Paige Gallagher

Paige Gallagher
Waiting for You
Susane Colasanti
Realistic Fiction
Just Right
Just Finished (322)


1) I just finished my book and the ending was very good. In the middle of the book Sterling started getting interested in dating guys online. She told Marisa about this guy she's been IMing, the guy is much older than her and lives in New York. Marisa keeps trying to warn Sterling that not everyone is who they seem online, and tries to stop her. Sterling is convinced she's in love with him. When the two were talking she said that she would go after him in New York. He disagreed and said he would come to her, both decide to meet in a park. Marisa is worried about Sterling and follows her there just in case she needs help. Sterling sits on the bench and a boy from their school sits next to her. As Marisa is watching them she realizes that the guy sitting next to her is a boy from her school and was pretending to be an older guy from New York. Sterling gets angry when she figures it out and later tells Marisa about her day in the park. In Marisa's love life, she decides to break up with Derek because she realizes that he was cheating on her with his ex girlfriend Sierra. Nash is there for her after the breakup, and when she is with him she realizes Nash is the guy for her. Afterwards the two start to go out. In the very end of the book Marisa sneaks over to Nash's house in the middle of the night suspecting that Nash is the podcast DJ. When she walks in on him broadcasting she realizes it is him. After Marisa finding out Nash decides to stop his DJ'ing.

2) I really enjoyed reading this book. One reason I enjoyed it was because the characters were so life like. I loved how Marisa had an anxiety disorder. These are the kinds of issues teenagers go through and struggle with. I also liked that she explained how she recovered but then in the middle of the book she went through another time of anxiety and depression. The author did a very good job on touching the subject and explaining it but at the same time not making the book sad or too heavy. It made her seem real. Her character wasn't the perfect girl who all the guys like, she also wasn't the character that goes with the flow. Another thing I liked about the book was that Marisa plays in her school band. Which can sometimes be a stereotype for someone who is unpopular. In this case it wasn't a correct stereotype. Marisa wasn't the most popular but she had good friends that she surrounded herself with, which is the most important.

3) One theme I noticed was Faith vs. Doubt. One major place I see this theme is between Derek and Marisa. After class one day Marisa was walking in the hallway and she saw her boyfriend Derek talking to his ex girlfriend Sierra. She wasn't bothered by it at first, but as she got closer she realized they were laughing and Sierra was touching his shoulder, which isn't something you do to your ex boyfriend. Marisa struggled with this because she has faith in Derek, he asked her out and she said yes. But she doesn't feel right about letting it slide. When she tries to talk to him he says that they were just talking and that it was nothing. He sweet talks her and says things any girl would want to hear, so she believes him. the problem is, she doesn't feel right about it. Things keep popping up more and more between them. One example would be when one of her classmates mentions that she say Derek and Sierra come to and leave a party together. In the end doubt overcomes faith and she finds out it the rumors were true and that he would rather be with Sierra. Marisa decides to break up with Derek.

4) My favorite character is Sterling. She is my favorite character because she is a good friend. When Marisa was at her lowest point Sterling was right there ready to cheer her up and help her feel better. Another example would be when Sterling was aggravated that Marisa already had plans with Derek, but Sterling let it slide. If I were in her position I wouldn't have been as accepting. This is because Marisa blew Sterling off for Derek. Another reason I like her is because she is still happy even when neither of her parents care or are at home. When Sterling was little her Dad left and her mom is never home because her mom doesn't car enough. Even though she had gone through all of this she kept her faith and she kept herself grounded with good friends.


5) My least favorite character is Marisa's mom. This is because her mom cheated on her Dad. Her mom went behind her dads back and cheated on someone. One of the worst parts about this, is that the man she was cheating with she brought over for dinner one night, with her husband present. She never told her husband until he figured it out. At first Marisa didn't know about it. Once when Marisa was looking for something in her mom and dads closet, she noticed it looked empty on her Dads side. She dismissed the thought and kept going. Later on when her mom told her she got very upset. Marisa's mother explained that they had been disagreeing for a while and needed to separate for a little bit. Marisa suspected that this wasn't the full story, so she asked her mom if there was someone else involved and her mother said yes. When her Dad came back to visit she shunned him. Marisa was angry so she ignored him. But the truth was, that it wasn't her dad who was cheating it was her mom. Marisa felt terrible that she was so mean to her dad, she was even more angry that her mother would let her believe that it was her dads fault. I disliked her mother the most in this book.

6) The ending of this book was what I had expected. I predicted that Nash was going to be the podcast DJ. In the end of the book Marisa walks in on him in his DJ session, and he admits it was him the whole time. One clue that led me to believe this, was the fact that every time Marisa would listen she would say how much the DJ seemed to be saying everything she was feeling or how the DJ was relating things to her life. Over the past year Marisa had grown very close to Nash and told him all about her problems. Another clue that led me to believe the DJ was Nash was because in the beginning of the book it told us that he worked it the front office for credits. Every night the DJ was on he would reveal personal information about people that no one knew how the DJ could have gotten all this information. The ways Nash go the information was by listening to the secretaries gossip about the school in front of him while he would work in the office.