Summer sisters

I definitely originally read this book on a beach trip with a friend while a teenager, so this had the glow of nostalgia for me, calling my name from the cart outside a used bookstore. It's certainly very readable (took me less than a day), and has a few things going for it: I think the third-person narration of multiple characters could have felt choppy, but was more successful than I would have anticipated. I also find the pearl-clutching in goodreads reviews about how the sexuality of teenage girls is portrayed pretty funny - I think Blume is particularly gifted at capturing the hormonal cyclone (for both genders!) of adolescence, and there were many parts of the intensity of teenage crushes and unfocused-yet-persistent drumbeat of sexual energy that rang exquisitely true to my own experience. There's also some compelling observations about typically unspoken socioeconomic differences that I definitely missed as a teenaged reader. What didn't feel particularly enjoyable overall, however, is that although the characters all make complicated and interesting moral choices, Blume doesn't really provide them adequate interiority for the reader to see how each of the characters grapple with and/or avoid feelings related to those choices. This is particularly true because there's no narration for one of the two “summer sisters” (the one who isn't the protagonist), so she (and arguably the other characters as well, although to slightly lesser degrees) flattens further and further as a character as they move into adulthood. I'd summarize it in saying this is one of those 3-star reviews that feels like a 3-star when you're reading it, but doesn't leave a memorable aftertaste, so slides down into 2-star territory.