Dreamland

In the book Dreamland Sarah Dessen explores and illustrates physical abuse and loving someone so much that you can not leave. Catlin O’Koren shows many signs of getting abused such as bruises, feeling mentally drained and using drugs to escape the pain. By the middle of the book Catlin’s friend Rina suspects something is wrong with Catlin but says nothing because she feels it might ruin their friendship. Catlin then becomes emotionally and physically attached to Rogerson, and if she ever if late for something she fears that he might hurt her, but she for some reason also feels safe around him. In the book Dreamland the main character Catlin O’Koren deals with many challenges such as, her sister Cass running away, physical abuse, and later going to rehab for drugs.

At the beginning of the book the main character Catlin woke up on her birthday to find a present from her sister Cass sitting outside of her door with a letter attached to it saying that she had run away. ”My sister Cass ran away the morning of my sixteenth birthday, she left a present, wrapped sitting outside my door (Pg.1, Par. 1)”. Cass was supposed to go to Yale in a few days but was feeling too much pressure from her parents to be perfect, so Cass ran away with her boyfriend Adam to be together. Catlin then becomes lost without Cass around and feels she has no one to tell her feelings to since Catlin has been with Cass her whole life. In the middle of the book Catlin was watching Television when she saw Cass on a television show called “The Larmont Whipper Show” Catlin and

Her parents finally find out that Cass has run away to New York, and watch the show everyday to try and catch a glimpse of Cass. Cass finally decides to call home and tell them where she went and that she is okay, but Catlin will not talk to her because she is afraid to hear her sister’s voice again. Catlin then gets a letter at the end of the book from Cass saying that she was not happy and Yale was the last place she