A review by samantha_89
Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
4.0
After reading, devouring and loving Fixing Delilah Hannaford I knew I had to get my hands on Twenty Boy Summer. I had seen it a lot, but had been really resistant to read it because it just seemed so sad. And the fact it, Twenty Boy Summer--despite the peppy, summery title-- is sad. But it's also beautiful. Sarah Ockler doesn't write in the typical sarcastic narrator voice that's so common right now. I love sarcasm, and quite frankly I thought I wouldn't get in to Ockler's writing because it's so literary. But it turns out to be such a breath of fresh air.
I loved the characters that Ockler presents us. Even characters that were only given about twenty to thirty pages of page time were easy to fall in love with. The entire story is heavily dependent on the friendship between Matt, Anna and Frankie and only about thirty pages is really devoted to showing the reader what their friendship is like. Still though, their friendship is easy to see, easy to love, and that's what makes it so easy to mourn. I wish Sam had been a little more alive, but he served his part.
Ockler captured being sixteen very well. Particularly in the matter of how you are on the edge of knowing there are more important matters than hair, make-up and virginity, but not really caring about those matters.
The downside of the book is that it's Ockler's first and it shows. Certain details are mentioned in the last half of the book that aren't mentioned in the first part. Scenes are left out, leaving out precious time that could have been devoted to developing certain characters. These things were obvious to me in this book, but absent in FDH.
Overall, lovelovelove this book. It is very sad, but don't let that stop you from reading it, it just shows what an amazing author Ockler is and is going to become.
I loved the characters that Ockler presents us. Even characters that were only given about twenty to thirty pages of page time were easy to fall in love with. The entire story is heavily dependent on the friendship between Matt, Anna and Frankie and only about thirty pages is really devoted to showing the reader what their friendship is like. Still though, their friendship is easy to see, easy to love, and that's what makes it so easy to mourn. I wish Sam had been a little more alive, but he served his part.
Ockler captured being sixteen very well. Particularly in the matter of how you are on the edge of knowing there are more important matters than hair, make-up and virginity, but not really caring about those matters.
The downside of the book is that it's Ockler's first and it shows. Certain details are mentioned in the last half of the book that aren't mentioned in the first part. Scenes are left out, leaving out precious time that could have been devoted to developing certain characters. These things were obvious to me in this book, but absent in FDH.
Overall, lovelovelove this book. It is very sad, but don't let that stop you from reading it, it just shows what an amazing author Ockler is and is going to become.