what all the fuss is about. I can now say I know what the fuss is about with her. Dreamland was so effortless the story to me just flowed right off the page and played like a movie in my head. Caitlin the main character reminded me of myself on so many levels I however was not a high school cheerleader, but I know what its like to have the world just float on by without you even noticing. Caitlin has an older sister Cass who was a huge star, but then she takes off to live with her boyfriend instead of going to Yale. This rocks Caitlin's family back home, and life is set into a tale spin. Caitlin feels things happening to fast with school and cheer leading, and she just in my opinion feels out of control. Then she meets Rogerson who is your typical prep school drug dealer. He is easy going doesn't care about anything everything comes easy to him he's smart, but like he cares, he is rich but like he cares. He is however abused by his Dad he hits him, and Caitlin see's this and instantly wants to help him. Rogerson drags Caitlin down in so many ways, I just couldn't understand it at first. She feels suffocated because she is controlled by her Mom, and overshadowed by her sister, then she thinks Rogerson is perfect. However he is not he is totally controlling and well a psychotic burn out basically. Caitlin eventually falls in love with Rogerson he is her entire world. She spends way to much time with him, and when she isn't with him thinks about him. He is the same way he calls her three times a night, and drags her out to go sell drugs with him. He doesn't like any of her friends, so she basically has to adapt to his friends. That isn't bad some of them are ok, but she gets lost in Rogerson. Then one day she is late Rogerson flips out, he is a control freak and OCD. Caitlin doesn't notice this because he is like a hippie so carefree and smokes pot all day, but if you look close enough he is like a Marine with order and cleanliness. She tells him he is acting childish and he ups and punches her right in the face really hard. For awhile I thought.... no punch him back, slap him, scream, do something I would have, but then I thought about it I wouldn't have. I would have been petrified honestly. Its so easy to just assume you will react when someone hits you, but when its someone stronger and you love them I don't think its so easy. She is freaked about but forgives him because when you love someone you forgive them, and I think she was terrified. I even start to forgive him eventually because he is abused by his Dad its a cycle, but then he just starts beating her like a punching bag all the time. He hits her that one time and see's she doesn't tattle so then he just slaps her around everyday. He even punches her full force, but then smothers he with love afterwards. He is jealous, controlling, and in my opinion used pot to keep her sedated. I felt horrible I wanted her to do something,but she is so young only 16. I think that she was scared to death, and she loved him, and it was just a horrible situation for her. She was lost because Cass left, and the way Rogerson made her feel when he wasn't abusing her was really good. Rogerson was just seriously messed up, I think he had some sort of radar or something to alert him Caitlin was passive, and easily controlled. Maybe the first night when he beckoned her and she just followed I don't know, but by the end I wanted something horrible to happen to him. I know that makes me a bad person, but I just hated him, and wanted to rip his dreadlocks out of his skull. I totally recommend this book its not to graphic, but it gets the point across I liked that. The book was still meaningful, but not to shocking. The characters were amazingly developed. I mean I would have liked for Caitlin's older sister to be a littler more developed, but the story wasn't about her it was about Caitlin so I understand.

2 comments:

Dorothy Thompson said...

Hi Caitlin...did you get my email about George Earl Parker's review for today? I'm not seeing it...will it go up soon?

Katy said...

It goes up on the For Review tab in the sidebar