‘Along For The Ride’ Proves Netflix Is the Perfect Home for Sarah Dessen Books

After the wild success of 2018’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, adapting YA novels—and specifically, teen romance novels—for the small screen was surely a no-brainer for Netflix. And indeed, the streamer has been pursuing that market, with original adaptations of cute girl-meets-boy novels, including The Perfect Date, Let It Snow, All the Bright Places, and, of course, The Kissing Booth series. So it’s no surprise that Netflix has turned to one of the most successful YA romance novelists in recent years—Sarah Dessen—for new source material. In fact, Dessen and Netflix are such a natural fit, it’s only surprising it took this long.

Dessen has been a best-selling machine of YA romance for well over a decade, and yet Along for the Ride—which is now streaming on Netflix—is only her second movie adaptation. The story, like most of Dessen’s stories, effortlessly mixes the angst of coming of age with the addictive bliss of first love. Auden (played by Emma Pasarow), is a high school graduate who decides to spend her last summer before college with her dad in the fictional beach town known as Colby. Auden is reserved—a little aloof, and a little judgmental—but with the help of a handsome, mysterious stranger named Eli (Belmont Cameli) she learns how to come out of her shell.

It’s all very light and sweet, with a few dashes of darkness as both teens work through their past trauma. Even that, though, is all brooding and internal. It’s long walks on the boardwalk and quiet dates over pie, not shouted confessions in the rain or races through airport terminals. The only stand-out “set piece” in the movie is a dance party on the beach with fireworks. Even in the 2000s, when romantic comedies like The Devil Wears Prada and The Proposal were doing numbers at the box office, a story like Along for the Ride simply doesn’t feel big enough for the big screen.

Perhaps that’s why it’s taken so long for Dessen’s novels to get the movie treatment again, after the 2003 film How to Deal, a rom-com that combined two of her early books and starred Mandy Moore. That film wasn’t well-received by critics, and perhaps that’s no surprise. Film criticism then—even more male-dominated than it is now—was at the height of its cool-guy cynicism, and Dessen simply doesn’t do cynical, in the same way she doesn’t do big. Her books deal with the quiet, reflective aftermath of trauma, and by the end, it’s always overcome, usually with the help of a cute guy. There is always a kiss, always a happy ending. Predictable, yes, but more importantly, reliable. There’s a reason she has over a dozen bestsellers. Readers knew they would get a warm, fuzzy feeling from her books, and she always delivered.

It’s exactly the kind of stress-free, optimistic love story you want on your Netflix screen on a quiet Friday night. Already, Along for the Ride has been better received by critics. There’s something to be said for the expectations set by the Netflix logo before a movie—this film won’t change your life, but it will be a 90-minute balm from the outside world, and that’s exactly what Along for the Ride is.

Dessen fans will be pleased to hear that, if all goes well, there will be more to come. Two other Dessen books, This Lullaby and Once and For All, were optioned by the streamer in 2019, and, according to a 2021 blogpost from Dessen herself, The Truth About Forever has been bought by Netflix, too. It’s a match made in heaven—almost like a couple from a Sarah Dessen novel.