Reasons For Reading This Book:
I listened to an episode of House Guest with Kenzie Elizabeth where Kenzie, Margo and Emily answered a series of questions about the books they have read. One of the books discussed was Summer Sisters by Judy Blume. Even though I listened to this episode a while ago I didn't get around to reading the book until recently. Summer Sisters piqued my interest not only because of the author but because of the praise given to it in the episode. I read Judy Blume growing up and was excited about the idea of reading one of her adult books.
Content of This Book:
What I Liked About This Book:
The highest praise I can give this book is the phenomenal detail. The amount of detail is impeccable and truly captures and bring the reader into the plot each time the book is picked up. The author did not spare any chance to give explicit detail for everything. Another aspect of this book that I will praise the author for is the accuracy and relatability in describing the evolution of friendship and other relationships as one ages and experiences life. With the narration of this book starting from the point-of-view of a child and progressing into adulthood, grasping the importance and understanding that the narrator has of their relationships is important for the reader and the plot. The author was also able to mature the level of writing and narration as the narrators aged and matured. There were parts of this plot that I found intriguing and was somewhat interested in following, but a majority of the plot repulsed me. Another praise I will give to the author was the ability to create narrators who are so different from one another. The narration from character to character had aspects that were different that clearly defined them for each of their chapters. The vast difference in characters made for entertaining narration as there were different takes on the same situation. One last aspect of this book that I liked was the narration encompassed their lives from the time the met each other. The author was also made smart choices on focusing on aspects of the different timeframes that progressed or added to the overall plot of the book.
What I Disliked About This Book:
I had no idea when I started reading it how explicit and that a main focus of the book was sex and sexuality. Even though I praised the author for their level of detail, there were many occasions where I could have gone without the amount of explicit detail relating to sex and sexuality. I am all for romance and sexual encounters when appropriate, but the author chose to focus on the unattractive and quite frankly disgusting parts of sex and sexuality. The talk of hormone, puberty, and getting turned on was too much and I quickly became repulsed by the book. There were many times where I wanted to stop reading this book and return it to the library, but I had nothing else to read as I was on the waitlist for other books, so even though I hated picking it up each time I continued to read. To put it simply I was sick to my stomach more times then not when reading this book. The way the the parents attempted or did not attempt to parent really annoyed me. I felt as though there was no one in this book who I looked to to be the moral compass.
Would I Recommend This Book?
There is no one in my life that I would recommend this book to. I would also not recommend this book to any other reader. There were times I enjoyed reading this book, but more times than not I was repulsed by it and regretted picking it up each time.
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I really had zero business reading this book at age nine.
ReplyDeleteStill, it remains one of my favourite books. The ending still haunts me as a 20 something year old. I wish I could find out what happened to Caitlin ( she was an unlikeable character but I still sort of liked her, Bru was the worst).
I loved reading your review.