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If you read the blurb ‘Dedication’ sounds like a satisfying tale of revenge, misunderstandings and unrequited love. Kate Hollis packs a bag, jumps on a plane and abandons her grownup life when she hears her ex-boyfriend Jake Sharpe has returned to their childhood home town. Kate’s not after ‘one last chance’, or anything as wussy as closure, she’s intent on making Jake regret his entire life and to help her achieve this she’s packing the ultimate wardrobe. Kate’s gloriously, righteously angry, because Jake didn’t just hurt her by disappearing right before the prom, he’s managed to continue hurting her by becoming an international rock star and writing all his songs about her. Everywhere she goes Jake’s songs about her sexual habits, her deepest emotions and her family’s dysfunction play over loudspeakers. ‘Dedication’ sounds like it will teasingly examine how a teenage dream, like a rockstar who writes all his songs for you, becomes an adult nightmare when the rockstar makes his money from your lifestory.Unfortunately ‘Dedication’ is a novel populated by underdeveloped characters, with a barrelful of melodrama.
The novel’s main problem is the amount of plot its authors have tried to ram into it. ‘Dedication’ roams through two timelines; the first is set in present day Vermont where Kate has flown to find Jake and the second is a series of flashbacks that follow Kate through her teenage years. The Vermont sections have the ability to capture the reader’s attention as this storyline is allowed to progress at a reasonable pace and the scenery is described in loving detail. However, the sections set during Kate’s teenage years are disjointed and sketchy as Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus try to map out every important moment of Jake and Kate’s adolescent relationship, while also explaining why Kate and her best friend Laura still have such a strong relationship. There’s too much that needs to be done to create a believable coming of age storyline to relegate the characters’ teenage years to a secondary storyline, just to provide the reader with more information about one relationship. While the use of the flashback device is a valiant attempt to put into practise the show don’t tell principle, by showing the reader Kate’s full involvement with Jake, a summary of Kate’s teenage years and a more attentive hand with the portions of the books set in Vermont would have allowed for a more fully rounded cast.
In the storyline set in the present the main story strand is the aforementioned ‘making a rock star pay’ plot. The authors apparently didn’t think this would provide enough dramarama to keep readers interested so it turns out that Kate’s parents are selling their house without telling her, her dad is clinically depressed and coming off his meds, Laura is fighting Jake for the royalties he owes her husband and Kate and her mum have monumental issues. That’s all going in the present, in the flashbacks to the past there are typical teenage angst issues, which are drawn in broad, unimaginative lines, but in case that isn’t dramatic enough the authors have thrown in Jake’s alcoholic, abandoned mother, an affair and a bride breaking down at her reception. ‘Dedication’ strives for depth by including all this real life tragedy, but ends up top heavy and obvious as the authors cram in big issues and crying scenes, instead of genuinely observed emotion. When Laura started screaming at her reception and Kate got a slap from her own mum I felt like I’d stumbled into Dallas country.
The teenage cast of ‘Dedication’ lacks character development. There are quite a few female teenage characters that seem to have been included for little reason and make no impact on the story. Apart from Kate the teenage characters’ voices are generic and blank, which makes them fade into the background in the presence of the potent relationship between Jake and Kate. Even Laura is only included as Kate’s best friend. Her own motivations are never examined, her relationship with Sam just happens conveniently so that her and Kate can double date. This trend is continued in the Vermont sections, where Kate and Jake go out to find the old members of his band. Their characters are shallowly drawn and the purpose of the reunion, which I assume is to make us care about the people Jake has robbed of royalties, is lost. By the end of the novel still didn't know much about the secondary characters.
The most positive feature of this novel is the character of the heroine, Kate. While still not fully developed, despite being the focus of the novel (everything we learn about her is basic surface material: she loves Jake, she’s angry, she works hard) Kate is forthright, strong and principled. Although she’s still drawn to Jake she won’t compromise when it comes to seeing his fellow band mates get the recognition they deserve. She makes mistakes, big mistakes, but she has the sense to know and admit when things aren’t right. Her developing teenage friendship with Laura is portrayed in a way which makes sense, with small, clear details, for example in one episode Laura chooses to hang out with Kate rather than run off with a popular girl who is exerting peer pressure. These details show how a lifelong bond is formed between the two girls. If their friendship had been explored with a little more subtlety and depth I’d have felt much more generously towards ‘Dedication’, because chick-lit novels about true female friendship are hard to find. Sadly big declarations of friendship are too often substituted for these smaller, enlightening details and when Kate returns to Vermont their relationship feels a little lifeless.
‘Dedication’ has an interesting premise, but ultimately the execution disappointed me. Can anyone tell me if The Nanny Diaries’, another collaboration between these authors, is any good?
