A review by sleepey
Summerhill by Kevin Frane

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

5.0

One of those reality-bending time-travelling stories that rarely puts you on solid ground, making you piece together the rules of the universe from context clues. You have to go with the flow, but also pay close attention. I know some people really hate that kind of thing but personally I can't get enough, especially when there's a silly dog at the centre of it.

Maybe I'm talking up the weirdness of it too much, I don't want to give the impression that this is an inaccessible book for scifi nerds only.

(Though expecting you to understand the significance of the Orion Nebula from an offhand comment 130 pages ago was pushing it a bit imo.)

The characters are lovely & complex, and their adventures are equal parts fun & harrowing, even if it's not always immediately clear how they got from one to the next.

When Summerhill cut out that part of himself & immediately broke down in regret I cried with him. Such an abrupt & bizarre & beautiful & visceral scene, it resonates with me in a way I can't explain. I'm welling up just thinking about it again.

I've seen some other reviews warning about loose ends but I can't think of any real burning mysteries you couldn't reasonably fill in for yourself.

Like we can just assume blue-eyes is an older version of Summerhill when he's reached his potential, right? Whenever he powers something up or someone manipulates time, it turns blue.

I don't know if there's a sequel coming or if it's intended as a standalone but I'd be very happy either way.