Along for the Ride

Along for the Ride
Author(s)	Sarah Dessen
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Young adult
Publisher	Viking Children’s Books
Publication date	June 16, 2009
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	383pp

Along for the Ride is a novel by Sarah Dessen. It was released on June 16, 2009.

Summary: It's been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parent's divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.

A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.

Characters

• Auden Penelope West: Auden is the main character of Along for the Ride. She is a quiet girl who lived with her mother after her parents' divorce, devoting herself to schoolwork in order to please her perfectionist of a mother. Along the way, she realizes she lost most of her childhood because her parents treat her as an adult, since she was young and she never bothered to participate in any of the important milestones of becoming a teenager. Auden decides to spend her last summer before college in the beach town of Colby where her father, stepmother and new baby sister live. She starts working as the book keeper at Clementine's, her stepmother, Heidi's, boutique, and makes new friends there and otherwise that help her gain back her childhood and finally have a memorable summer. Auden lets go of her academically centered lifestyle and opens up to others, letting go of the critical, disapproving mindset her mother had raised her to have. Breaking free from the constraints of her parents impossibly high expectations, Auden begins to live her own life, and discovers things about herself she never knew. As she opens up to others and learns that yes, people can change, the world becomes a much more inviting place, with more things to offer than just textbooks to hide behind.
• Eli Joseph Stock: Eli is a native of Colby who is an insomniac, like Auden. He and his best friend since grade school, Abe, rode bikes together in competitions until Abe died in a car accident where Eli was driving. Since the accident, Eli has kept to himself and seemingly stopped riding his bike until Auden finds him one lonely night, and they teach each other to grow and love again.
• Dr. Victoria West: Auden's mother is a "Mensa level" scholar who has treated her daughter like an adult since she was a child. She doesn't particularly agree with Auden's decision to spend the summer with her father, but once she realizes that the trip has transformed Auden into a better person, she learns to embrace her life and appreciate her daughter.
• Maggie: Maggie is another native of Colby who works at Clementine's, Auden's stepmother, Heidi's boutique. She dated Eli's brother, Jake, for most of high school, and they were in a rough patch when Auden came to town and hooked up with Jake on her first night in Colby. Maggie finds out that Auden hooked up with Jake, but she decides it is for the best and the two become friends. Maggie teaches Auden how to ride a bike, and the two are both very bright students and end up becoming roommates at Defriese University.
• Adam: Adam is another native of Colby who works at the Bike shop, later called "Abe's Bikes". He is in love with Maggie, which everyone knows but Maggie. He helps teach Auden how to ride a bike. He was the only person on the staff of his high-schools yearbook, causing all other native to Colby not let him take a picture. Adam ends up dating Maggie at the end of the book.
• Robert West: Robert is Auden's father. He is a professor at a college and divorced Auden's mother after she became more successful than him. He marries Heidi West and has Thisbe. He is described as selfish and never helps with Thisbe. He and Heidi fight and he moves out, but in the end, appears to want to turn a new leaf. Auden states that he moves back in at the end of the book.
• Jake Stock: Jake is a playboy, he dated Maggie, but hooked up with Auden behind a sand dune, and he is Eli's brother.
• Belissa Norwood Eli's jealous ex-girlfriend, who got mad at Auden for trying to steal her boyfriend, because Auden was talking with Eli. Though in reality, she and Eli were just talking, and Belissa was oblivious to the actual conversation, accusing Auden falsely.
• Hollis West: Auden's free-spirited, happy-go-lucky older brother who has been backpacking abroad in Europe for a couple years prior to the beginning of the story. He later returns home after having met and fallen in love with Lauren, a scientist at "The U," whom Heidi noticed strongly resembled Auden's mother, and begins a steady job at a bank. He explains to Auden that all children are kids with their parents, unless the parents are too childish themselves - one of the reasons he'd left home.
• Thisbe Caroline "Isby" West: The newborn daughter of Heidi and Robert, Auden and Hollis's father. She was extremely fussy until Heidi had a breakdown, prompting Auden to call Eli, who brought his mother Karen Stock, who raised four children and has four grandchildren, to help Heidi and give advice for caring for Isby.
• Heidi West: Auden's upbeat 26-year old stepmother who has been married to Robert West for about a year. Auden initially can't stand Heidi's enthusiasm and love for pink but later learns that she was wrong about her. She owns a boutique, Clementine's, which is next to the bike shop where Eli works. A self-proclaimed former "cold bitch," she dreamed of opening a store in New York City before she moved to Colby one summer to take care of her sick mother and met Auden's father.

Additional characters: Leah, Esther, Abe, Wallace, Clyde.

References

• Two of Heidi's friends are Isabel and Morgan from the book Keeping the Moon
• At the Last Chance Grill, Auden gives her order to Colie from Keeping the moon
• Auden talks about once trying to "awkwardly flirt" with Nate Cross from Lock and Key
• The boy that stood Auden up at the prom was Jason Talbot from The Truth About Forever
• Jason told Auden that his girlfriend dumped him for a juvenile delinquent welder with a tattoo who was Wes Baker from The Truth About Forever
• When Heidi was preparing for her girls night out, she was wearing a silver necklace with a key studded with red stones. The necklace was inspired by Ruby and made by Harriet from Lock and Key
• Perkin's Day is the school Ruby attended in Lock and Key
• Heidi and Thisbe turn up as friends of Mclean's mother in What Happened to Goodbye
• Mclean and her mother visit Colby in What Happened To Goodbye
• Mclean and both her parents visit the Last Chance cafe in What Happpened To Goodbye
• Perkin's Day is the private school attended by Will Cash, an antagonist from Just Listen
• Auden passes a cheerful woman on a bike wearing an orange jumpsuit, who is most likely Mira from Keeping the Moon, who also lives in Colby.

External links

• Photo of Novel