This review is my honest and unbiased opinion. The author and I are both in the IWSG.
I did enjoy the story and the characters. It is very drama-forward, as the main character, usually called Sasha, has been through a lot in her young life and struggles with mental and emotional trauma and stress, especially from survivor's guilt. I would classify it as a journey of personal growth, including a summer romance (clean/sweet). It isn't the sort of book I read most often.
There is a suggested playlist at the start of the book (I'm unfamiliar with the songs- but I'm Gen X old). Honestly, I'd sooner have a list of characters, including all their names and nicknames, and their relationship to the main character. It's possible that nearly every character in this book is related, unless the word "cousin" has become a slang term that doesn't actually mean related. It takes place in California, where a teenage girl dating her cousin would not be socially acceptable, yet everyone in the book fully accepts this, including the family. 🤨
Verb tenses do not always agree. The book needs an editor. I was confused when there were multiple speakers in the same paragraph, a format with which I am unfamiliar. There are a few head-hops where the point of view shifts, usually to Raven, though sometimes to the parents. Once in a while, a word is missing that would clarify a sentence. ("The exact ride sped down a curve, his hand held hers, fingers locking." To me, something is missing in that sentence.) Scene transitions occasionally lost me. (Chapter 19 has Kayla out with people, but then she comes downstairs? Then Raven and Sasha are in a car but on a balcony.) I struggle to picture what the "balcony" in the home means, as it sometimes seems large enough to be a porch. There is a scene in Chapter Ten where it reads like Sasha is naked in front of many people, including her boyfriend, sister, mom, and friend- but there's no reaction to this, so perhaps I just misunderstood something. Chapter Thirteen had a bike with a backseat, and I have no idea what that looks like. In Chapter Fourteen, she's in a park and opens a "closet of gifts," which I also cannot picture, and then she's shocked because her boyfriend asks her on a date, which is a reaction I didn't understand. There's a party game in Chapter Sixteen where players draw a cheat, but I think the author may have meant "chit," so that may be a translation error. In Chapter Seventeen, Sasha meets Taylor, but despite just meeting her, they've known each other for eight years and consider each other to be sisters, which confused me a bit. With a wedding only two weeks away, Taylor is first picking out her bridal party, which absolutely blew my mind for a timeline, but George, the groom, doesn't even know some of his groomsmen, so it's obviously very unconventional. "Children below the age of fifteen don't even attend weddings," is a passage that really threw me, as I've never heard anything like that. The wedding colors are Olive and Neptune, and I have no idea where Neptune falls on the color wheel. The Chapter Eighteen wedding scene is all telling instead of showing, just a summary really. The groom might be wearing a black dress, if I'm reading it right. ("The bride has her dress colored white, and the groom has his colored black.") By Chapter Twenty, there's mention of MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is noted as being in New York, which it obviously is not. The word "illegal" is used several times in the book, but I have no idea to which laws it refers. Prom season in California is normally in April or May, though the book says winter, but also homecoming in the book is associated with basketball rather than the more traditional football. In Chapter Twenty-Four, Sasha says her parents had obvious reasons for lying, but I have no idea what those "obvious" reasons were, so that confused me.
A fifteen-year-old does have a relationship with an eighteen-year-old, which may bother some people. The characters are very worried about that two-year age difference. I'm unsure if there's diversity in the book, as only Mr. Brown and Tom are really described (as chocolate). There are a handful of curse words in the book.
A character who faked death comes back to life, but it's only a small scene and doesn't seem to affect the characters or the story much, so I was confused about its purpose. It did remind me of the 90's television show "Beverly Hills 90210." In Chapter Twenty-Four, there's a moment that feels like Lady MacBeth's bloody hands to me.
In Chapter Eleven, Mr. Brown became my favorite character. There is a great deal of wisdom in that chapter. The character Nat has a book published, which I thought was cool. Sasha gives a good speech at the wedding (or a very long toast), and a profound obituary (seems like a eulogy) at a funeral. The basement prom was my favorite scene in the book.
I read the whole book because I wanted to know what plot twists would happen, though I did predict many of them. I would read another book from this author.
The title made sense, as it is woven into the end of the book. The pink cover with various clipart images from the story works well. There are themes of love, family, and personal growth in the book. The parts that most hold a mirror up to society are when social media, such as Instagram, becomes such a strong communication or gossip tool. The ending is happy enough and leaves the story with hope (and room for a sequel).
https://www.goodreads.com/j_lenni_dorner
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8645537460https://amzn.to/4dOORxV This Ends This Summer (Amazon US link)
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