Summary
Whitley Johnson’s post-high-school-graduation summer with her dad takes a turn for the much worse when he drops the shocker that he is getting married…to a woman with two teenage children. On top of that, her future stepbrother was the guy she hooked up with at a graduation party, believing that it could be someone she would never see again. How was she supposed to know that three days later he’d be living right across the hall from her?
There is no way Whitley will have a good time this summer. Unless the good new people of her life manage to break through her front and show her the good things she has…
Review
After a (subjective) stumble with Shut Out, Kody Keplinger and her relatable, snappy, and thoroughly odern characters are back on track with the impressive A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHTMARE, a short but fulfilling book full of the swift pace and dialogue, realistic emotions, and charged moments that made readers fans of her writing in the first place.
A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHTMARE has a premise that could be the stuff of soap operas: hooking up with your soon-to-be stepbrother?? Gasp!! But Kody Keplinger pulls off the story without a hitch, without it rolling into the land of melodrama. While perhaps not everyone is like Whitley, we can certainly relate to her frustration over surprises being sprung on her, the deep hurt she carries over her changing relationships with people in her life. Though Whitley might be brasher, sexier, and sassier than we’ll ever be, she never becomes a caricature, and I was firmly rooting for Whitley the whole time.
If you liked The Duff (never mind what you felt about Shut Out), then do for your enjoyment pick up A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHTMARE and bask in the post-reading glow of having immersed yourself in a smart contemporary YA drama.
Similar Authors
Miranda Kenneally
Ann Brashares
Kate Brian
Cover discussion: I'm keeping my mouth shut. Next.
Poppy / June 5, 2012 / Hardcover / 305pp. / $17.99
e-galley received from publisher and NetGalley. Thank you!
I really want to read this one! It sounds intriguing, plus it also sounds like it's got a good story behind it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun way to relax this summer!
ReplyDelete