Along for the Ride

I came to this one after hearing it is the bike book and stayed for the insomnia talks. Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen was first published in June 2009 by Viking, a 383 page hardcover with ISBN 9780670011940. Auden is about to start college and spends the summer with her dad, stepmom, and new baby sister at the beach. She does not sleep. She does not do parties. She studies while others live. Then a boy who also cannot sleep teaches her to ride a bike at 2 a.m. I finished it in two days, nostalgic and a little weepy.

Auden Weston narrates. She is seventeen, brilliant, and tired in the way children of ugly divorces get tired. Her mother is a professor who raised her on criticism disguised as preparation. No junk food. No sleepovers. No wasted summers. Auden excelled and missed everything. Now her mother is on tour with a book about raising exceptional daughters, which Auden finds bitterly funny. She decides to spend summer before college with her father Robert, who left when she was young and now runs a beach shop with his new wife Heidi and baby Thisbe.

Colby town is Dessen country. Boardwalk fries. Bike shops. Girls who work summer jobs and know each other since kindergarten. Auden arrives with college reading and no friends. Heidi tries too hard with welcome baskets and matching towels. Robert tries too little, hiding in work to avoid choosing between old daughter and new family. Thisbe cries all night, which suits Auden because she is awake anyway.

Night shifts

Eli Stock is the boy who cannot sleep either. He works at his friend bike shop, wears old band shirts, and rides at night to outrun grief. Two years ago his best friend Abe died in a car crash after a party, and Eli was driving another car in the group. He quit the party scene, quit talking much, and started fixing bikes for kids who cannot pay. He meets Auden when she wanders the boardwalk at midnight because the baby screams and the house feels small.

Their night rides structure the book. Eli teaches Auden to ride a bike, which she never learned because her mother called it inefficient. Wobbling in empty parking lots at 2 a.m. while Eli runs alongside holding the seat. Falling. Laughing for the first time in pages. Then longer rides to look at closed shops, to get pie, to talk without eye contact. Night makes honesty easier. They trade secrets between streetlights. She tells him about her parents fights. He tells her about Abe last night in pieces.

Dessen writes insomnia with accuracy. Not glamorous sleeplessness, but foggy days and wired nights. Auden does homework at 3 a.m. because why not. Eli fixes flats at midnight because the shop is quiet. They bond over diner coffee and the specific loneliness of being awake while the world sleeps. Anyone who has had a summer of bad sleep will recognize the mix of freedom and ache.

Friendship with three girls fills days while Eli fills nights. Maggie, sharp and funny, who works at a boutique and judges Auden expensive shoes. Leah, blunt and boy crazy, who pushes Auden to parties. Esther, quiet and kind, who lends books and asks real questions. At first they see Auden as stuck up. She is, a little, from habit. She learns to ask about their lives instead of performing smart. A beach day where they teach her to float, literally and socially, is a highlight. She cannot float because she cannot relax. They hold her up until she can.

A fair note. Early Auden voice can sound superior. She catalogs outfits and manners like an anthropologist. It fits her mother training, but three chapters of judgment tested me. Stick through. Once Heidi calls her out gently for correcting Thisbe sleep schedule like a paper, Auden starts hearing herself. Growth begins with embarrassment here, which feels true.

Family, bikes, and exes

Daytime plot is family repair. Heidi is young, bubbly, and overwhelmed by a colicky baby and a stepdaughter who quotes research at her. Robert loves both families and fails both by avoiding conflict. Auden watches her dad choose peace over truth repeatedly. He will not tell Heidi her mother visits are too much. He will not tell Auden he is sorry for leaving. He fixes bikes instead of talks. Sound familiar. Auden does the same with studying.

Heidi arc surprised me most. She could have been a caricature, the new wife who tries too hard. Instead Dessen gives her grief and grit. She left a career to run a shop, loves Robert, adores Thisbe, and feels judged by Auden every meal. A scene where Heidi cries in a stockroom because the baby will not stop and the shop is failing broke my heart. Auden finds her, offers to hold Thisbe while Heidi showers, and does not offer advice. That quiet help shifts them more than any talk.

Auden mother calls regularly with cool check ins that are really audits. Did you read. Did you sleep. Are you eating properly. Auden lies to keep peace, then hates lying. Their final call, where Auden says she rode a bike and went to a party and liked both, is a small rebellion with large meaning. She claims joy as data worth having. Her mother hears criticism and hangs up chilly. No hug fix. Just a boundary placed. I respected that Dessen did not redeem the mother fully. Some parents love poorly while loving much.

Eli past unfolds slowly, which suits grief. He does not trauma dump. He mentions Abe in present tense, then corrects. He avoids the road where it happened. He keeps Abe bike tuned but unridden. Auden, who analyzes for a living, resists diagnosing and just rides beside him. When he finally tells the full night, drunk driving, a dare, a curve, she listens without platitudes. No it was not your fault speech. Just company. That restraint makes the scene land.

Bikes are more than transport. Learning to ride at seventeen means accepting wobble and falls in front of a boy you like. Auden crashes into bushes, gets road rash, and keeps going. Each ride adds a skill she missed. Balancing. Braking. Looking ahead not down. Dessen never winks at metaphor, but it is there. Growing up requires looking where you want to go, not at the crash you fear.

If there is a drag, it is party chapters in the middle where names blur. Who dated whom. Who is mad at Maggie this week. Necessary for beach town texture, but I kept a list of girls to track. Once Eli and Auden night quests take over, with a list of things Auden never did, focus sharpens. Eat pie in a diner. Go to a party and dance badly. Do a dare. The quest gives the back half spine.

Learning to stay

The last act tests whether summer change survives daylight. Auden and Eli fight after a party where alcohol and an ex stir old grief. He pulls away to punish himself. She retreats to studying to feel safe. Friends intervene without fixing. Maggie drags Auden to the shop to apologize. Esther tells Eli he is allowed to be happy without betraying Abe. Heidi tells Auden that love needs staying through awkward mornings, not only magic nights.

The reconciliation is not grand. No prom. No airport run. Eli shows up to help Auden pack for college with tools to fix her dorm bike. He admits he is scared to date someone leaving. She admits she is scared to want someone who might leave emotionally. They agree to try with calls and visits, knowing college may end it. That modesty feels honest for seventeen. Promise effort, not forever.

Family lands similarly soft. Robert tells Auden he is sorry for missing years, without excuses about work. Heidi asks Auden to be Thisbe sister, not tutor, and Auden says yes by holding the baby until she sleeps instead of timing it. Auden mother sends a stiff letter that includes one line of pride about Auden essay on summer. Auden keeps that line and recycles the rest. Boundaries with love intact.

What stays with me is Dessen argument about perfect versus present. Auden mother raised her to be exceptional and alone. Colby teaches her to be ordinary and held. Riding a bike badly. Dancing badly. Loving a boy who is sad sometimes. Those ordinary skills, practiced at night when no one grades, become the education she needed. College will teach the rest.

Heidi, Robert, and the baby who never sleeps

I want to give more room to the adult triangle that makes Auden summer possible, because Dessen writes stepfamilies with rare fairness. Heidi is twenty nine with a new baby, a failing shop, and a stepdaughter who corrects her grammar. She could have been a villain in lesser YA. Here she is exhausted and trying. She makes welcome baskets with local maps. She asks Auden about books she has not read. She cries when Thisbe will not latch, not from self pity but from love that has nowhere to go at 3 a.m.

Robert is harder to like and easier to recognize. A writer turned shop owner who left one family and fears failing a second. He avoids fights by fixing bikes. He tells Auden he is proud while checking his phone. He tells Heidi she is doing great while booking extra shifts to avoid the crying. His avoidance is not cruelty. It is a habit learned in his first marriage to Auden mother, where every talk became a seminar. Dessen does not excuse him. She shows the cost in small bills. A missed recital. A forgotten dentist appointment. Trust leaking a dollar at a time.

Thisbe, the baby, is basically a siren who never sleeps and resets every plot. Colic keeps everyone awake, which justifies night rides and frayed tempers. Heidi reads every book and still cannot soothe her. Auden, who prides herself on research, learns that no article stops colic at 2 a.m. Only walking, shushing, and time. Holding Thisbe while Heidi showers becomes Auden first useful act in the house. Not smart. Just present. That shift from expert to helper mirrors her larger arc from observer to participant.

A scene that sums it: Heidi falls asleep on the couch with Thisbe on her chest and milk on her shirt. Robert takes a photo because it is sweet. Auden covers both with a blanket instead of commenting on safe sleep guidelines she read. No one thanks her. No one needs to. Care without citation is new for her. I marked that page because it shows growth without dialogue. Dessen trusts readers to see.

Auden mother calls serve as counterpoint. Where Heidi over shares, her mother under feels. Where Robert avoids, her mother prosecutes. Phone calls follow a script. Accomplishments listed. Feelings graded. Auden learns to end calls kindly but early to protect her night. That boundary, practiced with Eli encouragement, is as big as any bike ride. Hanging up to sleep is a skill she never learned at home.

Read it if you like gentle YA with real parents and slow romance. It pairs well with summer nights and pie. Do not expect twists. Expect small firsts that feel huge at seventeen. First bike ride. First all night talk. First time telling a parent what you need. By the last page you will want to call a friend for a night walk. I did, and we got pie. Auden would approve.