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Book Review of Summer Sisters

Summer Sisters
Summer Sisters
Author: Judy Blume
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Paperback
Tesstarosa avatar reviewed on + 151 more book reviews


Its 1977, Victoria (Vix) Leonard and Caitlin Somers arent best friends in school and we definitely from different socio-economic backgrounds. Vixs parents were married and they struggled to make ends meet. Having a child with a disability one of her brothers had Muscular Dystrophy didnt help the family situation. Caitlins parents were divorced and her family had money. Her mother was still living a bit of the hippy/love child lifestyle and she spent each summer with her father and her brother on the east coast at a beach house.

Every summer, Caitlin invited one of her classmates to spend the summer with her at her fathers home. This year, she chooses Vix. With much persuasion, Vixs persons agree to let her go and Vixs world is changed forever. She learns about her sexuality and first love while spending the rest of her summers with Caitlin at the shore.

Throughout their friendship, Caitlin often betrays Vix and now its years later and Caitlin has asked Vix to be the Maid of Honor at her wedding. And, despite some of the past betrayals, Vix agrees to this but she now has to work her way through the betrayals and what happened in their last summer together at the beach.

I really liked this coming-of-age story. Vixs loyalty to Caitlin despite her betrayals is sometimes hard to understand and but at most times easy to understand.

The story is written with a flashback setup. It opens with Caitlin asking Vix to be her maid of honor and then goes back through how the two became friends and ends back at the request to be the maid of honor. I did make the mistake of not paying enough attention to the opening sequence and so when the story hit the person mentioned in the engagement, I didnt recognize the name and was a bit surprised at who the groom was. I felt this helped with my enjoyment of the book.

I also think that part of my enjoyment in this book is that fact that the characters came of age at the same time as I did. It really brought back my memories of junior high, high school, college and starting out on my own after college.