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A review by typedtruths
Boys of Summer by Jessica Brody
emotional
3.0
Boys of Summer was a breezy and mostly enjoyable summery contemporary but the major problems I had with two of the protagonists stopped me from enjoying the book as a whole.
Grayson: I wish I had liked Grayson more than I did but I struggled to empathise with him. He was responsible for so many of his own terrible decisions that it was hard to feel sorry for him, especially when he kept lying to his friends when he knew that waiting to tell them would make it worse. I just wanted him to stop his nonsense and admit that he was not helping his situation or reaching out to his friends for help but by the end of the book, he was still self-involved.
His characterisation also relied too heavily on the typical Tragic Jock trope. You know the one where the womanising star quarterback is *gasp* actually a boy with feelings who is not really interested in football and is having a hard time because his mum is dead/abandoned him; then he meets a girl who shows him he can be more than what everyone else wants from him so the book ends with a big, dramatic confrontation with his hyper-masculine father about dropping out of his football scholarship… you get the point. It is a commonly used trope in American YA contemporaries and it is getting really old. It is literally just the plotline of The Cinderella Story and that movie was my childhood so nothing stands the chance of topping it.
Harper I was a little bit disappointed by how much Harper’s character was underdeveloped. I still don’t quite know why she used Mike as she did or whether her feelings for Grayson were even sincere. Her backstory felt very shallow and glossed over. I don’t know if that was because she was meant to be a minor character but it came across like the author meant her to be a personified plot device more than an actual character. I didn’t really get much from her and what I did, I didn’t like. She was just so selfish!
Ian: What a dickhead! I don’t have any other words to describe him. I know that grief manifests in different ways for different people and some people respond to it in extreme manners but his flashbacks show us that Ian has been acting like a dickhead for the majority of his life (so he cannot use his grief as an excuse). I hated that he slut-shamed Whitney and that he continued to act surprised when she is seen wearing glasses - because, let’s remember, glasses have nothing to do with people’s eyesight, they are an indicator of people’s intelligence and Whitney is not supposed to be smart - and is caught reading. He seemed to have the impression that girls aren’t capable of having an interest in something like shopping or fashion and books… because fashion-loving females are too vapid, shallow and dumb to read. Obviously. *eye roll*
Whitney: If you know me at all by now, you’ll know that slut-shaming and poor female characterisation is one of my biggest pet peeves. I would take a million love triangles over a book with a problematic female character rep… and unfortunately, Whitney - Grayson’s sister and Ian’s romantic interest - was a perfect example of what can go wrong. To set the scene, Whitney is a conventionally gorgeous girl but because she was constantly called pretty as a child, Whitney grew up thinking that her one strength in life was that she was pretty. In her thirteen-year-old head, this meant it was her responsibility to always look good for the guys which she would meet or bump into if she went out; and to Whitney, looking ‘good’ meant she had to dress in “slutty” clothes. At first, I was excited that this book was going to bring up some social commentary about how society over-sexualises tween girls and the effect this has on their self-esteem (especially when Whitney initially confronted Ian) but as you can imagine, it did not quite play out that way.
Instead of the author letting Whitney realise that she can dress however she wants to and have her rock her own particular style by the end of the story, she decides to take a really nasty route. She makes Whitney grow up and ‘realise’ that worrying about fashion made her stupid. Her friends - who were still into fashion and cosmetics - were labelled vapid and shallow. This was not because of their materialism or the fact that they were genuinely shallow as individuals but simply because they cared about fashion. The author completely and utterly shamed anyone who showed an interest in shopping, clothes or makeup.
After her realisation, Whitney stops straightening her hair/wearing makeup and starts to feel comfortable enough to wear her prescription glasses and ‘casual’ clothing… and suddenly, magically, Ian finds her hot. He suddenly finds it worth his time to talk to her and is consequently shocked to find out she enjoys reading just like him. In fact, Whitney has read classics that Mighty Ian himself has not. It is obvious that Ian did not even consider the possibility that Whitney could be interested in both fashion and reading. No. How could she? People - and by people, he means girls - who like fashion are too dumb to be able to read! I had to put the book down during this part.
I know some readers will think that I am overreacting to all of this but I have read so many misogynistic books this year that I no longer have an ounce of patience for it. I understand that the author was (probably) trying to be empowering by telling girls they don’t have to wear makeup or dress in particular ways to succeed in life but she did this in the wrong way. There is nothing wrong with being passionate about fashion/cosmetics, enjoying shopping or caring about what you wear. Telling people - girls, in particular, in this case - that they don’t have to only care about their appearance is a good message but going as far as to shame people who do wear makeup and care about fashion is the opposite of helpful. This book portrayed Whitney as a person who was not worth knowing until she stopped caring about fashion and I think this is harmful. This book was not empowering and I was not okay with how Whitney’s character was written.
Mike: Mike was honestly the only main character who I wholeheartedly enjoyed. He was such a realistic and well-fleshed-out protagonist. A few of the decisions he made seemed a little bit dicey but I adored him as a whole. I loved that we explored his familial relationships and his growing relationship with Julie was sweet and well-paced. I liked that it was developed slowly and built on an actually genuine friendship between the two of them. I was shipped it a lot and would have much preferred to have had this entire book focused on them.
Overall?
This was a most enjoyable contemporary read that could have been great if the author had focused on Mike and Julie. The problematic female characterisation had been in a rage for the majority of the book and Grayson's trope-ridden subplot really dragged the story down. I did like the setting and the overall atmosphere so I would consider reading a future Brody story. I was just not impressed with Whitney, Grayson or Ian’s characterisation.
Grayson: I wish I had liked Grayson more than I did but I struggled to empathise with him. He was responsible for so many of his own terrible decisions that it was hard to feel sorry for him, especially when he kept lying to his friends when he knew that waiting to tell them would make it worse. I just wanted him to stop his nonsense and admit that he was not helping his situation or reaching out to his friends for help but by the end of the book, he was still self-involved.
His characterisation also relied too heavily on the typical Tragic Jock trope. You know the one where the womanising star quarterback is *gasp* actually a boy with feelings who is not really interested in football and is having a hard time because his mum is dead/abandoned him; then he meets a girl who shows him he can be more than what everyone else wants from him so the book ends with a big, dramatic confrontation with his hyper-masculine father about dropping out of his football scholarship… you get the point. It is a commonly used trope in American YA contemporaries and it is getting really old. It is literally just the plotline of The Cinderella Story and that movie was my childhood so nothing stands the chance of topping it.
Harper I was a little bit disappointed by how much Harper’s character was underdeveloped. I still don’t quite know why she used Mike as she did or whether her feelings for Grayson were even sincere. Her backstory felt very shallow and glossed over. I don’t know if that was because she was meant to be a minor character but it came across like the author meant her to be a personified plot device more than an actual character. I didn’t really get much from her and what I did, I didn’t like. She was just so selfish!
Ian: What a dickhead! I don’t have any other words to describe him. I know that grief manifests in different ways for different people and some people respond to it in extreme manners but his flashbacks show us that Ian has been acting like a dickhead for the majority of his life (so he cannot use his grief as an excuse). I hated that he slut-shamed Whitney and that he continued to act surprised when she is seen wearing glasses - because, let’s remember, glasses have nothing to do with people’s eyesight, they are an indicator of people’s intelligence and Whitney is not supposed to be smart - and is caught reading. He seemed to have the impression that girls aren’t capable of having an interest in something like shopping or fashion and books… because fashion-loving females are too vapid, shallow and dumb to read. Obviously. *eye roll*
Whitney: If you know me at all by now, you’ll know that slut-shaming and poor female characterisation is one of my biggest pet peeves. I would take a million love triangles over a book with a problematic female character rep… and unfortunately, Whitney - Grayson’s sister and Ian’s romantic interest - was a perfect example of what can go wrong. To set the scene, Whitney is a conventionally gorgeous girl but because she was constantly called pretty as a child, Whitney grew up thinking that her one strength in life was that she was pretty. In her thirteen-year-old head, this meant it was her responsibility to always look good for the guys which she would meet or bump into if she went out; and to Whitney, looking ‘good’ meant she had to dress in “slutty” clothes. At first, I was excited that this book was going to bring up some social commentary about how society over-sexualises tween girls and the effect this has on their self-esteem (especially when Whitney initially confronted Ian) but as you can imagine, it did not quite play out that way.
Instead of the author letting Whitney realise that she can dress however she wants to and have her rock her own particular style by the end of the story, she decides to take a really nasty route. She makes Whitney grow up and ‘realise’ that worrying about fashion made her stupid. Her friends - who were still into fashion and cosmetics - were labelled vapid and shallow. This was not because of their materialism or the fact that they were genuinely shallow as individuals but simply because they cared about fashion. The author completely and utterly shamed anyone who showed an interest in shopping, clothes or makeup.
After her realisation, Whitney stops straightening her hair/wearing makeup and starts to feel comfortable enough to wear her prescription glasses and ‘casual’ clothing… and suddenly, magically, Ian finds her hot. He suddenly finds it worth his time to talk to her and is consequently shocked to find out she enjoys reading just like him. In fact, Whitney has read classics that Mighty Ian himself has not. It is obvious that Ian did not even consider the possibility that Whitney could be interested in both fashion and reading. No. How could she? People - and by people, he means girls - who like fashion are too dumb to be able to read! I had to put the book down during this part.
I know some readers will think that I am overreacting to all of this but I have read so many misogynistic books this year that I no longer have an ounce of patience for it. I understand that the author was (probably) trying to be empowering by telling girls they don’t have to wear makeup or dress in particular ways to succeed in life but she did this in the wrong way. There is nothing wrong with being passionate about fashion/cosmetics, enjoying shopping or caring about what you wear. Telling people - girls, in particular, in this case - that they don’t have to only care about their appearance is a good message but going as far as to shame people who do wear makeup and care about fashion is the opposite of helpful. This book portrayed Whitney as a person who was not worth knowing until she stopped caring about fashion and I think this is harmful. This book was not empowering and I was not okay with how Whitney’s character was written.
Mike: Mike was honestly the only main character who I wholeheartedly enjoyed. He was such a realistic and well-fleshed-out protagonist. A few of the decisions he made seemed a little bit dicey but I adored him as a whole. I loved that we explored his familial relationships and his growing relationship with Julie was sweet and well-paced. I liked that it was developed slowly and built on an actually genuine friendship between the two of them. I was shipped it a lot and would have much preferred to have had this entire book focused on them.
Overall?
This was a most enjoyable contemporary read that could have been great if the author had focused on Mike and Julie. The problematic female characterisation had been in a rage for the majority of the book and Grayson's trope-ridden subplot really dragged the story down. I did like the setting and the overall atmosphere so I would consider reading a future Brody story. I was just not impressed with Whitney, Grayson or Ian’s characterisation.