Reviews

Dogs of Summer, by Andrea Abreu López

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livianicholson's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

mabeuz's review against another edition

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3.0

Ela realmente trabalha com o escatológico, as vezes é desagradável

paperknotbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My feelings about this book are complicated: a small part of me thinks “ew,” but it’s full of endearment. There’s so much innocence to the narrative voice, that I can’t help but feel charmed. There’s a lot of descriptions of shit, and wedgie picking, and awkward sexual experiences, but they’re compared to quietness of Barbies, or the colorful markers, or whatever is inside that box of licorice.

The story covers little snippets from a summer in the early aughts, with focus on minute details from our 10 year old narrator’s complicated friendship with a girl from her neighborhood named Isora. For example, a chapter could be called “Jesus’s Little Head,” which is a small detail of an engraving on the headboard of her friend’s dead mother, and the story is about an early childhood lesbian experience.

This book won’t mesh with you, if you’re squeamish about basic bodily functions, because there are a lot, and they are… I guess graphic is the word I want here. I will not forget this book, for sure!

Thank you NetGalley and Astra House for allowing me to consume this amazing book… even though I kind of forgot I had it and let the license expire, but I bought the book before I realized the license expired. Oops! It was grand anyway!

Content Warnings

abbie_ohara's review against another edition

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4.0

Abject and provocatively salacious. I feel like the burgeoning lewdness of sexuality is only awarded to coming of age stories about young men. I liked this element — also the confusion between friendship and attraction in close female friendships is my fave theme. I liked the intensity of the setting, impoverished and desolate to a melancholy extent. The theme of hoping/reaching for something better was really clear through the beach metaphor. I also liked the lack of agency in the narrator and the exploration of the inability for children to either understand their emotions, understand when something bad has happened, or understand how to interact with these event/feelings. I think the author captured well how children process things in their minds and bodies

gretajng's review against another edition

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3.0

Call me by your name, mit jüngeren Figuren.

etherealacademia's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.25

this was horrendous

Content Warnings

etherealacademia's review against another edition

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1.0

this was disgusting and i'm seriously concerned for anyone who enjoys it. andrea abreu can't go two pages without talking about the bodily fluids produced by two ten-year-olds. i wasted 3 hours of my life reading this book and i wish i hadn't finished it.