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A review by literatureish_liz
Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz
5.0
This story is about Chase and his family over the course of his 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th summer. Simply put this book is a beautiful albeit melancholy love poem about summer, family and growing up (whether you want to or not). Chase closely examines his role in his family, the older brother who actually isn't the older the brother and what he has come to expect from his family members. His older brother has a tendancy to dissapear, his younger brother has a tendancy to fall down, and his younger sister has a tendancy to take her clothes off. All the while Chase is seemingly caught in the middle and is constantly the glue that holds them all together. Every summer his family vacations next to the same family, the Hathaways. Melinda Hathaway is alluring, insightful, interesting and also dating Chase's older brother, cue an interesting sub-plot.
What is amazing about this novel is that the focus is always on Chase and his family and while you wouldn't expect that to be riviting, I assure you it is. Chase grows up, he changes, his world changes, what he wants from females and even from his life changes and we as readers see that through the scope of his relationship with his family. I loved this book. I sat down and greedily read it in one sitting conscious that I had to get up super early for work the next day. I laughed with Chase, I cried for Chase, and I felt connected to each of his family members. All the Camus quotes in the book (and there were tons) added, I felt, to the story's beauty and spoke to how Chase felt in that moment in that summer. It made me painfully nostaglic for the summers of my youth where Camus (whether I knew it then or not) is etched in my heart as well.
So, I reccommend this book and you don't have to read it all one sitting. But you should read it when you're ready for something gripping and thoughtful. Read it in the summer and remember what your own teenage summers were or are like and how it's so difficult to view the world through anything but your family sometimes.
Here is my favorite quote:
"You're always going to be the same you, just older. It's not like there's a moment when you wake up and go, Shit, I'm grown-up, I don't feel like myself anymore. I don't tell him, but this is the scariest fucking thing I've ever heard in my life. Being grown-up should feel like a big transition. It can't be something that, despite my best efforts, I've been drifting closer and closer to every summer. It needs to be a shock. I need to know at what point to stop holding on."
What is amazing about this novel is that the focus is always on Chase and his family and while you wouldn't expect that to be riviting, I assure you it is. Chase grows up, he changes, his world changes, what he wants from females and even from his life changes and we as readers see that through the scope of his relationship with his family. I loved this book. I sat down and greedily read it in one sitting conscious that I had to get up super early for work the next day. I laughed with Chase, I cried for Chase, and I felt connected to each of his family members. All the Camus quotes in the book (and there were tons) added, I felt, to the story's beauty and spoke to how Chase felt in that moment in that summer. It made me painfully nostaglic for the summers of my youth where Camus (whether I knew it then or not) is etched in my heart as well.
So, I reccommend this book and you don't have to read it all one sitting. But you should read it when you're ready for something gripping and thoughtful. Read it in the summer and remember what your own teenage summers were or are like and how it's so difficult to view the world through anything but your family sometimes.
Here is my favorite quote:
"You're always going to be the same you, just older. It's not like there's a moment when you wake up and go, Shit, I'm grown-up, I don't feel like myself anymore. I don't tell him, but this is the scariest fucking thing I've ever heard in my life. Being grown-up should feel like a big transition. It can't be something that, despite my best efforts, I've been drifting closer and closer to every summer. It needs to be a shock. I need to know at what point to stop holding on."