Proud Professional Reader
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Author: Una LaMarche
Date Published: May 16, 2013
Grade: B-
The summer we were nine: Emma was branded “Skylar’s friend Emma” by the infamous Adam Loring... The summer we were ten: Maddie realized she was too far into her lies to think about telling the truth... The summer we were eleven: Johanna totally freaked out during her first game of Spin the Bottle... The summer we were twelve: Skylar’s love letters from her boyfriend back home were exciting to all of us—except Skylar...Our last summer together: Emma and Adam almost kissed. Jo found out Maddie’s secret. Skylar did something unthinkable... and whether we knew it then or not, five summers of friendship began to fall apart.
Three years after the fateful last night of camp, the four of us are coming back to camp for reunion weekend—and for a second chance. Bittersweet, funny, and achingly honest, Five Summers is a story of friendship, love, and growing up that is perfect for fans of Anne Brashares and Judy Blume's Summer Sisters.
Review: This book was picked up randomly one day at Chapters; I hadn't heard about it or seen it on Goodreads before, but after reading the summary, I decided it could be a good, fun, light-hearted read- perfect for when you're feeling bored on a hot summer's day. I find myself usually rating the light-hearted books I read fairly low. The reason for that is because most light-hearted, quick reads leave you with a sort of "oh okay" feeling. Nothing too spectacular, nothing too special, nothing that will make you see the world from a different point of view. Although Five Summers was a fun book that kept me engaged most of the time, it didn't seem to have any sort of emotional impact on me once I turned the last page. All I could really think was, "huh that was nice".
Five Summers is often compared to Anne Brashare's series, The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants, which I adored. I'm a huge fan of both the books and the movies. I know many people find it cliché to read about a group of girls who are "best friends", but I personally love it, which is why I really enjoyed reading Five Summers for the most part. Although the girls, Jo, Maddie, Emma, and Skylar were no where near as lovable and complex as Tibby, Lena, Bridget, and Carmen, they were still interesting to read about and each girl had her own qualities that were fairly well developed (although three out of the four girls got on my nerves quite often).
Continuing the comparison of the two, I found the friendship in Five Summers quite disappointing compared to The Sisterhood. I don't think readers were able to really see how close the four girls really were because there was just so much drama within the pages. I definitely didn't fully buy their "everlasting" friendship because right from the start, it seemed as if there was always a weird tension in the air between some of the girls, and this tension didn't feel completely resolved at the end. Furthermore, in The Sisterhood, there are some pretty solid love interests (like Kostos, he's pretty perfect, okay...). However, if you're looking for a similar read filled with romance, Five Summers isn't the book you're looking for. The male characters in Five Summers were not ideal, nor romantic, nor adorable- basically, there were realistic, average seventeen year old boys- immature and often exuding with confidence.
However, because of the drama filled pages, the book was very fast paced and I never once found myself getting bored. Una LaMarche did a great job of keeping readers engaged, even during the sappy, somewhat cheesy "let's make up!" scenes. There was no huge twist and the plot itself was pretty predictable. Five Summers was overall a simple, quick read about friendship and change.
Hope everyone's summer is going great!
PAULA :)
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