Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz

This book is marketed entirely wrong. Look at that cover. Look at that blurb. So this is a sexy romance about two brothers who fall for the same girl right?

Nope!

Invincible Summer is a book about family more than anything else. In particular, it's a book about a family which is falling apart. This was unlike any other contemporary I've ever read and it was so damn brutal at times. In a nutshell, this book spans four summers and tells the story of two families who meet at the same beach every year. Our main family is the McGills, with Chase being our primary protagonist. He's sort of the sensible one of the family and is the middle brother. He has an older brother Noah who is never around when he's needed, a younger sister named Claudia who is maturing at a frightening speed and finally a younger brother named Gideon who is deaf and refuses to learn how to communicate with anyone. As well as the siblings, we have two parents who are having increasing marital problems with each year.

The other family is the Hathaways with the only really important character being Melinda. She has spent years not-quite-being with Noah and is just starting to also not-quite-be with Chase. Melinda is one of the most interesting characters to me and the real tragedy of this book in my eyes. She is treated like utter crap by everyone, has to deal with something very major and gets no sympathy from either Chase or Noah despite everything she goes through. It works within the context of the story and the narrative style but I did dislike how she was handled and it is the main reason the book didn't score higher.

The other main reason is the sheer amount of quoting Camus that occurs. Every bloody character is obsessed with spewing out at least one quote every chapter and it just feels like pretentiousness. For me, it ruins the actual depth of the story since the emotionally-charged, character-driven scenes get rudely interrupted by philosophical piffle. It weakens the story as a whole and makes me wonder why the author feels like she can't rely on her own words.

Overall though, this book was such a surprise. It packs an emotional punch to rival any Courtney Summers book and I know the plot will stay with me for a long time. It is a million miles from a fun summer read but instead you get a nuanced and brilliant look at family life and the charged relationships that can come from it. When so many books fail to do gritty realism right, this one definitely deserves more attention.

Overall Rating:

.5