Sarah Dessen:
(born June 6, 1970).
American novelist who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Born in Illinois, Dessen graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her first book, That Summer, was published in 1996. She has since published more than a dozen other novels and novellas. In 2017, Dessen won the Margaret Edwards Award for some of her work. Two of her books were adapted into the 2003 film How to Deal.
Don’t be a fool. Don’t give up something important to hold onto someone who can’t even say they love you.
There’s no way to be one hundred percent sure about anyone or anything. So you’re left with a choice. Either hope for the best or just expect the worst.
If June was the beginning of a hopeful summer, and July the juice middle, August was suddenly feeling like the bitter end.
The quote uses the three months of summer as a kind of storyline for how a summer goes emotionally:
– ‘June’ = the beginning, full of hope and expectation – the holidays are still completely open.
– ‘July’ = the “juicy middle” — summer at its peak, full of life and energy.
– ‘August’ = the “bitter end” — the realization that summer is over, with the prospect of school, fall or change to come.
It is a typical example of “end of summer” melancholy: that familiar bittersweet feeling when you realize that something beautiful is coming to an end, often compared to the Sunday evening blues.
Origin:
The quote comes from “The Moon and More” (2013), a young-adult novel by Sarah Dessen. The book takes place during one summer in the fictional seaside town of Colby, where the main character Emaline is experiencing her last summer at home before heading off to college.
That tension between holding on and letting go — the feeling that something beautiful is coming to an end — is exactly the theme captured in this quote. So it is no coincidence that it fits in with a book about saying goodbye to a familiar period in your life.
Author:
Sarah Dessen is an American writer known for coming-of-age novels often set in the summer, such as “The Truth About Forever”, “This Lullaby” and “Along for the Ride”. Summer, change and coming of age are recurring themes in her work, and this quote fits in seamlessly.
