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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
I was torn on how to rate this book. On the one hand, I wasn't a huge fan of this book. I enjoyed reading it, but I don't see myself ever picking it up again. I didn't think the characters were as vibrant or memorable as they could be. But on the other hand, I think Ockler addressed some very important issues in a beautiful manner. I liked how Anna was not just struggling to get over her first love; she also had to deal with supporting her best friend, who she felt had more of a right to be hurt by the loss. My favorite layer was that she didn't even know what her relationship was with Matt. All of these aspects of this tragedy felt so real, poignant, and truthful that I can't help but have very high respect for this book. She takes the basic premises of a teen love story and redefines everything about it, navigating love, sex, relationships and friendship in a way I've rarely seen in teen novels. So overall, I really enjoyed this book and think it is an important YA novel, but I do wish the characters had been a bit more memorable.
Anna e Frankie são melhores amigas, do tipo que contam tudo uma para a outra e não mantêm segredos. Contudo, há muito tempo Anna tem sentimentos por Matt, o irmão mais velho de Frankie, parte do grupo, mas com medo de complicar as coisas, jamais contou à amiga. Isto é, até que no seu aniversário de 15 anos, ela descobre que Matt sente o mesmo por ela e, então, eles resolvem contar a Frankie, na viagem que os dois irmãos e os pais sempre fazem nas férias para a Califórnia. Contudo, os três sofrem um acidente de carro grave, algumas semanas antes, e Matt morre.
Com isso, ambas ficam arrasadas e Anna, que é quem narra o livro, acredita que o segredo dos dois morre junto. Um ano depois, e sem ainda superar a perda, Frankie mudou completamente o estilo e personalidade, se tornando um pouco estranha até mesmo a própria melhor amiga. Mas é nas férias que finalmente surge a oportunidade de um “novo começo”, com a viagem da família para a Califórnia, levando junto Anna. E é daí que vem o nome do livro, pois Frankie, nessa nova personalidade meio louca, resolve que as duas devem conhecer 20 garotos, mesmo que Anna não concorde muito com isso.
"Se tivesse encontrado a borboleta que bateu as asas antes de entrarmos no carro naquele dia, eu a esmagaria. (pág. 90)"
Apesar do tema pesado, Vinte garotos no verão é uma história, surpreendentemente, com uma narrativa leve e a escrita da Sarah Ockler torna tudo mais fácil de ler e impossível de largar. Por justamente ser Anna a narradora, nós ficamos indo e voltando no tempo, com flashbacks do curto período em que ela e Matt passaram juntos, mesclados às novas experiências da viagem. Eu gostei dessa mistura e não vou mentir, me dava uma dor no coração pensar em toda a vida que Matt tinha pela frente e que foi bruscamente interrompida.
A viagem das meninas na Califórnia, além de ter um plano de fundo maravilhoso (por favor, eu queria fazer essa viagem), também é o lugar de muitas coisas novas e primeiras vezes. As duas, por mais que tentem esconder, mudaram muito depois da perda e, ao mesmo tempo, ainda não se libertaram do luto, mesmo que cada uma à sua própria maneira. Anna, por exemplo, ainda só pensa em Matt, praticamente, então em alguns momentos era fácil perder a paciência com ela, mesmo que, no decorrer da história, eu tenha acabado simpatizando com seus problemas e conflitos.
"Em nosso curto tempo junto, nós quatro nos tornamos íntimos, como só acontece com pessoas que você mal conhece - pessoas que vivem a centemas de quilômetros e vários estados de distância.
Pessoas que não sabem seus segredos. (pág. 141)"
Frankie, por outro lado, é muito mais complicada. Ela era extremamente próxima do irmão e, ao se ver sozinha, começa a agir como uma menina rebelde, querendo chamar a atenção de todos, especificamente de seus pais alienados e com problemas no casamento. Até o meio da história eu estava meio em dúvida se gostava dela, se por um lado ela incentivava Anna a sair da concha, ela também me irritava por querer sempre ser a estrela do show. Do meio para o final, então, foi uma montanha-russa louca, e mesmo que sim, houve momentos em que eu achei seu comportamento super babaca, Frankie também me conquistou (um pouquinho).
A narrativa leve tornava os dias da viagem fáceis de acompanhar e, conforme as meninas vão fazendo amizades, ao mesmo tempo em que elas saem da concha, suas mentiras para os pais de Frankie se tornam cada vez maiores, mais loucas e mais perigosas. Não vou mentir, esperei (quase) o livro inteiro para um deles desconfiar e ver toda a imagem falsa que elas construíram desmoronar. Aliás, esse foi um dos pontos em que eu entendi o comportamento de Frankie, em parte, porque seus pais se importam muito, mas ao mesmo tempo, são extremamente desligados em relação à filha! Eu sei que todos sofreram uma enorme perda, mas às vezes era difícil engolir essa desatenção.
"Não se mova, Anna Reiley. Nesse instante, tudo é perfeito. (pág. 285)"
Outra coisa que me incomodou, mesmo que não muito, foi a maneira como a história, na viagem, foi desenvolvida. Sim, eu gostei dos personagens (de quase todos, na verdade), mas ao mesmo tempo, eu esperava alguma coisa mais complexa no meio da história, menos dia-a-dia de um adolescente. Há os flashbacks de fato, mas até os últimos capítulos, as duas amigas ainda guardavam mágoas por causa da tragédia e simplesmente ficavam tentando tapar o sol com a peneira.
Apesar disso, Vinte garotos no verão é um livro incrível, pelo menos para mim, porque me tocou muito. Nunca sofri esse tipo de perda, mas ver a dor que causa nas pessoas próximas e não se comover foi impossível, ao mesmo tempo que foi reconfortante ver que, mesmo assim, é possível dar a volta por cima sem esquecer daquele que se perdeu. Não posso deixar de elogiar também o trabalho da editora, que criou detalhes muito fofos nas páginas e que representavam bem o clima do livro. Foi para os meus favoritos!
P.S.: Recomendo muito para quem gostou de O céu está em todo lugar, da Jandy Nelson.
site: http://meuportaldoslivros.blogspot.com/2015/03/resenha-vinte-garotos-no-verao-de-sarah.html
Com isso, ambas ficam arrasadas e Anna, que é quem narra o livro, acredita que o segredo dos dois morre junto. Um ano depois, e sem ainda superar a perda, Frankie mudou completamente o estilo e personalidade, se tornando um pouco estranha até mesmo a própria melhor amiga. Mas é nas férias que finalmente surge a oportunidade de um “novo começo”, com a viagem da família para a Califórnia, levando junto Anna. E é daí que vem o nome do livro, pois Frankie, nessa nova personalidade meio louca, resolve que as duas devem conhecer 20 garotos, mesmo que Anna não concorde muito com isso.
"Se tivesse encontrado a borboleta que bateu as asas antes de entrarmos no carro naquele dia, eu a esmagaria. (pág. 90)"
Apesar do tema pesado, Vinte garotos no verão é uma história, surpreendentemente, com uma narrativa leve e a escrita da Sarah Ockler torna tudo mais fácil de ler e impossível de largar. Por justamente ser Anna a narradora, nós ficamos indo e voltando no tempo, com flashbacks do curto período em que ela e Matt passaram juntos, mesclados às novas experiências da viagem. Eu gostei dessa mistura e não vou mentir, me dava uma dor no coração pensar em toda a vida que Matt tinha pela frente e que foi bruscamente interrompida.
A viagem das meninas na Califórnia, além de ter um plano de fundo maravilhoso (por favor, eu queria fazer essa viagem), também é o lugar de muitas coisas novas e primeiras vezes. As duas, por mais que tentem esconder, mudaram muito depois da perda e, ao mesmo tempo, ainda não se libertaram do luto, mesmo que cada uma à sua própria maneira. Anna, por exemplo, ainda só pensa em Matt, praticamente, então em alguns momentos era fácil perder a paciência com ela, mesmo que, no decorrer da história, eu tenha acabado simpatizando com seus problemas e conflitos.
"Em nosso curto tempo junto, nós quatro nos tornamos íntimos, como só acontece com pessoas que você mal conhece - pessoas que vivem a centemas de quilômetros e vários estados de distância.
Pessoas que não sabem seus segredos. (pág. 141)"
Frankie, por outro lado, é muito mais complicada. Ela era extremamente próxima do irmão e, ao se ver sozinha, começa a agir como uma menina rebelde, querendo chamar a atenção de todos, especificamente de seus pais alienados e com problemas no casamento. Até o meio da história eu estava meio em dúvida se gostava dela, se por um lado ela incentivava Anna a sair da concha, ela também me irritava por querer sempre ser a estrela do show. Do meio para o final, então, foi uma montanha-russa louca, e mesmo que sim, houve momentos em que eu achei seu comportamento super babaca, Frankie também me conquistou (um pouquinho).
A narrativa leve tornava os dias da viagem fáceis de acompanhar e, conforme as meninas vão fazendo amizades, ao mesmo tempo em que elas saem da concha, suas mentiras para os pais de Frankie se tornam cada vez maiores, mais loucas e mais perigosas. Não vou mentir, esperei (quase) o livro inteiro para um deles desconfiar e ver toda a imagem falsa que elas construíram desmoronar. Aliás, esse foi um dos pontos em que eu entendi o comportamento de Frankie, em parte, porque seus pais se importam muito, mas ao mesmo tempo, são extremamente desligados em relação à filha! Eu sei que todos sofreram uma enorme perda, mas às vezes era difícil engolir essa desatenção.
"Não se mova, Anna Reiley. Nesse instante, tudo é perfeito. (pág. 285)"
Outra coisa que me incomodou, mesmo que não muito, foi a maneira como a história, na viagem, foi desenvolvida. Sim, eu gostei dos personagens (de quase todos, na verdade), mas ao mesmo tempo, eu esperava alguma coisa mais complexa no meio da história, menos dia-a-dia de um adolescente. Há os flashbacks de fato, mas até os últimos capítulos, as duas amigas ainda guardavam mágoas por causa da tragédia e simplesmente ficavam tentando tapar o sol com a peneira.
Apesar disso, Vinte garotos no verão é um livro incrível, pelo menos para mim, porque me tocou muito. Nunca sofri esse tipo de perda, mas ver a dor que causa nas pessoas próximas e não se comover foi impossível, ao mesmo tempo que foi reconfortante ver que, mesmo assim, é possível dar a volta por cima sem esquecer daquele que se perdeu. Não posso deixar de elogiar também o trabalho da editora, que criou detalhes muito fofos nas páginas e que representavam bem o clima do livro. Foi para os meus favoritos!
P.S.: Recomendo muito para quem gostou de O céu está em todo lugar, da Jandy Nelson.
site: http://meuportaldoslivros.blogspot.com/2015/03/resenha-vinte-garotos-no-verao-de-sarah.html
I was actually kind of disappointed with this book. I read so many good reviews that I guess I expected so much more.
I know what loss is like, even though it's a different one. But, even so, the way Anna deals with Matt's death is kind of... strange.
I mean, the crying, freaking out, not talk, supporting Frankie's bad-ass behaviour... all of that I understand and relate to. But it seemed to me that Anna was a little superfual about what she felt for Matt.
I mean, is a year really enough to forget the one you love and erase him completely? I know she needs to let go and start to live again... but the way she refered to Matt and the way she just forgot about him when she was with Sam seemed so... bad. Like she was never really in love with Matt in the first place, just the casual liking.
I liked the way everything else went on... is just that the grieving was just so... not deep. I don't know how to explain it.
Well, I don't know. Maybe for someone who has suffered something different is difficult to relate to something like this. I guess I just expected too much. Something more deep, more... grieving. More hard to move on.
I know what loss is like, even though it's a different one. But, even so, the way Anna deals with Matt's death is kind of... strange.
I mean, the crying, freaking out, not talk, supporting Frankie's bad-ass behaviour... all of that I understand and relate to. But it seemed to me that Anna was a little superfual about what she felt for Matt.
I mean, is a year really enough to forget the one you love and erase him completely? I know she needs to let go and start to live again... but the way she refered to Matt and the way she just forgot about him when she was with Sam seemed so... bad. Like she was never really in love with Matt in the first place, just the casual liking.
I liked the way everything else went on... is just that the grieving was just so... not deep. I don't know how to explain it.
Well, I don't know. Maybe for someone who has suffered something different is difficult to relate to something like this. I guess I just expected too much. Something more deep, more... grieving. More hard to move on.
This book has been all over the YA blogosphere since its 2009 release and it was also in the spotlight when it was challenged and eventually banned from the Republic, Missouri school district. I never picked it up because my TBR pile is mountainous, but when I was perusing the Kobo store the other day, it was on sale for $3.00, so I couldn't resist. I brought my Kobo with me to a lodge where I was staying one weekend for a family wedding because I didn't feel like packing 2-3 books and had time to read it all in two sittings.
I think one of the most striking things about this book is how misleading the title is in relation to the content between the covers. At first glance, this book looks like a light beach read, rife with scenes from the beach, big parties and boys, boys, boys (twenty of them, apparently). But this really isn't that kind of book at all; it's a book about grief, friendships, and secrets. Despite its heavy themes, this is more of a quiet book, and one that is most definitely character driven.
One of the reasons this book caused such a ruckus in Missouri was because of the sexual content. The main character, Anna, is put on a quest by her friend Frankie to lose her virginity while visiting her summer home in California for a month. It's also Frankie's mission during this time to woo twenty boys (which is where the title derives from, obviously). This is all a means for Frankie to deal with the death of her brother though; Ockler's text/Anna's narration never condones Frankie's behaviour, but it never judges it either. Anywho, I want to get back to how the sex was handled in this book, because Anna *does* lose her virginity. Anna speaks of her feelings towards sex very frankly, and she doesn't romanticize them. Her virginity *is* important to her, and she doesn't want to give it away to just anybody who comes along, but it's not something she treats like the end-all be-all of her existence either.When she does give it up, she doesn't ignore that it happened, but it's not earth-shattering either, which I think is good -- her and Frankie's story is the focus of this novel, and Ockler never loses that focus.
The way Ockler wrote her characters was also well-done. Frankie is a little frustrating at the beginning of the novel; she's a shallow and seemingly vapid girl who's way too interested in clothes and receiving male attention. However, it's also made clear from the get-go that Frankie wasn't like this before the death of her older brother Matt, so it's obvious that her new personality is a means to deal with her brother's death. I wish I could've had a better sense of what Frankie was like before Matt's untimely death, but really, there was no way to do this unless Anna were to describe it to us, or to have flashbacks, and I'm kind of glad Ockler didn't opt for either path.
Anna was definitely a likable character -- I felt for her when Matt died at the beginning of the novel. To be in love with someone for that long, and to finally have them, only to have them ripped away so shortly after really is very sad, and watching Anna deal with that grief privately even sadder. She never told Frankie about her and Matt's relationship for fear of upsetting Frankie, and a year later she *still* hasn't told her because she doesn't want to diminish Frankie's grief in any way, or entitle herself to be as upset as Frankie about it all. Her unwavering loyalty to Frankie is really admirable, despite the very obvious shift in Frankie's personality, and her dedication to helping Frankie in her time of need. I also really liked that she never stresses and moans over her crush on her Potential Boy (can't recall his name) -- I thought that she might have a lot of inner-torment over liking another boy, like she might be betraying Matt or something, but she doesn't. She tries to keep herself from being interested in Potential Boy, but not very hard, and when she realizes it can't be helped, she rolls with it without casting Matt completely aside. It was a perfect balance.
Frankie's parents also play a semi-important part in the story, in that the readers also get to see how they deal with grief over the death of their son. Unfortunately, this was one of the only threads that I found was kind of underdeveloped. They don't change too much over the course of the story, and the tension between Frankie and her parents is never really resolved, or given any kind of closure. It's a thread that was left dangling and I wish it could've been addressed further.
Final Verdict: Don't let the cover of this novel fool you; this is no easy-going beach reach. Rather, it's a character-driven story about two girls dealing with grief, and their road to recovery. The way Ockler deals with these two teen characters (from their reactions to the death that launches the novel, to the sex) was dealt with delicately, but still realistically. My only problem with the novel was I found the thread in the narrative dealing with Frankie and her relationship with her parents was left unresolved, which I thought was a shame. I would definitely recommend this to fans of contemporary YA, especially for people who are looking for a book with more heavy-duty themes without being "issue-books".
I think one of the most striking things about this book is how misleading the title is in relation to the content between the covers. At first glance, this book looks like a light beach read, rife with scenes from the beach, big parties and boys, boys, boys (twenty of them, apparently). But this really isn't that kind of book at all; it's a book about grief, friendships, and secrets. Despite its heavy themes, this is more of a quiet book, and one that is most definitely character driven.
One of the reasons this book caused such a ruckus in Missouri was because of the sexual content. The main character, Anna, is put on a quest by her friend Frankie to lose her virginity while visiting her summer home in California for a month. It's also Frankie's mission during this time to woo twenty boys (which is where the title derives from, obviously). This is all a means for Frankie to deal with the death of her brother though; Ockler's text/Anna's narration never condones Frankie's behaviour, but it never judges it either. Anywho, I want to get back to how the sex was handled in this book, because Anna *does* lose her virginity. Anna speaks of her feelings towards sex very frankly, and she doesn't romanticize them. Her virginity *is* important to her, and she doesn't want to give it away to just anybody who comes along, but it's not something she treats like the end-all be-all of her existence either.
The way Ockler wrote her characters was also well-done. Frankie is a little frustrating at the beginning of the novel; she's a shallow and seemingly vapid girl who's way too interested in clothes and receiving male attention. However, it's also made clear from the get-go that Frankie wasn't like this before the death of her older brother Matt, so it's obvious that her new personality is a means to deal with her brother's death. I wish I could've had a better sense of what Frankie was like before Matt's untimely death, but really, there was no way to do this unless Anna were to describe it to us, or to have flashbacks, and I'm kind of glad Ockler didn't opt for either path.
Anna was definitely a likable character -- I felt for her when Matt died at the beginning of the novel. To be in love with someone for that long, and to finally have them, only to have them ripped away so shortly after really is very sad, and watching Anna deal with that grief privately even sadder. She never told Frankie about her and Matt's relationship for fear of upsetting Frankie, and a year later she *still* hasn't told her because she doesn't want to diminish Frankie's grief in any way, or entitle herself to be as upset as Frankie about it all. Her unwavering loyalty to Frankie is really admirable, despite the very obvious shift in Frankie's personality, and her dedication to helping Frankie in her time of need. I also really liked that she never stresses and moans over her crush on her Potential Boy (can't recall his name) -- I thought that she might have a lot of inner-torment over liking another boy, like she might be betraying Matt or something, but she doesn't. She tries to keep herself from being interested in Potential Boy, but not very hard, and when she realizes it can't be helped, she rolls with it without casting Matt completely aside. It was a perfect balance.
Frankie's parents also play a semi-important part in the story, in that the readers also get to see how they deal with grief over the death of their son. Unfortunately, this was one of the only threads that I found was kind of underdeveloped. They don't change too much over the course of the story, and the tension between Frankie and her parents is never really resolved, or given any kind of closure. It's a thread that was left dangling and I wish it could've been addressed further.
Final Verdict: Don't let the cover of this novel fool you; this is no easy-going beach reach. Rather, it's a character-driven story about two girls dealing with grief, and their road to recovery. The way Ockler deals with these two teen characters (from their reactions to the death that launches the novel, to the sex) was dealt with delicately, but still realistically. My only problem with the novel was I found the thread in the narrative dealing with Frankie and her relationship with her parents was left unresolved, which I thought was a shame. I would definitely recommend this to fans of contemporary YA, especially for people who are looking for a book with more heavy-duty themes without being "issue-books".
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Like the stars, fading with the halo of the vanishing moon. Like the ocean, falling and whispering against the shore. Nothing ever really goes away -- it just changes into something else. Something beautiful.