ellenhomstad 's review for:

Summertime by Vanessa Lafaye
3.75
dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This has been sitting on my shelf forever. I was gifted it yeaaaars ago and simply forgot about. When I now decided to pick it up it made a way bigger impact on me than what I had anticipated.

Dealing with topics such as racial segregation, injustice against veterans and the consequences of the biggest hurricane to have ever hit the US mainland, I can still say that even though it is a fictional account, it is also well researched and I learnt so much. I really want to read more historical fiction because of this! 

I feel like I can’t quite give it 4 stars, as the story was quite slow to start off and there were too many characters to keep track of (or care about). Still, this went above what I expected and I’m suuuuper happy I didn’t just leave it as a dust collector on my shelf.