Book Review: Waiting for You by Susane Colasanti


Marisa is ready for her sophomore year in high school. She can feel that this is going to be the year she finally gets a boyfriend. With help from her best friend Sterling, she knows that she will make it though the year, hopefully with Derek the cute boy from art class as her boyfriend.

Derek may be perfect for her, but he does have a girlfriend. And what help is a best friend, if she's too busy chatting to guys online? Marisa seems like an average high school student depending on her smart chemistry partner Nash to help her pass, and with dreams of being concertmaster in the high school orchestra. It's just that she an anxiety disorder, which makes her over analyze things, and then fall into a spiral of downward thinking, and last year she had to take time off from school to get the help she needed.

Marisa also notices that things are not right with her parents, like her dad's belongings are slowly disappearing, and her mom is acting different. Of course she has nothing to worry about, because these things will work out.

Waiting for You is one of those wonderfully insightful and quiet stories that realistically shows how complex it is being a high school student. Marisa is so normal, and so conflicted at the same time, and you see how and why she thinks the way she does. She wants what every high school student wants, to fit in and be liked, she just gets caught in her own mind. Of course the you and I know that Nash is the perfect boy for her from their interview in chemistry, however blinded she is by Derek!

Waiting for You is recommended to fans of Sarah Dessen, Sara Zarr and other realistic "girl" fiction.

I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Reading in the New Year, with Fat Cat by Robin Brande)