A review by papertraildiary
Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno

4.0

I love a Katrina Leno book! The author of Everything All At Once and The Lost and Found has such a soft and loving touch of magical realism in her stories that I dig so hard. In Summer of Salt, a town on a tiny island off the East Coast is preparing for their summer slew of birder tourists who come every year in order to study a rare 300-year-old bird that lives on the island, a bird that is also believed to be a Georgina’s great-great-aunt. Every woman in Georgina’s family has a magical power, and it’s supposed to show up by age 18. Georgina hasn’t seen her power yet, while her twin sister Mary is floating around everywhere, and it’s almost their birthday, so she’s kind of stressed. When the time the bird should arrive comes and goes, and it rains so much it starts to flood the island, everyone in the town starts to freak out. All the while Mary starts acting really distant when she normally is all up in Georgina’s face. This story is so much more than Georgina, but she’s a good person to lead it. She is level and caring, and wants to help everyone. I will say that I found the love interest Prue to be completely unnecessary and lacklustre, but so be it. The relationship between the sisters was way more compelling. Summer of Salt was darker than Leno’s last two books, but I know that her next book is going to be pretty heavy, so I feel like this acts as a smooth transition for her.