Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah OcklerJust when I thought I was more than ready for fall and its chilly temperatures, pumpkin spice lattes and sweaters-and-tights, Twenty Boy Summer has made me just a bit nostalgic for summer.
Anna and Frankie are best friends who share almost everything. Everything except one secret about Matt, Frankie's brother. Matt and Anna have fallen for each other, and he wants to be the one to break the news to Frankie. However, Matt unexpectedly dies before he can do that--leaving his family in emotional turmoil and Anna facing the question of whether to share her feelings for him with Frankie.
Fast forward one year. Anna still hasn't filled in her best friend as the girls head to the beach with Frankie's slightly dysfunctional family. Frankie's mission: Interact with at least 20 boys in the hopes of helping Anna shed her "albatross" {virginity}. Anna's mission: Help Frankie and her family grieve while hiding her own grief.
Twenty Boy Summer is somewhat typical young adult chick lit with fashion, boys, clueless parents and pop culture references. Ockler does a great job of showing how the characters deal (and don't deal) with grief, but there was potential to go deeper and further explore this side of the story. I wondered if that would lessen the appeal for young adults, though.
Meanwhile, I was a bit surprised by the careless attitude Frankie and Anna had toward sex in general and their virginity in particular. Both girls treated it as if it was no big deal and as if whatever decision they made would have little, if any, emotional impact. I'm not trying to sound preachy, but they were only 16--huge decisions for 16 year-olds to be making. I just didn't get the sense that they recognized that, and that seemed unrealistic to me.
Otherwise, though, the book was excellent. Ockler tackles issues like grief and family relationships that so many young adults face without making the overall tone of the novel too heavy. You'll find well-written characters and an engaging story that might leave you nostalgic for summer as well.
Favorite quotes...
Weeping is different from crying. It takes your whole body to weep, and when it's over, you feel like you don't have any bones left to hold you up.
Since Matt's death, the earth has made more than one full trip around the sun--plenty of time to be Over It, according to the official books and therapists and school counselors that tried to talk to me about my "caretaker" role in Frankie's life. But Frankie isn't over it. I'm not over it.
When someone you love dies, people ask you how you're doing, but they don't really want to know. They seek affirmation that you're OK, that you appreciate their concern, that life goes on and so can they. Secretly they wonder when the statute of limitations on asking expires (it's three months, by the way. Written or unwritten, that's about all the time it takes for people to forget the one thing that you never will).
It happened and it was impossible and beautiful and then it ended before it even really began, leaving nothing behind but secrets and broken hearts.
When I almost topple the board, he gently grabs my arm to balance me, and I have to look away, pretending he's my overweight, middle-aged, female gym teacher giving me a swimming lesson.
I certainly can't endure the kind of impossible embarrassment required during the ditching of one's albatross with someone I might actually like.
The whole idea of losing one's virginity is kind of ridiculous. To lose something implies carelessness. A mistake that you can fix simply by recovering the lost object, like your cell phone or your glasses. Virginity is more like shedding something than losing it.
Why does it have to be so special? Frankie says the first time isn't special. It's a minor inconvenience, an act no more significant than going to the dentist...The next time--and all subsequent next times--can be special, but not the first.
