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A review by juliezantopoulos
Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz
4.0
This book had some problems...some issues that I think were pretty problematic but at the same time holy gosh did this hit me in so many feels!
This is a story about family, and finding yourself, and that 'safe' place that you come home to even if it's not really your home that nothing bad can touch...until it does. I have a place like that and I understand that feeling even if it's not on a beach like this one. And I understand large families with less than perfect relationships and this book covered those things perfectly.
The book has diversity with a deaf sibling and a seemingly bi-sexual character, which was cool. I actually really loved the ASL and the deaf representation in the book. The sibling dynamic was so amazing. It was heartbreaking and flawed and beautiful and strong (even in the bad times). I seriously can't get enough of these kids!
What I didn't like was that there were multiple times in this book where couples paired off with serious age differences. There was sex between a 15 & 19 yr old that was made to seem okay because the younger was a boy. There was a rape victim who was described once as "pulling the rape face". There was also one "couple" who never got physical but do say they're going "steady" and the boys is a freshman in college and the girl is 13!! I mean, am I the only one totally freaked out by this? Same 13 yr old girl was hyper-sexualized at 11 & 12 as well by her siblings, family friends, and herself.
I'm very aware of the flaws in this book (mentioned above) and how pretentious and annoying the overuse of the Camus quotes are but all in all the study in family and grief/heartache/togetherness was just so moving. I spent the last chapters just bawling my eyes out and absolutely haunted. So, yes, I'm aware that it has problems and despite those problems, I still loved this book!
Reread in order to annotate for a traveling book and holy shit-I cried so hard, again even skim reading to make my notes. This story will never not break me.
This is a story about family, and finding yourself, and that 'safe' place that you come home to even if it's not really your home that nothing bad can touch...until it does. I have a place like that and I understand that feeling even if it's not on a beach like this one. And I understand large families with less than perfect relationships and this book covered those things perfectly.
The book has diversity with a deaf sibling and a seemingly bi-sexual character, which was cool. I actually really loved the ASL and the deaf representation in the book. The sibling dynamic was so amazing. It was heartbreaking and flawed and beautiful and strong (even in the bad times). I seriously can't get enough of these kids!
What I didn't like was that there were multiple times in this book where couples paired off with serious age differences. There was sex between a 15 & 19 yr old that was made to seem okay because the younger was a boy. There was a rape victim who was described once as "pulling the rape face". There was also one "couple" who never got physical but do say they're going "steady" and the boys is a freshman in college and the girl is 13!! I mean, am I the only one totally freaked out by this? Same 13 yr old girl was hyper-sexualized at 11 & 12 as well by her siblings, family friends, and herself.
I'm very aware of the flaws in this book (mentioned above) and how pretentious and annoying the overuse of the Camus quotes are but all in all the study in family and grief/heartache/togetherness was just so moving. I spent the last chapters just bawling my eyes out and absolutely haunted. So, yes, I'm aware that it has problems and despite those problems, I still loved this book!
Reread in order to annotate for a traveling book and holy shit-I cried so hard, again even skim reading to make my notes. This story will never not break me.